McFarland, USA

McFarland, USA (2015)

Champions can come from anywhere.

A track coach in a small California town transforms a team of athletes into championship contenders.

Date of release
2015-02-20
TMDB
7.5 / 10 (985)
Runtime
2h 8m
Genres
Drama, Family
Director
Niki Caro

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: California

McFarland, USA is a 2015 American sports drama film directed by Niki Caro, produced by Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray, written by Christopher Cleveland, Bettina Gilois and Grant Thompson with music composed by Antônio Pinto. The film was co-produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Mayhem Pictures. Based on the true story of a 1987 cross country team from a mainly Latino high school in McFarland, California, the film stars Kevin Costner as Jim White, the school's coach, who leads the team to win a state championship. The film also stars Maria Bello and Morgan Saylor.

Production

William Broyles Jr. was hired to write the screenplay for the film, which was in development since 2004. Negotiations for Kevin Costner to star were finalized in July 2013. Principal photography took place in Camarillo, California, and many of McFarland's residents were extras in the movie.

In an interview, Jim White noted that while the film was based on a true story, it was not a documentary. He acknowledged that not everything in the film was factual, but that "it's still an enjoyable movie... it turned out fine." Some of the more notable differences included:

Jim White had not been fired from numerous prior teaching jobs before starting at McFarland. He started teaching in the McFarland school district after graduating from Pepperdine University in 1964. During that time, McFarland was predominantly white in terms of demographics.

White did not establish the cross-country team at the school, but instead restarted it after it had been dropped for a year. He rebuilt both the boys' and girls' cross-country teams, despite only the boys' team being featured in the film. Similarly, White took both teams to the California coast beach at Cayucos during the 1985 (not 1987) season.

Not all of the runners from the 1987 team are featured in the film. Director Niki Caro wanted to feature more family in the film, so Luis Partida, who was on the team, was replaced with David Diaz, Damacio and Danny's brother. However, David graduated the year before McFarland's first state title win.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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