March 31, 2025 • 55 mins
JJ, Mattson and Alec dive into the cinematic portrayal of sports and community through the lens of the film "McFarland, USA." We commence our discussion by acknowledging the intricate narrative that unfolds as Coach Jim White transforms a group of underperforming students into a formidable cross-country team, exemplifying the profound impact of mentorship and teamwork. The dialogue traverses the authenticity of the film's depiction of the athletes' struggles and triumphs, while also addressing the broader societal implications of their journey. They share personal anecdotes that resonate with the film's themes, drawing parallels between our own experiences in athletics and the challenges faced by the characters on screen. Ultimately, they reflect on the film's ability to evoke a sense of hope and community, underscoring the transformative power of sports in shaping lives and fostering connections.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Know what was funny?
The way you said when youfirst got into high school, I was
like, oh, yeah, you got.
You.
I don't.
Got expelled and sent back tohigh school.
It felt like you're like, gonea couple times.
I mean, how old Jay is?
He's been to high school likethree times.
Yeah.
No, that could have been.
(00:23):
Welcome to the what's up?
Every podcast we fashionourselves cinematic judge and jury.
My name is JJ Carter.
I'm here with my co hosts, Mattson.
Heiner, Better Red Than Deadand Alec Burgess.
Let's get it.
We appreciate you tuning in.
Go and hit that Followsubscribe like bell notification
buttons.
Hit them all.
They hope you keep up with allof our episodes as they release weekly
and then any other extra stuffwe may or may not do on occasion.
(00:46):
But it also helps us grow the podcast.
And you know what else helpsus grow the podcast?
Telling a friend, familymember about us.
Let them come, listen, tell,tell a bunch of psychotic people
that like to run long distances.
Matson would get along with them.
He used to do that.
Crazy.
He used to.
They are not my people.
(01:08):
So I don't.
I don't miss the long runs.
I do miss the team, but my.
Goodness, I used to.
I'm.
I still, during the summer and.
Or like the spring and summermonths, drive around and see them
out running and I'm like, youare stupid.
Enjoy.
But dumb.
(01:29):
So, yeah, there it is.
But it's.
Look, it's weak.
Knocking over.
It's week five and we're heretalking about the final movie in
our Kevin Costner sports filmextravaganza, month of March.
And yeah, there it is.
(01:50):
So let's dive into.
McFarland USA was releasedFebruary 20, 2015.
It was written by ChristopherCleveland, Bettina Giloy, and it
was directed by Nikki Caro.
Stars Kevin Costner, MariaBello, Ramiro Rodriguez, Carlos Pratts,
Johnny Ortiz, Rafael Martinez,Hector Duran, Sergio Avalar, Michael
(02:15):
Aguero, Diana Maria Riva andOmar Leva.
It is about Jim White, whomoves his family after losing his
last job as a football coach.
And at his new school, heturned seven disappointing students
into one of the best crosscountry teams in the region.
Fine.
It's an okay synopsis, Isuppose, but it's really terrible.
(02:37):
Actually makes this moviesound much more boring than it actually
is.
But that's okay.
Yeah, let's dive into it.
Was this one one of mine?
I think it was mine.
It was your pick, which isfunny from what you just dissed most
of movie like 30 seconds ago.
But you did pick this movie.
I didn't dis the movie.
I just the sport.
You dis the premise of thecore part of this movie.
(03:01):
So, I mean, I dis the sportthat it revolves around.
Now, with that this comes alot of respect, because, again, I
think they're stupid.
But that's only because Icouldn't do it if I could do it,
and I found any joy in runningat all.
(03:22):
It's a great sport, jj, to.
To live where they live.
Let's.
We've talked about this recent podcast.
He would have just diedwalking out there.
Oh, yeah, I know, I know.
Trust me.
Look, I football practice andI ran track, like, because our football
coach made us run track and byrunning, like, shot put.
(03:46):
Yeah, well, so when I was in.
When I first got into highschool, my freshman sophomore year
and I was playing football, Iran track.
I ran the hundred meters, andthen they got me to run the four
by one, and.
Which is fine because I'm sprint.
Game on.
You ran the four by one?
Yeah.
That's a terrible race.
Oh, man.
(04:07):
Yes.
You know what's funny?
The way you said when youfirst got in the high school, I was
like, oh, yeah, you got, youknow, got expelled and sent back
to high school.
It felt like you're, like,gone a couple times.
I mean, how old Jay is?
He's been to high school,like, three times.
Yeah, no, I could have been.
Yeah.
Pretty close.
Anyway, definitely two andsome change.
(04:29):
But no, yeah, I.
Freshman, sophomore year, I ran.
I actually ran.
And then my junior year, I waslike this.
I'm not running anymore.
And so I didn't.
I just went right to shot put,jav, discus.
I did all the throwing events,and they forced us to run and warm
up.
But that was my way out ofhaving to run all the time, because
(04:51):
I just don't.
And I.
You know, and I wasn't inArizona, thank God, or in Southern
California, thank God.
This movie is like your formof punishment if.
If there is a hell.
And you had the rung for along time in the dead heat.
I mean, you need life support.
Like, we just did that now.
Like, any of us would bedying, but I seriously think you
(05:13):
would melt.
I'd have a heart attack beforeI melted.
But, yes, it would not be apleasant experience.
And I'll tell you this.
This whole movie is like agiant torture sequence for me because
not only are they running alot, but then they're out in that
Southern California heat, picking.
Nope.
(05:34):
Because that is some dastardlywatching, like, I helped with that
in Yuma, Arizona.
And it lasted for all of 20 minutes.
And I went, you keep going, boys.
I'll be over here.
And I carried water to allthese the rest of the time because
(05:54):
I was like, Nope.
It was 115 degrees outside.
You're bent over.
He threw his back out.
Dude, I.
I just threw my back out again recently.
Doing what?
God knows what.
It took me like a couple weeksto get back.
I still.
My sciatic nerves botheringme, but, man, I was like, bro, I
know how that feels.
You'd be stiff as a board for days.
(06:17):
And then you think about.
You, like, didn't do that much.
You've just been overworking.
But they said in the movie ifyou're not used to that kills you,
that position.
Oh, nope, no.
Like I said, I picked lettucefor about 20 minutes.
And I went, I can't now.
I was.
I'd already had one backsurgery by the time I was doing this,
(06:39):
so being hunched over likethat couldn't help it was undoable
for me.
It was misery, but.
And then the heat on top ofit, it was terrible.
And I'm in a white.
It was just not good.
So I quit and then carriedwater to all everybody else.
You didn't change your meatyguys didn't have, like, service clothes
(07:00):
on.
It was a last minute, like, thing.
We were.
Yeah, it wasn't a planned thing.
And so, yeah, that.
That white shirt and tie wentin the garbage as soon as I got home
because by the time we weredone, it was no longer white, nor
would it stay white.
But.
Yeah, so I have massiverespect for people that run and live
(07:23):
in these heated, Just miserydesert climates.
And then on top of that, thatkind of hard manual labor.
Massive respect.
My privilege makes it so thatI don't have to do that and I never
will.
So thank you for my privilege.
Alec, how did.
How did you feel watching thismovie, knowing you live in heat just
(07:45):
like this on the daily.
I mean, just fine.
I grew up.
I grew up running crosscountry and track, and I totally
forgot about that.
I could taste the dust whilethey were racing.
It was great.
But yeah, so I had a couplebeefs with this movie, but it was
(08:05):
more from a.
Like, why did they choose thepeople they chose?
Because Tommy, right, the.
The guy that was like the bestrunner was terrible at running.
He ran like.
I was just watching him going,oh, dear.
Because you had the other guyswho were like, on the team right
the middle of the road, guyswho were in the PE class.
(08:28):
Who first get Jim White's mind going.
All of them were like,runners, right?
They look like runners.
They run like runners, andthey act like runners.
And you got Tommy over here,who's just like, the fastest one,
but dude is running on all muscle.
When he did, like, they should be.
Alive by anybody who knowswhat a stride is.
(08:50):
The race that he lost.
When the first one, when theydidn't know about the uphill, and
he, like, dead sprinted in themiddle of his.
Like.
I was like, you're not gonna.
You put on that type of gasthat early, you're gonna die.
Like, you're.
And he obviously, he did as,like, what he's running for.
Made me think of, like, TomCruise with how he sprints him.
Like, they just.
(09:10):
They.
They made him.
When they wanted him to gofast, he, like, sprinted.
I was like, that's just nothow it, like, actually would look
in, like, a real distance race.
But, you know, what can we do?
It's the curse of doingathletic movies with actors.
Like, it happens so oftenbecause I was like, oh.
And then at the end, right,where he's running for state, and
(09:33):
the dude keeps looking behindhim like, you're an idiot.
Oh, yeah, I saw that.
I was like, you.
No one ever does that.
No one in the right mind woulddo that, right?
So when I ran, I wasn't.
I wasn't fast, right?
Like, I'm not running these times.
They're putting up.
I put up decent times, but mykind of shtick was.
(09:56):
I.
I was more like Danny Diaz, right?
But if I see your ass beforethe finish line, I'm passing you,
and so this guy's turningbehind, looking behind, like, dude,
I would have passed this guy.
Because as soon as they startlooking behind, they slow down and
you're.
You're just kicking in stride.
And then as you get closer andcloser, you kept looking back.
(10:17):
And it's that added dramaeffect, right?
But as soon as you look back,you're gonna trip, you're slowing,
you're done for.
Especially at State.
Well, I was going to ask,like, why is that a big.
Because, like, for me, wesprinted, which means I'm not looking
back.
Or I was playing a sport likebaseball, which the only thing you
can do is look at a ball,which I'm not going to do that, because
(10:39):
then you run crooked.
But like, in football, I always.
Like, if you break one infootball, you're always looking because
if they come up behind you,they'll punch the ball out, something
like that.
Because you're worried you'regoing to get hit in cross country
the worst.
You get a spike or like anelbow, but if you're in the front,
they can't do anything.
So, like, what's the point?
You can hear them.
(11:00):
Like, I did run from thefront, like, so I know what that
just like, what am I doing?
Looking back, I put on thejets, dude, have the confidence you
got somebody.
You're gonna have someoneyelling at you going 20 meters, 15
meters, 10 meters if he'scatching you.
