It’s hard to go wrong with any movie starring Kevin Costner, even middling box-office performers such as his recent “Draft Day” and especially the new Disney film on Blu-ray Disc this week (June 2, 2015) “McFarland USA” ($39,99).
This is the latest in an impressive line of Disney true and inspiring sports stories such as “The Rookie,” “Invincible,” “Remember the Titans,” and even “Cool Runnings.”
In this case it is the depiction of underdog, underpriveleged, and low-income students in a poor central California agricultrural town not far from Bakersfield. Cross-country coach Jim White (Costner), looking to revive his career, lands at the school as his wife and daughter try to adapt to this very culturally different Latino community.
While the story plays out about as you would expect, with the students coming in last in their initial competitions before being inspired by Coach White to gradually improve until they vie for the state champions, it is nonetheless all quite compelling despite the predictability and the two-hour-plus running time. There’s even the requisite fat kid who tries very hard and eventually rescues the team when they need it. And all this is apparently true.
Perhaps the biggest surprise and amazement comes during the credits when we learn how many years Coach White remained at this small-town school and how many additional championships his students won.
The Blu-ray delivers a pristine Hi-Def visual presentation and solid soundtrack. It also offers home viewers a few interesting short bonus features in Hi-Def:
- McFarland Reflections — A nine-minute featurette of cast and crew interviews, and Costner joins the real Coach Jim White and members of the 1987 Cross-Country team as they look back on the bonds they forged and the opportunities they were given
- “Juntos” Music Video (3-min.)
- Inspiring McFarland A two-minute interview with the filmmakers and some of the cast summing up the film’s story.
- Deleted & extended scenes — An eight-minute collection of scenes especially embellishing the characters of some of the student runners.
— By Scott Hettrick