Written by Sam Voss on Blog.RunSafe.me

Ugh, Disney, what can I say? I hate you guys, really, and nothing about your trailer for McFarland, USA left me wanting to see more. I know what to expect in a Disney film, and every bit of this preview had me believing that this movie wasn’t going to be anything different; this was just another classic Cinderella story, a rags-to-riches tale of an unlikely company defying all odds to make it to the top – an embellished legend “based on a true story.”

Watch it yourself.

Even as a runner and movie aficionado, I was not amused. I didn’t want to see something that I could predict without any knowledge of the “true story,” and a part of me wanted to see Hot Tub Time Machine 2 instead. As it happens, though, I wanted to review a runner’s movie, and by default, this was my only option.

Rotten Tomatoes rated McFarland, USA a 77% on the “Tomatometer,” and the audience scored it a 90 out of 100. In my opinion, it’s a 95.

GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

I don’t care if you hate running, movies, or Kevin Costner, this film is worth the 2 hours and 9 minutes of your day.

Inspiring, touching, and every bit predictable, the truth is that it doesn’t matter that this is a Disney flick – this is a great movie. Somewhere between The Mighty Ducks and Stand and Deliver, McFarland, USA falls into a category of films that has all the potential to become a classic. One part sport and one part academics, this tribute to high school cross country is a poetic recreation of all that is romantic in the nature of running. In a journal I keep in my front breast pocket I noted a line that seemed to capture the spirit of the film, and, although it is scribbled hastily, it reads, “when we run, we are the Gods.” It was a quote from an essay one of the McFarland runner’s wrote, and, in the moment, it gave me the chills.

At one other point in the film I got the chills again, and that makes two in two hours, which doesn’t typically happen. There was a scene, and they show it briefly in the trailer, where Costner drives the team to the Pacific and the team marvels at the sight. They had never before seen the ocean, and you could say it looked like something out of a Disney movie. It was sunset and the kids ran into the ocean, they splashed and laughed and, for the first time in their lives, played in the waves. Again, in my notes, I scratched what I could, and I wrote that “he (the coach – played by Costner) shows them the ocean; he shows them a new life.” It was touching and something you could feel, something tangible, and it was genuine. “Disney’s inspirational sports drama might be old hat,” says the Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus, “but McFarland USA proves it still works.”

Now it is not my job to tell you what happens in the end, but I do feel responsible to endorse this movie. The trailer may have left me assuming the worst, but, after watching it, I can say with confidence that it is not what you might expect. It is well acted out (by Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, and Carlos Pratts, among others), it is well written (by William Broyles Jr., Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois, Grant Thompson, and Chris Cleveland), well directed (by Niki Caro ), and, above all, not cheesy. It’s your typical Disney movie, but it has an atypical effect on the general movie-goer. Whether you have a passion for running, or you just have a couple hours to kill, this movie is worth going to see.

The film follows Costner, who plays Jim White, through the 1987 year as the coach of the McFarland Cougar Cross Country Team, and catalogs the troop’s rise to the top of the California racing circuit. The venture seems hopeless at first, but, in time there shines a ray of light, and there is hope embedded in this story of hard work and pure grit. If you need some inspiration to get running, have a passion for sports dramas, or just want a good movie to go see, I would recommend McFarland, USA.

Featured Image Attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/romanboed/

Video Attribution: https://www.youtube.com/user/movieclipsTRAILERS