Yeah, the coach is going to bescreaming that out.
Like, he's not just going tobe necessarily waiting at the finish
(11:20):
line or there's somebody therewho's going to let you know, hey,
he's catching you.
It's time to go.
And you're also, if you'retrying to run that fast, like football.
I know you do like the quickglance back with cross country when
it's not a flat footing for one.
Just asking yourself to fall.
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the other partthat I always laugh at because we
(11:42):
go out and do our track stuffand then the, the cross countryers
would go out and start runningall over the campus and we're like,
the, Are you doing like, Like,I don't want to run around.
Like, give me my nice flatfootball field in my track and I'm
good.
I don't need to worry abouttripping and falling on my face.
I did, I did laugh and they,they couldn't, they didn't have a
hill where they lived, whichis fine.
(12:03):
But like their version of thehill workouts wouldn't have nothing.
Yeah, I would have doneabsolutely nothing.
That workout would have beentrash because just would have like
kill Workouts suck.
And they are very effective.
That was not doing anything.
But it looked cool.
But we should say, was it.
(12:23):
I mean, granted, I'd love toactually ask the coach, is that what
they did?
Because it looked great forthe movie.
I just highly doubt that'swhat they actually did for hill training.
I'm sure there was somethingthat was hilly enough that they found
that worked for their, their purposes.
I just don't think that's whatthey actually did.
It looked cool for T or forthe movie though.
I was like, oh, that's, that's creative.
(12:44):
Yeah.
And those hills are bigger.
I've seen those.
I've been around.
I've never ran one because whythe would I do that?
But those hills are muchbigger, those stacks than they look
on the movie.
Like, and I, I've seen bigger ones.
They Just.
Yeah, that's, that's a fairbut like.
Sure.
Like you could kind of get a mini.
Like the thing with distancerunning though, you need a hill that's
(13:05):
like.
Sure, that's long.
200 to 300 meters where you'reprogressively going up that.
But I get to your point.
I don't know.
It looked cool though.
But those ones were reallysmall though because I have seen
much bigger ones.
Yeah, those were.
I was like, those were builtfor the movie.
Like those aren't real.
I did like how they showed howmuch he'll work out.
Suck because when I, where Igrew up, we had a, a terrible spot.
(13:30):
It was a two minute hill andit wasn't steep necessarily.
It was.
It was just a long and soyou'd get going and about halfway
through that's where we didlike hill repeats.
And so you're not just runningthe shit once you're running it five.
(13:51):
Yeah.
You do it and you don't getany break.
Your break was running downthe hill.
Why?
Because it's fun, jj.
Yeah.
It just gave you a lot ofanaerobic strength and that was something
I was good at cuz my longerlegs like it was easier for me.
People that had a little bitof a shorter stride, maybe like an
Alec or someone close, like itwould be.
(14:14):
It was hard.
Uh.
But the things I hated the,the workout I hated the most was
mild repeats.
You'd run.
We first do like in the off season.
We do like a 5:30 pace, 5:20pace, 5:10 pace, 5 minute pace.
And then you do like a 4:50 or4:45 or something and dude.
And you get like 4 minutesrest, 3 minutes rest.
(14:37):
And you have to do that successively.
Those are the times that Iwanted to die and was like, I hate
cross country.
I should just do track becauseI'm a middle distance runner.
I run 800 meters and I'm goodat it.
Why do I have to die?
Those were, those were thedays, dude.
Like just, just kill me.
I can vividly go back to those.
I hate it.
And I'm in the Virginia heat.
(14:58):
The humidity is just suckingthe moisture out of you and then
plastering it on your face.
Brutal.
Brutal.
You're not convincing JJ thathe was anywhere near wrong.
No.
Running is every other sports punishment.
The only people that practiceharder than we did look like get
(15:18):
football practice can be hard.
There's a.
There's something aboutrunning like that and doing that
successfully.
It's mentally draining.
I would have rather done football.
The only practice I would nothave done wrestling practice.
They did do some running andthen they.
I mean my buddy Martin waslike brutal stuff that they.
Yeah, it was physically abused.
And yeah, they.
(15:39):
That that type of practice andthey did some running.
I was like, all right, that's crazy.
Like I saw what our footballteam did.
It sucked.
But I would have at least I wasn't.
Didn't have to go for a 14mile run and have to run like 6 minute
pace.
Like.
No, I don't want to do that.
I'd rather hit somebody.
There is nobody on a footballteam that runs a six minute pace
(16:01):
for more than 100 yards.
It's just.
Yeah, and you're not wrong.
Like it's a good, good pointthat you made.
Like most other sports,running is a punishment.
You up, go run a mile.
That's cross countries.
You up, do 10 push ups.
Yeah.
(16:22):
Yeah.
And what.
That was the only difference.
Like football, like two dayswere miserable in the summer.
But that's because you'rewearing so much gear.
Yeah.
Like by the time I'm done,like you could fill a swimming pool
with the dripping off my assbecause it's so much.
But I still would have ratherdone that.
Well, yeah, I'll do that ahundred times than run with you.
(16:42):
The.
You're talking about runningevery single day.
Hell no.
So the longest I walk thatfar, the longest I've ever run is
we were supposed to do like a14 mile run and we did this in a
neighborhood called Balmoralback and like did some trail runs.
We had two freshmen.
Long story short, they endedup getting lost.
So I had to run four more miles.
(17:04):
What?
I knew this because we had oneof those cool watches.
So you knew exactly what youended up doing.
We ran 18 and a half milesthat day.
18 and a half.
Cause we had to find them,then get back.
This is the most mad I've ever been.
So I've never.
I don't have any desire to runa marathon ever.
I've run.
I mean, shoot, dude, I shouldhave just kept running because I
would have like at that point.
We went to Chipotle.
(17:26):
That had recently opened up.
Like they'd opened up for thefirst time ever.
Like a few months prior to that.
Sweet.
Go a lot.
I inhaled a brew and I timedmyself a minute and 26 seconds gone.
Just boom.
And then I ate another one.
Sure.
I.
Yeah, I can't even.
The longest I've ever run purposefully.
(17:48):
It's got to be a mile because of.
They made you do it in high school.
Like no.
And it was like a 20 minute mile.
Dude.
I'm not talking like I would.
I paced myself.
So by saying I ran a mile,that's I loafed a mile.
So it's like I.
And.
And that was miserable.
(18:08):
Dude.
I would two laps in I'm like this.
Why do they make us do this?
This proves nothing.
I can out sprint every personin this classroom.
Buy a good brown.
Do you guys remember the pacertest in elementary school or middle
school?
You remember that with likethe noise where you'd have to run
and it got successively fasterand faster and faster.
Did you all do that?
They didn't make old people do that.
(18:28):
Oh, you never had to do that.
Yeah.
Where we grew up in Fairfaxcounty, they.
There'd be a beep and you hadto run get to the other side of your
gy.
The gym or they had it like acertain distance and it gets faster
and faster and faster andfaster and faster and faster.
I beat that every year.
Like I.
I never.
It never beat me.
But it's funny.
(18:49):
I thought every likeelementary school did.
That or I've repressed the memory.
You would know.
No.
Yeah.
I never have done that becauseI wanted Jay to.
Well now I wish I could takeJQ big.
Hell no.
I'll watch and cheer your ass on.
I.
Look man, the other thing thatlike so I played basketball too.
In.
In throughout school.
(19:09):
I wasn't good at bass.
Terrible basketball.
But again I did everything tokeep in shape for the sports that
I loved.
So I played sports and rantrack for that I to keep in shape
during the off seasons of the sports.
I wanted to play basketball.
Dude.
I don't.
There was a million times Ialmost quit basketball because of
ladders.
Running ladders or.
Or whatever you want to call suicides.
(19:32):
Suicide.
All that like we call themladders because yeah the nobody wanted
to call them suicides or whereI grew up.
So that pacer test.
Think of it like the suicidesyou did at towards the end and you
had to do it was like 30levels of that.
When you got close to the end,you were just suiciding that.
No way.
Like I Dude, I'd get throughthree suicides and then I'd beat
(19:54):
the out of whoever up and made us.
So we had to do suicide.
Jay's like the dude from themiracle or that mess up and he's
like I swear I'm gonna kill you.
I am.
That was me.
Like I.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Running is on anyway.
McFarland look.
(20:14):
And this is why it's funny,but this is why I like this movie
is because.
And it's almost true of mostactual sports movies.
Like, we've done a lot ofsports movies in this month, but
most of these sports moviesdon't actually have anything to do
with the sport.
And so it's like, more there'sa story revolving around the sport
that's going on.
Like Draft Day.
(20:35):
You don't actually watch anyfootball other than them watching
highlights for at certain moments.
And then, like, there's noreal baseball in either of the baseball
movies we watch.
Not really.
There's, like, snippets of it.
And then what was the otherone we did that was like.
I feel like I'm missing one name.
We had two.
(20:55):
Baseball.
Baseball, football, and.
Oh, dude, you missing Tin Cup.
Oh, golf.
That's right.
Yeah, we did watch a lot of golf.
Wrong with you, J.J.
and May.
I should be.
Yeah, I'm.
It's the kind of week I've had.
I can't even put the thoughts together.
But yeah, like, golf.
We watched a lot of golf.
But it's golf.
(21:17):
That's the question we had.
We had a long ass.
You remember that argumentMatsu, me and Javier.
For, like.
Javier's been saying thatsince he was 12 years old.
Oh, I know.
Tay went off on me about thatthe other day.
I told her.
I was like, we're not going tocall Jay today, but we need to call
him.
May do that tonight, actually.
(21:38):
That'd be funny.
Half a.
Half a day of work Javier andI spent hollering at each other between
the offices.
We got everybody involved.
Yeah.
Because then it went to dance.
And did he bring up defenseand physical?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
He had his.
He had his criteria.
(21:58):
Yeah.
It's Javier that, as we nowknow, it wouldn't matter.
He's held on to that for whatis at this point, 23 years, 22 years
he's been holding on to thesame argument.
That was the first time that.
I love it.
That that group of work peoplefinally got.
It was like they.
I got fired up for a while.
Like, he.
He had me worked up good.
(22:18):
Speaking of, Javier just ran,like, a half marathon or something.
Oh, no.
Part of, like, a.
