See it at the Movies

McFARLAND, USA

with Joyce & Don Fowler
Posted 2/25/15

* * * ½

(Better-than-average “feel good” sports story)

We’ve been there before. Many times. The underprivileged, underachieving kids with a new coach who inspires them and takes them to …

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See it at the Movies

McFARLAND, USA

Posted

* * * ½

(Better-than-average “feel good” sports story)

We’ve been there before. Many times. The underprivileged, underachieving kids with a new coach who inspires them and takes them to the BIG GAME. There have been movies about hockey, baseball, football, soccer and just about any sport you can name.

But cross country? About as exciting to watch as arm wrestling! (Actually there was a movie years ago about arm wrestling with Sylvester Stallone.)

Kevin Costner stars as Jim White, a football coach with a temper that gets him fired one too many times, landing him and his family in a dirt-poor California town as an assistant football coach, where his young daughter innocently asks, “Are we in Mexico?”

It doesn’t take him long to alienate the coach and the high school kids who think it’s ironic that his name is White. The principal sees something in Jim and reluctantly allows him to start a cross country team after Jim notices the kids running from their earl morning “picking” jobs to school.

You can guess the rest. The kids are coerced into joining the team over their parents’ objections. They resist White, only slowly coming around after winning their first event.

It all leads to the inevitable BIG GAME.

Sure, it follows a typical sports movie formula, but along the way it inspires us, makes us feel good and has us cheering for these kids who expect to spend the rest of their lives picking fruits and vegetables for poverty wages.

What turned us on to the movie was the portrayal of Jim White (the movie is based on a true story) as much more than the white knight riding into town to save the Mexican kids.

White learns a lot more about the kids, their families, their traditions, their values and their lifestyles than they learn about him, and so does the audience.

Culture clashes turn into respect for each other. The young men learn that they have a chance for a better life. One scene shows White bringing the boys to see the ocean for the first time in their lives.

When White is offered a job at a high school on the other side of the tracks (or farm fields) push comes to shove, and he must make a tough decision.

The movie ends, and we learn what happens to White and each boy on his cross country team. If that doesn’t make you feel good, nothing will.

Rated PG with some minor language and violence.

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