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McFarland USA (2015) opens with the words “Based on a true story,” followed immediately by a fabricated backstory of how Jim White (Kevin Costner) ended up in run-down McFarland, California. The film depicts him as a football coach in Boise, Idaho in 1987, who lost his temper with a back-talking student, threw a shoe at the kid’s head, and was fired. It then quickly jumps to the White family moving to California, where a conversation with the McFarland principal reveals White’s behavior and reputation have rendered him unemployable everywhere but the impoverished town of McFarland.

None of that is actually true. The real Jim White took a job with McFarland immediately upon graduating from Pepperdine University in 1964, at a time when McFarland was a mostly Caucasian town. He started in the district teaching fifth grade science, a position he held for nine years, before switching to middle school wood shop and physical education for 11 years, finally transitioning to a position in the high school’s physical education department in the late 1980s. As such, he had been employed by the McFarland School District for 23 years by the time the events of McFarland USA take place.

The film bumps up White’s arrival in McFarland to 1987, the year the real White founded the cross country team and led them to state victory (and also the first year California had a cross country state championship, making them the first-ever winners).

So why do this? The most obvious reason is creative license and dramatic effect - it simply makes for a better opening to show White being thrown into the situation as opposed to gradually becoming the cross country coach. There’s an underdog theme running throughout the film - not just for the team, but for White himself. Thrusting him unwillingly into the culturally unfamiliar, low-budget, no-resources school district makes White as much of an underdog as the kids he’s coaching, which works better for the overall narrative and thematic goal common among Disney’s inspirational sports films.

To that end, the change plays upon the culture clash the film uses as its foundation. One of White’s daughters asks “Are we in Mexico?” as they’re driving through their new neighborhood for the first time. They follow this by going to a taco restaurant where they can’t understand the menu, and then become fearful of the locals (who pull up in low-riders) simply because they’re there - and Mexican. It’s an effective fish out of water set-up that quickly turns into a classic story showcasing the value of family, hard work, and cultural exchange within the American dream.

And all of that is really what McFarland USA is about. Not running, not sports, but life as a human in a country compiled of mixed cultures. It’s a movie about kinsfolk, community, and opportunity, told through the lens of sports. That’s why the film is titled McFarland USA, after all, and not McFarland, CA. Colin Staub of The Portland Tribune says “this story is about America and what it’s supposed to stand for: diversity, breaking down cultural barriers, working hard and benefiting from it. That doesn’t always happen, but this film illustrates a time when it did.”

With that in mind, Jim White’s crafted origin story makes sense and hits home. It’s quicker than writing the true story of a man who watched a poor white town slowly become an even poorer Mexican town over 20+ years of social and economic change. While that’s still a good story to tell, and extremely genuine for plenty of American towns like McFarland, it doesn’t have the same impact in a brisk 120 seconds of screen time the way McFarland USA’s opening does.