A group I saw on Instagram.
He just ran.
I was like, wow, dude, neverthought I'd see you doing that.
So, Jay, there's hope.
No, there's not.
Even when I was in the bestshape of my life, which was really
good shape when I was a junior.
(22:40):
Sophomore, junior in highschool, running was never my Thing
like Jay's, a 10.
Yard dash when they do the 40for the combine, but the lineman,
they do the 10 yard.
Jay's right there.
That's me.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, I.
I was willing to sprint for100 yards as long as I had a football
and I was going to score a touchdown.
And then I was willing to jogaround the bases if I put it out
(23:01):
of the run around the basesreal fast.
Soccer, I ran a lot more that,but that was always fun.
But again, it goes back tolike, the sport.
I enjoyed the sport.
I like this movie because itgets to the heart of sport to me.
And I, you know, you have thisgroup of kids that are, you know,
not great situation.
A tough.
I don't want to say not greatbecause they, I'm not saying that
(23:23):
their lives are bad, but theyhad hard lives, right?
They manual labor.
They're having to help theirparents just to keep the, the living.
They're not living in atechnically safe area in certain
pieces of that.
And that's true for a lot of people.
And then this sport bringsthem together.
Not that they weren't friendsand, you know, they obviously ran
and knew each other, but like,it creates this family environment,
(23:46):
if you will, where you'resuper connected and you're helping
each other and then somethingbecomes a driver outside of like,
survival, right?
Like, it.
There's something.
And so I just love sport.
And then so when you watchthis movie and watch them coming
together and then the excitingpart, like in the end of this movie
is one of my favorite.
Like when he's sitting thereand everybody's like, oh, shit.
(24:08):
Because the kid burns himself out.
And so you're like, oh.
And when he's just like, I get off.
Like, I want to jump out of mycouch every time I watch this movie.
When Kevin Costner's like,that's not Danny Diaz.
That's not Danny Diaz.
I'm like, Because I'm cheeringfor every bigger guy on the planet.
Like, rotten daddy, you're the man.
Because.
And so I just.
(24:29):
It's like any sports moviewhere it just gets me amped and I
don't.
I'm sure it gets a lot ofpeople that are into sports, but
for me it's like.
And this movie's that, like,it's an interesting story about a
family of privilege comingsomewhere where there's not privilege,
right?
Like, it is hard and you workfor everything and having to make
(24:50):
that adjustment and then seethem make that choice and then have
it be a real Life situation.
I love that kind of thingbecause that's the kind of thing.
And I know there's a lot ofthings that do things like this for
people, but I can relate to itbeing a sport so much because I've
been connected with some of myfriends still today that I talk to.
(25:10):
We have such separate anddiffering lives, but we can always
connect.
And we're best friends andstill friends and keep in touch 30
years later because of a sportthat we played together.
And I love that this moviemakes me feel good, and I like movies
that make me feel good.
(25:30):
You know what I liked aboutthis movie?
I looked it up after about howtrue this movie was, because remember,
the Titans love that movie.
But yeah, very not true, like,really at all.
When they talk about takingprofessional liberties, it's like
based on a true story, 90,like 2%.
But this movie, the onlythings that didn't really happen
(25:53):
is Jim White was already there.
He'd been there for multipleyears, and then he just decided to
start the team.
The Diaz brothers weren't onthe team at the same time.
And if you look at the endwhen they show, when they actually
won, you're like, wait,there's Diaz people.
They're later on.
That's why I don't really carethat they did all that.
(26:13):
The quinceanera thing never happened.
But I get why they put it inbecause they want to have character
progression tied to the community.
But really, other than that,it all did happen.
And like, the communitybuilding, the team, success and all
that.
Jim White still, as they say,still lives there.
And then they show.
(26:33):
I love at the end when they actually.
When movies like that show thereal people and they're clearly still
out there.
And pretty much everybody came back.
Some of them got really greatdegrees and came back and like, bettered
their community.
And I.
That that's the thing I thinkI really appreciated about this movie
is it's so easy.
Just the United States alone,you are in a more poor place.
(26:57):
I mean, you even look at,like, J.J.
for instance.
Like, you didn't live in someof the spots you're in.
Like Kentucky, for instance,maybe Ohio, to a lesser extent.
Like, you didn't live in somegreat spots.
And like, I don't think you'dreally want to go back and where
they lived, like, they couldhave never gone back, but they did.
And they're bettering their community.
And I think that's one of myfavorite things to be commended,
(27:18):
is that they're.
They're still serving andGiving back.
That was really heartwarmingto see.
And I really like this moviemore because it is pretty true to
the events that actually happened.
And I know that's sometimeshard to make a movie that's entertaining
enough without takingliberties, but, man, if it's.
(27:38):
If you can keep it close,like, I just think it makes it that
much better because then I canactually feel good about.
Like, this is real where.
Like, I still feel betrayedabout Remember the Titans.
Like, I still love the movie,but it does hurt a little bit because
it's not.
When you do actually know that it.
It changed it for me a little bit.
I'm like, man, like, I don'thave to feel the way about this movie.
(28:00):
And I like that.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
What about you, Alec?
What do you like beside.
We talked a lot about the sport.
Like, I.
I want to hear what you likedabout the movie, and I know you got
some gripes, and I want tohear those.
Yeah, the grapes were morejust because it was, like, right
there in your face.
Sure.
But the stuff that I liked,kind of like what you guys were talking
(28:23):
about is a little bit thecommunity, but also the way that
Jim White goes about earningthe trust of his team.
And so, you know, he startsout just kind of telling him to run,
and then it goes into.
He's running, can't keep up,so he gets a bike.
And.
But being out there and beingon the course, because that same
(28:44):
thing, like, our coaches ranwith us.
I had a coach who was, like,80 years old.
Coach Dockery loved him death,but he would be out there.
He wouldn't run as fast or asfar or anything like that, but he'd
still be out there cooking.
So having that kind of coachwho's like, okay, I need you on my
team.
We're gonna do this togethertype of a thing.
(29:05):
We're gonna go figure it outessentially at the same time.
That was cool.
Yeah.
Because it kind of showed the.
The way he went out of his wayto be like, hey, you know, I need
this, but you guys also need this.
And so, you know, that's whatwe're gonna go out.
That's what we're gonna go and do.
So I like that.
(29:27):
Yeah.
My coach, when I first startedwas faster than all of us.
He ran a 218 marathon and wasvery good like that.
I don't know if that puts incontext for you, J.
That's extremely fast.
Yeah, it's like 26 miles orsome shit in two hours and 18.
That's.
I don't even think I coulddrive that that fast.
(29:48):
Coach.
Coach posts.
He didn't, he didn't make the.
The US team, but man, he was close.
We'll put it that way.
Crazy.
One, one of the things that wewere just talking the opposite.
That came true to me.
One thing I like nitpicky thatI just is not true in the running
community that they shouldhave just not put in this movie because
it didn't really add anythingis the, the little bits of like trash
(30:12):
talking or like getting ateach other from the other school.
That does not happen in therunning community.
Like maybe in your running community.
Oh, it does.
I was like, like, I'm sorry.
This is just not what any.
And I raced against some goodpeople and none of us did that.
(30:33):
We just was like, I'll justbeat you.
And there was no, like trashtalking in track.
Sprinters, maybe a little bit.
Yeah, sure, when I was on the relays.
But cross country, no.
So maybe tell us more, Alec.
As I say, there's a difference between.
Did you run in Arizona or California?
(30:55):
California.
This is.
There's a difference betweenCalifornia and the great state of
Utah.
Virginia.
Oh, Virginia.
That's fair.
You grew up in Virginia.
There's even bigger difference between.
Yeah, that's fair.
Yeah.
No, I was an.
And here's the thing.
So I.
I possess a strange talent.
(31:17):
I'm sure it's not gonnaactually come as strange to you guys
is I run the same pace whetherI'm talking or not.
And so I didn't shut up forfive kilometers.
I was that I'd be.
I stick find someone, right?
And I just chit chat their ear off.
(31:38):
And it drove them nuts becauseeverybody is really.
It's a big mental game, right?
So you're looking, you're moving.
It's all.
How fast were you running forlike a 5k if you were having conversations
with your competitors.
16, 16, 20.
Geez, dude.
It's good.
Yeah.
So I, I'm talking.
(31:58):
Could not do that.
I never shut up.
Practices included 10, 11, 12 miles.
And I talked for every singleone of them.
I'd have run your ass off thetrack, dude.
It drove me crazy.
I talked during long runs.
Yeah, no, it gets people outof their, out of their groove and
out of their headspace.
You.
You were that teammate.
(32:19):
The reason I.
You guys don't know this aboutme, but I hate time.
I don't wear watches.
Like, I don't.
I block it out of my monitor.
I have a little sticky overhere on my mission.
I covered it up with a pictureof Jesus in our car and called it
Jesus time.
Um, it's all because of running.
Because some idiot like Alecwould be like, how far.
How long in are we?
And you already know when youdo, you're like, I've got to run
(32:42):
12 miles or we're doing 10 orwhatever it is.
Or we're on this particular split.
You already know how.
Like, you're.
You're barely in it.
But someone's like, oh, we're10 minutes in.
We've.
We've got 40 minutes left here.
And they keep like, dude, justshut up.
I don't care.
Like, I.
I have to.
I have to run it.
Like, I already.
(33:02):
I.
And you run the same areas.
Like, you had, like, sevendifferent places you normally run.
You already knew, I'm this far.
I have this to go.
I don't care what times.
I just know I need to get back.
And then you got someone likeAlec that's just like a big dick
about never.
Oh, my God.
(33:23):
Yeah.
I'd have shown you my footballskills halfway through the run.
Tackle right here.
But it's little snipe things, Right?
So what this movie kind ofdoesn't necessarily show and for
good reason is that crosscountry races are really exciting
for the first 20 seconds andfor the last 20 seconds.
Yeah.
And boring, as in the middle.
(33:45):
And so, you know, you're offon this wild course.
You know, you might get anoccasion where you're looping around
close to where everybody'shanging out, so you get some cheering,
but not all the time.
And so I, you know, I'd findsomeone who's.
I'm passing up.
They're struggling.
They ran too fast.
Begin or whatever.
And I just pull up and belike, oh, man, you're slowing down.
