McFarland, USA first came out on February 20, 2015. Although it is 4 years old, it is one of my favorite movies. I never really had any interest in sports related movies before I watched McFarland, but now they are one of my favorite genres. This movie tells the true story of cross-country coach Jim White (Kevin Costner in the movie) and 7 impoverished highschool boys from a predominantly Latino high-school that he made into one of the best cross-country teams.

Jim White had to move his family to a small town called McFarland because he lost his job as a football coach in Iowa and the highschool in McFarland was the only school that would take him. At first, he doesn’t understand much about his student’s lives and is bitter, but then he sees how well some of the students run to get to school from the fields where they work. He decides to make a cross-country team out of 7 of them because he sees their potential. Through this team, White comes to understand the struggles of the everyday life of students in McFarland and the students form a tight-knit group that care for one another.

McFarland shows many important themes throughout the movie. One theme in McFarland is the importance of teamwork. This movie shows that even the worst person on a team matters in the end and that if everyone works together, you can achieve your goals. The importance of community is shown in this movie by the support of the town and how they did fundraisers to get the team to meets and to help buy their shoes and uniforms. One more significant theme not giving up. There were many times in the movie when the students would almost give up but kept pushing to meet their goals. There were always people who tried to keep them from achieving these goals but McFarland shows that if you persevere, everything will work out in the end.

Overall this movie has a little of everything. It has romance, sports, action, and many more other things. It can easily appeal to everyone that watches. It shows the difficulties of living in poverty and it gives hope to people and shows them that if they persevere, they can do anything they put their mind to. I recommend this movie to anyone that hasn’t seen it yet. You won’t be disappointed.