McFarland, USA [Blu-ray]

While I’m not a big Kevin Costner fan this is a near perfect vehicle for him. Add in I live in an area with a lot of agricultural migrant workers and my wife works within the industry. This is so spot on!! The challenges these kids face in this movie are accurately portrayed and acted. You may cry during this movie. Let yourself cry. It’s appropriate.

We had a wonderful movie night, an excellent movie! 10/10

What a wonderful inspirational movie and story

Cliche/stereotypes and all; 90-00s wholesome culture invoking and family friendly .

EXCELENT MOVIE

What can I say? It's a Disney film, so it isn't terrible. What it is, is a true-story-feel-good-movie about Hispanic kids in a dead-end community who have no hope and no future, beyond following their parents into a life of picking other people's crops. Then enter a has-been school teacher who takes a handful of these kids and turns them into a cross-country track phenomenon. Starting with less than nothing (not even running shoes), they chart a course to self-respect, community pride, hope and possibility. As I've already said, it's a Disney movie, so you don't need me to tell you how it ends. What I will tell you, though, is that this is a lot better than you might otherwise expect. Kevin Costner is remarkably good and convincing as the washed-up athletic coach with no track and field experience, who takes a rag-tag group of nearly-drop-outs and works a major transformation--not just with his team, but with himself and his family, too. Even as the film pushes your buttons (and you know they're being pushed), you can't help rooting for these underdogs, and as the credits roll, you'll have a few more surprises. This is formula movie-making, but the formula works, and the end result is more than you might expect. The film is excellent fare for a family movie night, and it works well as a discussion piece, too. Watch it with some teenagers, and you'll have plenty to talk about afterwards.

All one can wish for with this movie is for it to be longer. That's not to imply that it's too short or that the story feels incomplete, but more so that you are on the edge of your seat for more. More about the lives of these kids, the impact of their coach on them and the community. I sat there begging "show me more". The story isn't just about these kids amazing accomplishments as runners. It's about overcoming adversity, will power, inner strength, family, culture, community, growth, defeating societal labels, societal able-ism, family, the impact a few can have on many, the crossing of ethnic norms to assimilate the "American Dream" in the strength of the ethnic social network, the redefinition of the "American Dream", of not taking handouts but working hardto achieve, survival.In this day and age, everyone can grow from watching this movie. And don't watch it once. Watch it, absorb and process what you experienced and learned. Then watch it again to experience it again.This is one movie on a long list of movies that should be a mandatory part of a "Power, Privilege, and Individuality" curriculum that should be part of every education program. A curriculum that is expanded upon each year, K-12.Common Core? It may work based on the research of a few. But education needs a more experiential component, a curriculum as described above will promote academically "standardized" students who enter the world as more culturally competent and compassionate members of our communities.I write this from the perspective of a graduate level counseling student in a program that continually promotes cultural competency, recognition of individuality,ethic sensitivity. It may seem that those components are part of every counselor or therapist or doctor or nurse. But they aren't.

Great movie that shows the lives of Mexican American student athletes. Heart warming, silly/funny, and eye opening.