Come on, dude.
Come on, come on, come on.
(34:06):
So it's the SNY trash talk.
Don't quit now.
What are you doing?
Like, let's go kind of put itout there.
Alex.
The only.
And I ran with a lot of people.
I don't know anyone that didthat in a race.
Except.
Did you do that on the track?
Not the track, on the course.
I didn't know.
I mean, I wasn't running long enough.
(34:27):
That's what I'm saying.
You did it like.
Oh, yeah.
While we're racing?
Yeah, like on a track meet.
Like on.
On like the mile or like the 800.
I don't know if you could do.
It in the 800 or the mile.
Couldn't do that.
Not enough Time.
And I got bored.
So I got bored and tracked.
Because you're running, youknow, the four laps or the eight
laps or the, you know.
So I had to stick with the 800miles section.
(34:47):
Yeah.
Two miles, stupid.
So I stuck with 800 miles.
Not enough time to, you know, mess.
With people on more than aquarter of the track at a time.
I don't understand thatquarter of the track.
It was perfect.
But, yeah, you hit like amile, one and a half, two on the
cross country course, andthat's where you start really Kind
(35:08):
of like passing people.
You see people went out tooquick and, you know, or they pulled
something or whatever it is,they're still going.
And, oh, yeah, you could be ahuge dick out there.
And I totally was.
That's funny.
I like it because I was a runner.
It's what I do.
I'd find that nice stick rightwhere you.
You're kind of almost like,oh, come on, buddy, you can keep
(35:30):
it up.
Yeah, well, yeah.
You know, you don't want topiss them off in a way, because a
lot of times people are like.
They react.
You're like, you run faster, fat.
And they will.
You know what I mean?
Because they get offended andthey want to do it.
But then, like, if you'relike, dude, come on, you got this.
Shut the up.
Like, no, I don't.
I hate you.
(35:52):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I.
I know nothing about crosscountry that isn't in this movie
or watching these guys runwhen I'm driving by going, oof.
Why would you do that to yourself?
Hilarious.
Yeah.
But we say all this to say, ifyou haven't seen this movie, you
(36:12):
don't have to like, running.
Like, JJ doesn't really careabout it, but the story is compelling
enough.
Character progression is strong.
You're endeared to what'shappening on screen.
Kevin Costner is great in this movie.
I think he plays his roleexceptionally, and I think the supporting
cast with his family and therunners really makes you feel something.
(36:33):
And I think that's what, like,I talked about earlier.
What I like about this moviethe most is, like Jay said, when
Danny Diaz does his thing atthe end, like, you feel that you're
like, he's out there savingthe team.
Like, he did it.
He stepped up, and you feel that.
And that's what this moviedoes really well is it makes you
feel something, makes you wantto believe in something, makes you
feel like you're a part of something.
(36:54):
And at the end of the day, Ithink that that's what this movie
is shooting for and should becommended for it.
Yeah, it's definitely another case.
And I will say Kevin Costneris really good in this one, but it
is another case where thepeople around him are even better.
Like, I love the team.
I love his family.
Like, I love the team's families.
(37:15):
Like, when they go into the.
The Diaz mom and, like, she'sgot all the clothes and.
And it's misspelled.
Yeah.
Like, I love all that.
Like, and it's just so heartwarming.
And you're just like, you wantthem to win, to have that success
because they do a great job inthe writing and the storytelling
of, like, endearing thesecharacters to you.
(37:38):
Like, you want them to besuccessful and have that.
And I think to Matt's point,like, that's why I get so, like,
rah rah at the end whenthey're actually talking about the
real people and they show themrunning and talking about what they
did in life and the fact thatthey graduated here and they came
back and they're doing thisand that.
I'm like.
Because it's.
It's weird because it's not tosay that they wouldn't have achieved
(37:59):
anything without running crosscountry, but you have to ask the
question, right?
Like, would this group ofindividuals had been.
Would they have been assuccessful or make as big an impact
as they seem to have had ifthis situation and they hadn't had
Coach White turn up and decide to.
I.
Absolutely.
(38:20):
I mean, we can't saydefinitively, but they talked about
it with the dad with, like, book.
What did they say?
It was something like, booksdon't, like, pick.
What did.
I don't remember that phrase,but it was basically something like,
book.
Like, reading never helped me,like, pick.
Like, be a picker or somethinglike that.
Or like, obviously you couldnever know.
(38:41):
Like you're saying Jay.
But I think like anything whenyou have hope, it raises the possibilities
of what you believe that youcan do.
And they realized, hey, thisis something I never thought.
And it raised the hopes of the communities.
And all of a sudden, peoplethat thought they were destined to
just be pickers and even theirparents thought that and were breeding
them the premiums out the right.
(39:02):
Raising them to.
To be the very same thing.
They suddenly realize we'recapable of more and my son can go
to school but also still helpthe family.
Like, yeah, I'd like to thinkit changed that trajectory.
Obviously, we'd never know,but I think it had a massive hand
in it.
Yeah.
And it doesn't work with everyone.
(39:22):
I think there's the one kidthat they talk about that ended up
in trouble.
Yeah.
Like, he.
Yeah, he didn't get out.
But so not every.
It's not always successful.
But I really think if you canfind not just sport, like a group
that's gonna put you in theright direction and help you feel
like you're maximizing yourtalents and your skills and you have
(39:43):
a passion for it, like, itjust helps keep you grounded and
in the right place.
But I think Alec would havebeen one of those people where they
would have flash, like, reallysuccessful runner, got stuck in his
room for the next 10 years andtalked to three human beings.
I think that was generous.
Now he's in charge of kids playhouses.
(40:07):
Oh, God, I love it.
Tell me, though, Matson, thatyou did not just completely understand
the.
The dinner scene when she justkeeps bringing him.
Oh, dude.
Yeah.
When you're.
You're on the eating it.
You're on the mission, I think.
Did I tell you guys this story?
When we went probably, andlike, literally we were knocking
(40:30):
doors.
We didn't do that much inVegas, but we ended up knocking on
a poly famous door thathappened to be a member.
But they were in thePolynesian war, and they had a lot
of that in Vegas.
And it was like 30 minutesbefore we were supposed to go to
our scheduled dinner.
And Polynesians, as you know,just call what it is.
They.
They love to eat, and they can eat.
And we told them, we told the.
(40:51):
The mom, hey, we got dinner alittle bit.
But you know what people do.
You've been on the mission, Jay.
You know, especially in thePolynesian culture, you want to show
hospitality, you feed people.
Yeah.
She started off with the drink.
She's like, just, elders,elders, just drink this.
Drink this.
All right, fine.
It was kool Aid.
We drank it.
Then she got out a cookie, andthen she was like, just eat this
cookie and then start a poll.
(41:12):
And after that, I was like,I've been right.
I was like, how do I havekalulu pig, like, pork in front of
me rice.
And I've got, like, Mac saladcoming in.
Like, what is happening right now?
And you have to eat it becauseshe's just like, she's basically
your auntie next door.
So by the time we walked out,like, I tell you, we were.
I was full to the back.
Like, just.
I was doing the poly shufflebecause I was like, we have to go
(41:35):
to this family.
And this family.
We were eating.
It wasn't one of the ones that.
Because you get some coolfamilies that feed you a ton, you're
like, they're your OGs.
This is a family that.
It was like, a really specialthing because they didn't have you
a lot.
You knew.
The mom had already told you.
I can't remember what we wereeating, but I remember she texted
us and, like, you're like, all right.
So I told.
I was.
It's my favorite companion atthe time.
(41:57):
I was like, lydecker, dude, webetter eat shiz out of whatever she
makes us.
Because we know she worked hard.
I threw up after that onebecause I was like, I just didn't
have enough room.
And so I felt that.
Yeah, that scene.
I was like, oh, yeah.
Dude's just like three sheetsto the wind.
Just like, he's not drunk,but, man, he's food coma out of his
(42:17):
mind.
I laugh every time I watchthis movie at that scene.
Because I.
In yuma, which is 75 Hispanic,and we.
I was a zone leader there.
So I went out with theSpanish, and I'm.
I don't speak Spanish.
I was not a Spanish guy, but Iwent out with Spanish guys, spoke
(42:39):
rice and beans, and I didn'tspeak a lick.
And these don't tell you therules of engagement when you go eat
in a Hispanic family's houselike that.
And they don't speak English.
So I'm sitting there, justthis freaking white dude, chilling.
Not.
I have no clue what's goingon, but just.
It was.
It literally played out justlike you see in this movie where
(43:03):
I would eat.
And if you put food in frontof me, I'm going to eat it, because
I'm not.
One, I'm fat, and two, I'm notgonna be rude.
And it was really good food.
So I'm stuffing my face, andthey just keep going.
And finally, freaking elderlytower looks over at me, and he goes,
dude, you just have to stop eating.
He goes, if you.
(43:23):
If every time you clean yourplate, they think you want more.
And I was like, you could havetold me there's six plates ago.
Like, I was so hurting.
Luckily, they.
They went on doing theirthing, and I just sat on the couch
and completely zoned outbecause I was sitting there going,
just don't puke in the house.
Just don't be.
I was so full.
It was hurtful.
It was so good, though.
(43:45):
So good.
Yeah.
Enchiladas and sopapillas.
Like, it was just.
Dude, that was.
And it was, like, on theborder of San Luis, Mexico.
So, like, this was real.
Like, this wasn't.
You were eating some grinds.
Oh, dude, it was so good.
Like, yeah.
Everybody tells you if you gosomewhere with Hispanic culture and,
(44:07):
like, they're like, oh, you'regonna end up.
Watch out.
They're gonna try to feed youchitlins and freaking chicken feet.
I'll eat all that.
Because the way they make it,it's delicious.
Don't get me wrong.
Lard is your friend, dude.
And don't get me wrong, like,things like menudo smelled like,
oh, boy, did it taste good.
(44:28):
You get a nice piece of breadand soak that up.
Yes, please.
The last thing I'll say onthis movie, that resonated whenever.
And Jay's.
Jimmy J.
Knows me well enough, and he'sbeen privy to some conversations
with my wife sitting rightnext to me.
Sometimes we call it Latinaspice because Tay is, like, half
(44:51):
Hispanic, and when it hits, it hits.
