In the annals of White People Learn That Other Cultures Besides Theirs Exist, Isn’t That Crazy? films, McFarland, USA is neither the best nor the worst. It’s the latest entry in the Disney live-action subgenre of sports movies based on true stories, and is roughly as well-intentioned and tone-deaf as last year’s Million Dollar Arm. While the presence of Kevin Costner in a sports movies feels like a throwback to the late 1980s and early 1990s, this isn’t Field of Dreams or even Tin Cup. Instead, Costner here is given the chance to dive into hearty dialogue like “You got burgers?” when his character, Coach Jim White, is forced to choose among culture-specific foods in a local taqueria. Oh, the hilarity of the casual bigot.
Yes, McFarland, USA is not just a sports drama, it’s a movie where a white guy gets to learn that his long-held beliefs about a different race may not quite be accurate. Since this is a Disney movie, it mostly bubbles under the surface, as in the moment when White and his family (including the laughably underused Maria Bello) exit a restaurant and are greeted by a group of young Hispanic men in low-rider cars blasting loud music on their respective stereo systems. White (and yes, that is actually the guy’s last name) seems this close to wetting his pants in terror, but is able to collect his family and drive out of the parking lot before…well, nothing happens except derisive laughter from the low-riders. White is the butt of many jokes, including a moment where he presumes one of his students’ fathers can’t speak English and is quickly proven wrong. But moments like these feel less like a way to mock an old-fashioned guy, and more like a way to have it both ways, mocking and embracing stereotypes at the same time.
Why, you may ask, is Jim White and his blandly attractive family in this situation? Well, in 1987, White is forced to uproot his life to teach in the low-income California town of McFarland lest he be unemployed. (Fun fact: the real Jim White and his wife had lived in McFarland since 1960. While this film, and any film based on a true story, doesn’t need to stick entirely to the facts, the decision to shift the narrative is woefully misguided.) Once in town, White realizes that a handful of his PE students are exceptionally fast and, thus, able to compete in cross-country racing meets. Very soon, he’s inspired a septet of kids, all from households that struggle to get by as their men pick produce for a living, to chase their dreams and dream of something more than what their parents have.
No one in McFarland, USA seems like they’re half-assing it, though Costner sometimes feels out of place in the world of this film. (Or maybe he’s just that good at acting totally confused at what a burrito is.) But the intentions of director Niki Caro—of Whale Rider fame—and the three credited screenwriters don’t translate into a worthy film. The truth of the story and the fiction of the film often collide poorly, as well; even if you don’t need a film like this to stick to the facts, the idea that the entire story takes place over three and a half months, leading to White and his team winning a state championship, is extraordinarily implausible. Since the circumstances of the team—which was not created in 1987, but a few years earlier—are fudged, that implausibility just sticks out like a sore thumb. And though it may be challenging to criticize a film for what it isn’t, this is yet another sports movie from the House of Mouse that positions a white man as the lead in a true story about a non-white culture. We have seen white men lead non-white people to victory a thousand times before. Maybe the next Disney sports movie will reverse the trend. Maybe.
A/V
The video and audio for McFarland, USA is predictably solid, though nothing here is notably remarkable. One of the film’s strongest aspects is its cinematography (from “True Detective” DP Adam Arkapaw), and the crispness of the camerawork has translated quite well to the high-definition home-media format. The way that Arkapaw captures California’s natural beauty as well as the human form in motion is easily a standout; at the very least, this Blu-ray does the camerawork a service.
Extras
There are a mere handful of special features here, none of which amount to much of anything. One of the four extras is a music video for “Juntos,” a song featured in the film; another is a two-minute promotional video on the film’s purported inspiring tone. The two substantial extras are an eight-minute collection of deleted and extended scenes, including another opportunity for classic Hey, It’s That Guy character actor Chris Ellis, Jr. to smugly insult our hero; and an eight-minute behind-the-scenes featurette in which Costner interacts with the adult men characterized in the film in their teenage form. (Interesting that the young men in the film do not appear here. Just Costner.) None of these features offer anything in the form of intrigue or depth, as is usual for Disney’s new releases these days.
Overall
If you’re looking for an inspirational sports movie starring Kevin Costner as a man who spends a good deal of time in a field, watch Field of Dreams. Or, if no other options are available, McFarland, USA.