And those scenes where the momjust, like, takes over and is, like,
just bullish and making thingshappen, because that's a real thing
in the Hispanic community.
It just makes me gigglebecause I'm like, she's not to that
extent, but it comes outsometimes, and you're just like,
so, okay.
Yep.
Just.
(45:11):
Here.
What do you need?
Oh, yeah, Jay's partner's notHispanic, but she might be, you know?
No, but I certainly watchedquite a few Abuelas when I was in
Arizona.
Yeah.
And.
And they don't give a Ifyou're a member of the family or
not.
If you are in the vicinity,you are part of the crew.
(45:33):
You better accept it.
You do the.
You fight it.
They will win.
Yeah.
And I.
Half the time, I didn't knowwhat they were saying, but I would
just be like, point me in theright direction, because I don't
want to be on the other.
The wrong end of that flamebecause, boy, yeah, I remember.
Yeah, I love that.
All right, should we rate thismovie even though we've barely talked
about the movie at all?
(45:54):
Let's do it.
All right.
My movie.
I'm gonna give this movie afour and a half.
I did really enjoy it.
I could watch this movie anytime.
Casey loves it.
In fact, it's one that, like,we bought the digital version because
we would watch it enough that,you know, we'll pick up and watch
it just because it's feelgood, it's entertaining, it feels
good, It's.
I like movies like this thathave some semblance in reality.
(46:18):
And I'm with you, Matson.
I like that this one's morereal than not.
There's less creative licensetaken with this movie, at least the
overall plot than.
Than a lot of other ones thatare based on a true story.
And I like that because at theend of it, I like to see people succeed
and I like to see people growand get better and.
(46:39):
And I love sports.
And whether I want to run ornot, I enjoy it.
And the acting is really good.
The story's great.
You really start to feel forthese characters and not just these
kids or the coach, but thefamilies around them and the community
that they live in and.
And it's just.
It's really interesting.
Like I never even heard ofMcFarland until I watched this movie.
(47:01):
And now I'm like, wow,interesting place, I guess.
But like, what a cool settingfor something like this to happen,
right?
Like this small town that's ina state that's known for its big
cities and, you know, sportsteams and everything else.
And here you have this smallcommunity with this small high school
(47:22):
track or long distance runningteam and.
And they find success andchange their lives and it's just
cool.
I like it.
Feels good.
Very good movie.
It's a good way to end the month.
Four and a half for me.
I'd watch it anytime.
Alec, what about you?
I'm also gonna give it a fourand a half.
(47:43):
It's.
It's a really good movie and Igot some gripes with it, but it's
mostly the Hollywood gripes ofstuff that you put in that just doesn't
make sense.
Having grown up and ran.
I knew about McFarland.
Never raced against McFarland because.
Oh yeah, you were down therefar away.
(48:03):
But only time I would haveseen the Farland would be at state.
And I never went to state, but I.
Everybody who does crosscountry in Southern California knows
the legend of McFarlane.
And when I went to highschool, it was, you know, past their
real dominant stretch.
Yeah.
But I knew about them and soit was kind of cool to see the story
(48:25):
that kind of started it all.
Nice.
I'll say so.
Yeah.
Four and a half.
I will watch it again.
I might watch just the last 30minutes again because it happens.
But it's a good movie.
I liked it.
Had you seen this before?
Nope.
Nice.
It's interesting.
I had no idea.
I didn't even think about thefact that you were down there in
(48:47):
Southern California andprobably would have heard about it.
Nice.
All right, Matson, bring us home.
I'd never seen this movie allthe way through another one of Those
that I'd seen a good chunk ofit and it was pretty easy to guess
how it ended.
But why are you guys giving ita 5 is my question.
(49:10):
What's the 0.5 deduction?
Alec, I understand yours, thenitpickiness of the running, but
what about you, jj?
I think for me, they, like,they did spend a little too much
time, in my opinion, on likethe family dynamic of his family,
(49:30):
like the coach's family.
Like, some of that felt forcedto me, like with the daughter.
And I think part of it is Idon't like the actress that plays
his daughter.
So it's a me thing.
Like, I don't like her very much.
She's been in a couple of TVshows that I really enjoyed and nothing
that I've seen her that I'mlike, yeah, she's great.
And so she drives me crazy.
(49:51):
And then the fact that like the.
The fights between him and hiswife a little bit and then like that
stuff.
Whoa.
I don't know what the hellhappened there.
But that was fun.
I like you.
I don't know, but that was cool.
Shifting in the middle of it.
But yeah, like, I.
It's one of those things where.
That's my gripe.
Alec learned a new trick.
(50:13):
Oh, this is gonna be fun.
If you want to see it, gowatch the video on YouTube if you're
just listening.
But yeah, so that's my gripe,I think, is the family dynamic.
Little too much of that for me.
Yeah.
I'm sitting here trying tofigure out why I wouldn't give it
a 5.
As far as sports movies thatmake me feel good, I still don't
think it.
It hit five for me, but Idefinitely think it's a solid four
(50:35):
and a half.
And will I watch it again?
I really like the movie, butthere's certainly other feel good
sports movies that I enjoyeven more than this one.
It's not that, like, it'sfunny that I'm question if I had
watched anything because thisis the sports movie that was made
for me.
Like, this is my life for awhile, but I also don't really care
(51:01):
about running anymore.
But I do and I don't because Iwatch in the Olympics and some other
things.
So I don't know, like, it's just.
It's one of those things I'mlike, should be the movie I watch
all the time.
I'm sure I will at some pointbecause, man, it made you feel good.
But it's not the best sportsmovie or movie that has sports in
it.
Like, I was far more emotionaland like Rudy.
(51:21):
But Rudy has its pitfalls.
Like, remember the Titans.
Like, maybe this movie justneeded better music.
And it would have been a five.
Maybe that's what it was.
Could be.
Because remember the Titanswithout their soundtrack wouldn't
be a five.
They freaking smash that outof the park.
Because the movie's still good.
But I don't know, like, reallygreat movie.
If you haven't seen it, gowatch it.
(51:42):
I really think you'll feel good.
And that's what's awesomeabout this movie.
You don't have to care about running.
You could care less about allthose things.
I promise you, you'll be intrigued.
And like JJ said, you'll becheering for Danny Diaz.
That's not Danny Diaz.
So good.
I love that line.
I think you hit it on the head.
Like, I don't.
I think it's just one of thosemovies that, like, I like it, it's
(52:05):
really good, and I feel goodafter it, but I don't go, oh, McFarland,
you know what I mean?
Like, there's movies.
And when I think of fives,like, that's the.
That I'm like, I'll eitherfight you two over it like a freaking
other movies that I've givenit five.
And you're like, what the areyou doing?
Like, back the off.
But.
Or.
But this isn't one of them.
Like, I.
I have, like, I think about itand I go.
(52:26):
I don't just get like, oh,amped to watch McFarland.
Yeah, like.
Like a movie like that for me,that you guys wouldn't care about
so much.
Just like Friday Night Lights,the movie.
Like, that movie.
It's funny because I wish Iwould have played football.
Maybe it's because I shouldhave done what I.
Because I was a good runner.
I just lean on that.
But that movie makes me, like,I really go through the emotion of
the feels.
And I know it's not everyone'sfavorite, but I'll fight you on that,
(52:48):
because that movie, like, itstruck a chord.
Where this movie, it's funny,it should strike more of a chord.
But this movie is more aboutthe community aspects, more so than,
like, the core essence of thesport and the struggle and persevering
through the lens of the sport.
It's more through the lens ofthe community, which I think is what
makes it a great movie.
But I think that's when Ithink of this movie in terms of,
(53:09):
like, what it means from asport and the feels that I get it's.
The feels of like, what Danny D.
Has meant to like thecommunity and not so much like the
team in the essence of thatcross country team.
Whereas, like, remember the Titans?
Or the feels I get for FridayNight Lights when they lose, like,
man, I just, like, I get sickto my stomach a little bit and I
(53:32):
don't know, something likethat for me where I just have more
of a reaction with that.
Where this movie, I think it'slow expectations of you're like,
this movie can't be any good.
Like, it's about running, like what?
And then it's like really good.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
There it is.
Pretty high scores.
I think it's the highestscoring across the board that we
did.
Oh, yeah.
100 close was feel the Dreams,but yeah, even that one I don't think
(53:57):
was straight four and a half.
So I think some of us on thatone because it's got issues, but
yeah, so good way to finish.
I like it.
Alec, tell everybody wherethey can find it.
Oh, God.
Here we go.
Great.
There.
Perfect.
Love it.
So thank you for tuning intoweek five of Kevin Costner Sports
(54:18):
Movies where we talked aboutthe three of us reliving our high
school glory days.
If you made this point ofvideo, drop us a comment.
Leave us a like, let us knowwhat you guys think of McFarland.
Best place to find us is onYouTube where you can see our smiling
faces or Matson when he'seating outside of that.
(54:39):
Patreon is a place to getinvolved with our content.
Special thanks to our patrons,Rich and cb for their selections
this month.
Nice, strong month for March.
I don't know how we're gonnatop it.
Knowing what's on the docketfor April.
My treat.
You're all welcome.
Thanks for that.
Yes.
With that, I will kick it backto our legendary leader, the King
(55:01):
of Crash, the Titan of Terror,A JJ, easy.
You have to ease his pain.
He keeps doing that in the microphone.
All right, well, there it is.
I got blurry.
That's how pissed he got me.
My way, blurry.
(55:22):
So with that, as always, weappreciate you tuning in.
We'll catch you on the next one.
Bye, Vista, baby.
Know what was funny?
The way you said when youfirst got into high school, I was
like, oh, yeah, you got.
You.
I don't.
Got expelled and sent back tohigh school.
It felt like you're like, gonea couple times.
I mean, how old Jay is?
He's been to high school likethree times.
Yeah.
No, that could have been.
(00:23):
Welcome to the what's up?
Every podcast we fashionourselves cinematic judge and jury.
My name is JJ Carter.
I'm here with my co hosts, Mattson.
Heiner, Better Red Than Deadand Alec Burgess.
Let's get it.
We appreciate you tuning in.
Go and hit that Followsubscribe like bell notification
buttons.
Hit them all.
They hope you keep up with allof our episodes as they release weekly
and then any other extra stuffwe may or may not do on occasion.
(00:46):
But it also helps us grow the podcast.
And you know what else helpsus grow the podcast?
Telling a friend, familymember about us.
Let them come, listen, tell,tell a bunch of psychotic people
that like to run long distances.
Matson would get along with them.
He used to do that.
Crazy.
He used to.
They are not my people.
(01:08):
So I don't.
I don't miss the long runs.
I do miss the team, but my.
Goodness, I used to.
I'm.
I still, during the summer and.
Or like the spring and summermonths, drive around and see them
out running and I'm like, youare stupid.
Enjoy.
But dumb.
(01:29):
So, yeah, there it is.
But it's.
Look, it's weak.
Knocking over.
It's week five and we're heretalking about the final movie in
our Kevin Costner sports filmextravaganza, month of March.
And yeah, there it is.
(01:50):
So let's dive into.
McFarland USA was releasedFebruary 20, 2015.
It was written by ChristopherCleveland, Bettina Giloy, and it
was directed by Nikki Caro.
Stars Kevin Costner, MariaBello, Ramiro Rodriguez, Carlos Pratts,
Johnny Ortiz, Rafael Martinez,Hector Duran, Sergio Avalar, Michael
(02:15):
Aguero, Diana Maria Riva andOmar Leva.
It is about Jim White, whomoves his family after losing his
last job as a football coach.
And at his new school, heturned seven disappointing students
into one of the best crosscountry teams in the region.
Fine.
It's an okay synopsis, Isuppose, but it's really terrible.
(02:37):
Actually makes this moviesound much more boring than it actually
is.
But that's okay.
Yeah, let's dive into it.
Was this one one of mine?
I think it was mine.
It was your pick, which isfunny from what you just dissed most
of movie like 30 seconds ago.
But you did pick this movie.
I didn't dis the movie.
I just the sport.
You dis the premise of thecore part of this movie.
(03:01):
So, I mean, I dis the sportthat it revolves around.
Now, with that this comes alot of respect, because, again, I
think they're stupid.
But that's only because Icouldn't do it if I could do it,
and I found any joy in runningat all.
(03:22):
It's a great sport, jj, to.
To live where they live.
Let's.
We've talked about this recent podcast.
He would have just diedwalking out there.
Oh, yeah, I know, I know.
Trust me.
Look, I football practice andI ran track, like, because our football
coach made us run track and byrunning, like, shot put.
(03:46):
Yeah, well, so when I was in.
When I first got into highschool, my freshman sophomore year
and I was playing football, Iran track.
I ran the hundred meters, andthen they got me to run the four
by one, and.
Which is fine because I'm sprint.
Game on.
You ran the four by one?
Yeah.
That's a terrible race.
Oh, man.
(04:07):
Yes.
You know what's funny?
The way you said when youfirst got in the high school, I was
like, oh, yeah, you got, youknow, got expelled and sent back
to high school.
It felt like you're, like,gone a couple times.
I mean, how old Jay is?
He's been to high school,like, three times.
Yeah, no, I could have been.
Yeah.
Pretty close.
Anyway, definitely two andsome change.
(04:29):
But no, yeah, I.
Freshman, sophomore year, I ran.
I actually ran.
And then my junior year, I waslike this.
I'm not running anymore.
And so I didn't.
I just went right to shot put,jav, discus.
I did all the throwing events,and they forced us to run and warm
up.
But that was my way out ofhaving to run all the time, because
(04:51):
I just don't.
And I.
You know, and I wasn't inArizona, thank God, or in Southern
California, thank God.
This movie is like your formof punishment if.
If there is a hell.
And you had the rung for along time in the dead heat.
I mean, you need life support.
Like, we just did that now.
Like, any of us would bedying, but I seriously think you
(05:13):
would melt.
I'd have a heart attack beforeI melted.
But, yes, it would not be apleasant experience.
And I'll tell you this.
This whole movie is like agiant torture sequence for me because
not only are they running alot, but then they're out in that
Southern California heat, picking.
Nope.
(05:34):
Because that is some dastardlywatching, like, I helped with that
in Yuma, Arizona.
And it lasted for all of 20 minutes.
And I went, you keep going, boys.
I'll be over here.
And I carried water to allthese the rest of the time because
(05:54):
I was like, Nope.
It was 115 degrees outside.
You're bent over.
He threw his back out.
Dude, I.
I just threw my back out again recently.
Doing what?
God knows what.
It took me like a couple weeksto get back.
I still.
My sciatic nerves botheringme, but, man, I was like, bro, I
know how that feels.
You'd be stiff as a board for days.
(06:17):
And then you think about.
You, like, didn't do that much.
You've just been overworking.
But they said in the movie ifyou're not used to that kills you,
that position.
Oh, nope, no.
Like I said, I picked lettucefor about 20 minutes.
And I went, I can't now.
I was.
I'd already had one backsurgery by the time I was doing this,
(06:39):
so being hunched over likethat couldn't help it was undoable
for me.
It was misery, but.
And then the heat on top ofit, it was terrible.
And I'm in a white.
It was just not good.
So I quit and then carriedwater to all everybody else.
You didn't change your meatyguys didn't have, like, service clothes
(07:00):
on.
It was a last minute, like, thing.
We were.
Yeah, it wasn't a planned thing.
And so, yeah, that.
That white shirt and tie wentin the garbage as soon as I got home
because by the time we weredone, it was no longer white, nor
would it stay white.
But.
Yeah, so I have massiverespect for people that run and live
(07:23):
in these heated, Just miserydesert climates.
And then on top of that, thatkind of hard manual labor.
Massive respect.
My privilege makes it so thatI don't have to do that and I never
will.
So thank you for my privilege.
Alec, how did.
How did you feel watching thismovie, knowing you live in heat just
(07:45):
like this on the daily.
I mean, just fine.
I grew up.
I grew up running crosscountry and track, and I totally
forgot about that.
I could taste the dust whilethey were racing.
It was great.
But yeah, so I had a couplebeefs with this movie, but it was
(08:05):
more from a.
Like, why did they choose thepeople they chose?
Because Tommy, right, the.
The guy that was like the bestrunner was terrible at running.
He ran like.
I was just watching him going,oh, dear.
Because you had the other guyswho were like, on the team right
the middle of the road, guyswho were in the PE class.
(08:28):
Who first get Jim White's mind going.
All of them were like,runners, right?
They look like runners.
They run like runners, andthey act like runners.
And you got Tommy over here,who's just like, the fastest one,
but dude is running on all muscle.
When he did, like, they should be.
Alive by anybody who knowswhat a stride is.
(08:50):
The race that he lost.
When the first one, when theydidn't know about the uphill, and
he, like, dead sprinted in themiddle of his.
Like.
I was like, you're not gonna.
You put on that type of gasthat early, you're gonna die.
Like, you're.
And he obviously, he did as,like, what he's running for.
Made me think of, like, TomCruise with how he sprints him.
Like, they just.
(09:10):
They.
They made him.
When they wanted him to gofast, he, like, sprinted.
I was like, that's just nothow it, like, actually would look
in, like, a real distance race.
But, you know, what can we do?
It's the curse of doingathletic movies with actors.
Like, it happens so oftenbecause I was like, oh.
And then at the end, right,where he's running for state, and
(09:33):
the dude keeps looking behindhim like, you're an idiot.
Oh, yeah, I saw that.
I was like, you.
No one ever does that.
No one in the right mind woulddo that, right?
So when I ran, I wasn't.
I wasn't fast, right?
Like, I'm not running these times.
They're putting up.
I put up decent times, but mykind of shtick was.
(09:56):
I.
I was more like Danny Diaz, right?
But if I see your ass beforethe finish line, I'm passing you,
and so this guy's turningbehind, looking behind, like, dude,
I would have passed this guy.
Because as soon as they startlooking behind, they slow down and
you're.
You're just kicking in stride.
And then as you get closer andcloser, you kept looking back.
(10:17):
And it's that added dramaeffect, right?
But as soon as you look back,you're gonna trip, you're slowing,
you're done for.
Especially at State.
Well, I was going to ask,like, why is that a big.
Because, like, for me, wesprinted, which means I'm not looking
back.
Or I was playing a sport likebaseball, which the only thing you
can do is look at a ball,which I'm not going to do that, because
(10:39):
then you run crooked.
But like, in football, I always.
Like, if you break one infootball, you're always looking because
if they come up behind you,they'll punch the ball out, something
like that.
Because you're worried you'regoing to get hit in cross country
the worst.
You get a spike or like anelbow, but if you're in the front,
they can't do anything.
So, like, what's the point?
You can hear them.
(11:00):
Like, I did run from thefront, like, so I know what that
just like, what am I doing?
Looking back, I put on thejets, dude, have the confidence you
got somebody.
You're gonna have someoneyelling at you going 20 meters, 15
meters, 10 meters if he'scatching you.
Yeah, the coach is going to bescreaming that out.
Like, he's not just going tobe necessarily waiting at the finish
(11:20):
line or there's somebody therewho's going to let you know, hey,
he's catching you.
It's time to go.
And you're also, if you'retrying to run that fast, like football.
I know you do like the quickglance back with cross country when
it's not a flat footing for one.
Just asking yourself to fall.
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the other partthat I always laugh at because we
(11:42):
go out and do our track stuffand then the, the cross countryers
would go out and start runningall over the campus and we're like,
the, Are you doing like, Like,I don't want to run around.
Like, give me my nice flatfootball field in my track and I'm
good.
I don't need to worry abouttripping and falling on my face.
I did, I did laugh and they,they couldn't, they didn't have a
hill where they lived, whichis fine.
(12:03):
But like their version of thehill workouts wouldn't have nothing.
Yeah, I would have doneabsolutely nothing.
That workout would have beentrash because just would have like
kill Workouts suck.
And they are very effective.
That was not doing anything.
But it looked cool.
But we should say, was it.
(12:23):
I mean, granted, I'd love toactually ask the coach, is that what
they did?
Because it looked great forthe movie.
I just highly doubt that'swhat they actually did for hill training.
I'm sure there was somethingthat was hilly enough that they found
that worked for their, their purposes.
I just don't think that's whatthey actually did.
It looked cool for T or forthe movie though.
I was like, oh, that's, that's creative.
(12:44):
Yeah.
And those hills are bigger.
I've seen those.
I've been around.
I've never ran one because whythe would I do that?
But those hills are muchbigger, those stacks than they look
on the movie.
Like, and I, I've seen bigger ones.
They Just.
Yeah, that's, that's a fairbut like.
Sure.
Like you could kind of get a mini.
Like the thing with distancerunning though, you need a hill that's
(13:05):
like.
Sure, that's long.
200 to 300 meters where you'reprogressively going up that.
But I get to your point.
I don't know.
It looked cool though.
But those ones were reallysmall though because I have seen
much bigger ones.
Yeah, those were.
I was like, those were builtfor the movie.
Like those aren't real.
I did like how they showed howmuch he'll work out.
Suck because when I, where Igrew up, we had a, a terrible spot.
(13:30):
It was a two minute hill andit wasn't steep necessarily.
It was.
It was just a long and soyou'd get going and about halfway
through that's where we didlike hill repeats.
And so you're not just runningthe shit once you're running it five.
(13:51):
Yeah.
You do it and you don't getany break.
Your break was running downthe hill.
Why?
Because it's fun, jj.
Yeah.
It just gave you a lot ofanaerobic strength and that was something
I was good at cuz my longerlegs like it was easier for me.
People that had a little bitof a shorter stride, maybe like an
Alec or someone close, like itwould be.
(14:14):
It was hard.
Uh.
But the things I hated the,the workout I hated the most was
mild repeats.
You'd run.
We first do like in the off season.
We do like a 5:30 pace, 5:20pace, 5:10 pace, 5 minute pace.
And then you do like a 4:50 or4:45 or something and dude.
And you get like 4 minutesrest, 3 minutes rest.
(14:37):
And you have to do that successively.
Those are the times that Iwanted to die and was like, I hate
cross country.
I should just do track becauseI'm a middle distance runner.
I run 800 meters and I'm goodat it.
Why do I have to die?
Those were, those were thedays, dude.
Like just, just kill me.
I can vividly go back to those.
I hate it.
And I'm in the Virginia heat.
(14:58):
The humidity is just suckingthe moisture out of you and then
plastering it on your face.
Brutal.
Brutal.
You're not convincing JJ thathe was anywhere near wrong.
No.
Running is every other sports punishment.
The only people that practiceharder than we did look like get
(15:18):
football practice can be hard.
There's a.
There's something aboutrunning like that and doing that
successfully.
It's mentally draining.
I would have rather done football.
The only practice I would nothave done wrestling practice.
They did do some running andthen they.
I mean my buddy Martin waslike brutal stuff that they.
Yeah, it was physically abused.
And yeah, they.
(15:39):
That that type of practice andthey did some running.
I was like, all right, that's crazy.
Like I saw what our footballteam did.
It sucked.
But I would have at least I wasn't.
Didn't have to go for a 14mile run and have to run like 6 minute
pace.
Like.
No, I don't want to do that.
I'd rather hit somebody.
There is nobody on a footballteam that runs a six minute pace
(16:01):
for more than 100 yards.
It's just.
Yeah, and you're not wrong.
Like it's a good, good pointthat you made.
Like most other sports,running is a punishment.
You up, go run a mile.
That's cross countries.
You up, do 10 push ups.
Yeah.
(16:22):
Yeah.
And what.
That was the only difference.
Like football, like two dayswere miserable in the summer.
But that's because you'rewearing so much gear.
Yeah.
Like by the time I'm done,like you could fill a swimming pool
with the dripping off my assbecause it's so much.
But I still would have ratherdone that.
Well, yeah, I'll do that ahundred times than run with you.
(16:42):
The.
You're talking about runningevery single day.
Hell no.
So the longest I walk thatfar, the longest I've ever run is
we were supposed to do like a14 mile run and we did this in a
neighborhood called Balmoralback and like did some trail runs.
We had two freshmen.
Long story short, they endedup getting lost.
So I had to run four more miles.
(17:04):
What?
I knew this because we had oneof those cool watches.
So you knew exactly what youended up doing.
We ran 18 and a half milesthat day.
18 and a half.
Cause we had to find them,then get back.
This is the most mad I've ever been.
So I've never.
I don't have any desire to runa marathon ever.
I've run.
I mean, shoot, dude, I shouldhave just kept running because I
would have like at that point.
We went to Chipotle.
(17:26):
That had recently opened up.
Like they'd opened up for thefirst time ever.
Like a few months prior to that.
Sweet.
Go a lot.
I inhaled a brew and I timedmyself a minute and 26 seconds gone.
Just boom.
And then I ate another one.
Sure.
I.
Yeah, I can't even.
The longest I've ever run purposefully.
(17:48):
It's got to be a mile because of.
They made you do it in high school.
Like no.
And it was like a 20 minute mile.
Dude.
I'm not talking like I would.
I paced myself.
So by saying I ran a mile,that's I loafed a mile.
So it's like I.
And.
And that was miserable.
(18:08):
Dude.
I would two laps in I'm like this.
Why do they make us do this?
This proves nothing.
I can out sprint every personin this classroom.
Buy a good brown.
Do you guys remember the pacertest in elementary school or middle
school?
You remember that with likethe noise where you'd have to run
and it got successively fasterand faster and faster.
Did you all do that?
They didn't make old people do that.
(18:28):
Oh, you never had to do that.
Yeah.
Where we grew up in Fairfaxcounty, they.
There'd be a beep and you hadto run get to the other side of your
gy.
The gym or they had it like acertain distance and it gets faster
and faster and faster andfaster and faster and faster.
I beat that every year.
Like I.
I never.
It never beat me.
But it's funny.
(18:49):
I thought every likeelementary school did.
That or I've repressed the memory.
You would know.
No.
Yeah.
I never have done that becauseI wanted Jay to.
Well now I wish I could takeJQ big.
Hell no.
I'll watch and cheer your ass on.
I.
Look man, the other thing thatlike so I played basketball too.
In.
In throughout school.
(19:09):
I wasn't good at bass.
Terrible basketball.
But again I did everything tokeep in shape for the sports that
I loved.
So I played sports and rantrack for that I to keep in shape
during the off seasons of the sports.
I wanted to play basketball.
Dude.
I don't.
There was a million times Ialmost quit basketball because of
ladders.
Running ladders or.
Or whatever you want to call suicides.
(19:32):
Suicide.
All that like we call themladders because yeah the nobody wanted
to call them suicides or whereI grew up.
So that pacer test.
Think of it like the suicidesyou did at towards the end and you
had to do it was like 30levels of that.
When you got close to the end,you were just suiciding that.
No way.
Like I Dude, I'd get throughthree suicides and then I'd beat
(19:54):
the out of whoever up and made us.
So we had to do suicide.
Jay's like the dude from themiracle or that mess up and he's
like I swear I'm gonna kill you.
I am.
That was me.
Like I.
Yeah.
Anyway.
Running is on anyway.
McFarland look.
(20:14):
And this is why it's funny,but this is why I like this movie
is because.
And it's almost true of mostactual sports movies.
Like, we've done a lot ofsports movies in this month, but
most of these sports moviesdon't actually have anything to do
with the sport.
And so it's like, more there'sa story revolving around the sport
that's going on.
Like Draft Day.
(20:35):
You don't actually watch anyfootball other than them watching
highlights for at certain moments.
And then, like, there's noreal baseball in either of the baseball
movies we watch.
Not really.
There's, like, snippets of it.
And then what was the otherone we did that was like.
I feel like I'm missing one name.
We had two.
(20:55):
Baseball.
Baseball, football, and.
Oh, dude, you missing Tin Cup.
Oh, golf.
That's right.
Yeah, we did watch a lot of golf.
Wrong with you, J.J.
and May.
I should be.
Yeah, I'm.
It's the kind of week I've had.
I can't even put the thoughts together.
But yeah, like, golf.
We watched a lot of golf.
But it's golf.
(21:17):
That's the question we had.
We had a long ass.
You remember that argumentMatsu, me and Javier.
For, like.
Javier's been saying thatsince he was 12 years old.
Oh, I know.
Tay went off on me about thatthe other day.
I told her.
I was like, we're not going tocall Jay today, but we need to call
him.
May do that tonight, actually.
(21:38):
That'd be funny.
Half a.
Half a day of work Javier andI spent hollering at each other between
the offices.
We got everybody involved.
Yeah.
Because then it went to dance.
And did he bring up defenseand physical?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
He had his.
He had his criteria.
(21:58):
Yeah.
It's Javier that, as we nowknow, it wouldn't matter.
He's held on to that for whatis at this point, 23 years, 22 years
he's been holding on to thesame argument.
That was the first time that.
I love it.
That that group of work peoplefinally got.
It was like they.
I got fired up for a while.
Like, he.
He had me worked up good.
(22:18):
Speaking of, Javier just ran,like, a half marathon or something.
Oh, no.
Part of, like, a.
A group I saw on Instagram.
He just ran.
I was like, wow, dude, neverthought I'd see you doing that.
So, Jay, there's hope.
No, there's not.
Even when I was in the bestshape of my life, which was really
good shape when I was a junior.
(22:40):
Sophomore, junior in highschool, running was never my Thing
like Jay's, a 10.
Yard dash when they do the 40for the combine, but the lineman,
they do the 10 yard.
Jay's right there.
That's me.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, I.
I was willing to sprint for100 yards as long as I had a football
and I was going to score a touchdown.
And then I was willing to jogaround the bases if I put it out
(23:01):
of the run around the basesreal fast.
Soccer, I ran a lot more that,but that was always fun.
But again, it goes back tolike, the sport.
I enjoyed the sport.
I like this movie because itgets to the heart of sport to me.
And I, you know, you have thisgroup of kids that are, you know,
not great situation.
A tough.
I don't want to say not greatbecause they, I'm not saying that
(23:23):
their lives are bad, but theyhad hard lives, right?
They manual labor.
They're having to help theirparents just to keep the, the living.
They're not living in atechnically safe area in certain
pieces of that.
And that's true for a lot of people.
And then this sport bringsthem together.
Not that they weren't friendsand, you know, they obviously ran
and knew each other, but like,it creates this family environment,
(23:46):
if you will, where you'resuper connected and you're helping
each other and then somethingbecomes a driver outside of like,
survival, right?
Like, it.
There's something.
And so I just love sport.
And then so when you watchthis movie and watch them coming
together and then the excitingpart, like in the end of this movie
is one of my favorite.
Like when he's sitting thereand everybody's like, oh, shit.
(24:08):
Because the kid burns himself out.
And so you're like, oh.
And when he's just like, I get off.
Like, I want to jump out of mycouch every time I watch this movie.
When Kevin Costner's like,that's not Danny Diaz.
That's not Danny Diaz.
I'm like, Because I'm cheeringfor every bigger guy on the planet.
Like, rotten daddy, you're the man.
Because.
And so I just.
(24:29):
It's like any sports moviewhere it just gets me amped and I
don't.
I'm sure it gets a lot ofpeople that are into sports, but
for me it's like.
And this movie's that, like,it's an interesting story about a
family of privilege comingsomewhere where there's not privilege,
right?
Like, it is hard and you workfor everything and having to make
(24:50):
that adjustment and then seethem make that choice and then have
it be a real Life situation.
I love that kind of thingbecause that's the kind of thing.
And I know there's a lot ofthings that do things like this for
people, but I can relate to itbeing a sport so much because I've
been connected with some of myfriends still today that I talk to.
(25:10):
We have such separate anddiffering lives, but we can always
connect.
And we're best friends andstill friends and keep in touch 30
years later because of a sportthat we played together.
And I love that this moviemakes me feel good, and I like movies
that make me feel good.
(25:30):
You know what I liked aboutthis movie?
I looked it up after about howtrue this movie was, because remember,
the Titans love that movie.
But yeah, very not true, like,really at all.
When they talk about takingprofessional liberties, it's like
based on a true story, 90,like 2%.
But this movie, the onlythings that didn't really happen
(25:53):
is Jim White was already there.
He'd been there for multipleyears, and then he just decided to
start the team.
The Diaz brothers weren't onthe team at the same time.
And if you look at the endwhen they show, when they actually
won, you're like, wait,there's Diaz people.
They're later on.
That's why I don't really carethat they did all that.
(26:13):
The quinceanera thing never happened.
But I get why they put it inbecause they want to have character
progression tied to the community.
But really, other than that,it all did happen.
And like, the communitybuilding, the team, success and all
that.
Jim White still, as they say,still lives there.
And then they show.
(26:33):
I love at the end when they actually.
When movies like that show thereal people and they're clearly still
out there.
And pretty much everybody came back.
Some of them got really greatdegrees and came back and like, bettered
their community.
And I.
That that's the thing I thinkI really appreciated about this movie
is it's so easy.
Just the United States alone,you are in a more poor place.
(26:57):
I mean, you even look at,like, J.J.
for instance.
Like, you didn't live in someof the spots you're in.
Like Kentucky, for instance,maybe Ohio, to a lesser extent.
Like, you didn't live in somegreat spots.
And like, I don't think you'dreally want to go back and where
they lived, like, they couldhave never gone back, but they did.
And they're bettering their community.
And I think that's one of myfavorite things to be commended,
(27:18):
is that they're.
They're still serving andGiving back.
That was really heartwarmingto see.
And I really like this moviemore because it is pretty true to
the events that actually happened.
And I know that's sometimeshard to make a movie that's entertaining
enough without takingliberties, but, man, if it's.
(27:38):
If you can keep it close,like, I just think it makes it that
much better because then I canactually feel good about.
Like, this is real where.
Like, I still feel betrayedabout Remember the Titans.
Like, I still love the movie,but it does hurt a little bit because
it's not.
When you do actually know that it.
It changed it for me a little bit.
I'm like, man, like, I don'thave to feel the way about this movie.
(28:00):
And I like that.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
What about you, Alec?
What do you like beside.
We talked a lot about the sport.
Like, I.
I want to hear what you likedabout the movie, and I know you got
some gripes, and I want tohear those.
Yeah, the grapes were morejust because it was, like, right
there in your face.
Sure.
But the stuff that I liked,kind of like what you guys were talking
(28:23):
about is a little bit thecommunity, but also the way that
Jim White goes about earningthe trust of his team.
And so, you know, he startsout just kind of telling him to run,
and then it goes into.
He's running, can't keep up,so he gets a bike.
And.
But being out there and beingon the course, because that same
(28:44):
thing, like, our coaches ranwith us.
I had a coach who was, like,80 years old.
Coach Dockery loved him death,but he would be out there.
He wouldn't run as fast or asfar or anything like that, but he'd
still be out there cooking.
So having that kind of coachwho's like, okay, I need you on my
team.
We're gonna do this togethertype of a thing.
(29:05):
We're gonna go figure it outessentially at the same time.
That was cool.
Yeah.
Because it kind of showed the.
The way he went out of his wayto be like, hey, you know, I need
this, but you guys also need this.
And so, you know, that's whatwe're gonna go out.
That's what we're gonna go and do.
So I like that.
(29:27):
Yeah.
My coach, when I first startedwas faster than all of us.
He ran a 218 marathon and wasvery good like that.
I don't know if that puts incontext for you, J.
That's extremely fast.
Yeah, it's like 26 miles orsome shit in two hours and 18.
That's.
I don't even think I coulddrive that that fast.
(29:48):
Coach.
Coach posts.
He didn't, he didn't make the.
The US team, but man, he was close.
We'll put it that way.
Crazy.
One, one of the things that wewere just talking the opposite.
That came true to me.
One thing I like nitpicky thatI just is not true in the running
community that they shouldhave just not put in this movie because
it didn't really add anythingis the, the little bits of like trash
(30:12):
talking or like getting ateach other from the other school.
That does not happen in therunning community.
Like maybe in your running community.
Oh, it does.
I was like, like, I'm sorry.
This is just not what any.
And I raced against some goodpeople and none of us did that.
(30:33):
We just was like, I'll justbeat you.
And there was no, like trashtalking in track.
Sprinters, maybe a little bit.
Yeah, sure, when I was on the relays.
But cross country, no.
So maybe tell us more, Alec.
As I say, there's a difference between.
Did you run in Arizona or California?
(30:55):
California.
This is.
There's a difference betweenCalifornia and the great state of
Utah.
Virginia.
Oh, Virginia.
That's fair.
You grew up in Virginia.
There's even bigger difference between.
Yeah, that's fair.
Yeah.
No, I was an.
And here's the thing.
So I.
I possess a strange talent.
(31:17):
I'm sure it's not gonnaactually come as strange to you guys
is I run the same pace whetherI'm talking or not.
And so I didn't shut up forfive kilometers.
I was that I'd be.
I stick find someone, right?
And I just chit chat their ear off.
(31:38):
And it drove them nuts becauseeverybody is really.
It's a big mental game, right?
So you're looking, you're moving.
It's all.
How fast were you running forlike a 5k if you were having conversations
with your competitors.
16, 16, 20.
Geez, dude.
It's good.
Yeah.
So I, I'm talking.
(31:58):
Could not do that.
I never shut up.
Practices included 10, 11, 12 miles.
And I talked for every singleone of them.
I'd have run your ass off thetrack, dude.
It drove me crazy.
I talked during long runs.
Yeah, no, it gets people outof their, out of their groove and
out of their headspace.
You.
You were that teammate.
(32:19):
The reason I.
You guys don't know this aboutme, but I hate time.
I don't wear watches.
Like, I don't.
I block it out of my monitor.
I have a little sticky overhere on my mission.
I covered it up with a pictureof Jesus in our car and called it
Jesus time.
Um, it's all because of running.
Because some idiot like Alecwould be like, how far.
How long in are we?
And you already know when youdo, you're like, I've got to run
(32:42):
12 miles or we're doing 10 orwhatever it is.
Or we're on this particular split.
You already know how.
Like, you're.
You're barely in it.
But someone's like, oh, we're10 minutes in.
We've.
We've got 40 minutes left here.
And they keep like, dude, justshut up.
I don't care.
Like, I.
I have to.
I have to run it.
Like, I already.
(33:02):
I.
And you run the same areas.
Like, you had, like, sevendifferent places you normally run.
You already knew, I'm this far.
I have this to go.
I don't care what times.
I just know I need to get back.
And then you got someone likeAlec that's just like a big dick
about never.
Oh, my God.
(33:23):
Yeah.
I'd have shown you my footballskills halfway through the run.
Tackle right here.
But it's little snipe things, Right?
So what this movie kind ofdoesn't necessarily show and for
good reason is that crosscountry races are really exciting
for the first 20 seconds andfor the last 20 seconds.
Yeah.
And boring, as in the middle.
(33:45):
And so, you know, you're offon this wild course.
You know, you might get anoccasion where you're looping around
close to where everybody'shanging out, so you get some cheering,
but not all the time.
And so I, you know, I'd findsomeone who's.
I'm passing up.
They're struggling.
They ran too fast.
Begin or whatever.
And I just pull up and belike, oh, man, you're slowing down.
Come on, dude.
Come on, come on, come on.
(34:06):
So it's the SNY trash talk.
Don't quit now.
What are you doing?
Like, let's go kind of put itout there.
Alex.
The only.
And I ran with a lot of people.
I don't know anyone that didthat in a race.
Except.
Did you do that on the track?
Not the track, on the course.
I didn't know.
I mean, I wasn't running long enough.
(34:27):
That's what I'm saying.
You did it like.
Oh, yeah.
While we're racing?
Yeah, like on a track meet.
Like on.
On like the mile or like the 800.
I don't know if you could do.
It in the 800 or the mile.
Couldn't do that.
Not enough Time.
And I got bored.
So I got bored and tracked.
Because you're running, youknow, the four laps or the eight
laps or the, you know.
So I had to stick with the 800miles section.
(34:47):
Yeah.
Two miles, stupid.
So I stuck with 800 miles.
Not enough time to, you know, mess.
With people on more than aquarter of the track at a time.
I don't understand thatquarter of the track.
It was perfect.
But, yeah, you hit like amile, one and a half, two on the
cross country course, andthat's where you start really Kind
(35:08):
of like passing people.
You see people went out tooquick and, you know, or they pulled
something or whatever it is,they're still going.
And, oh, yeah, you could be ahuge dick out there.
And I totally was.
That's funny.
I like it because I was a runner.
It's what I do.
I'd find that nice stick rightwhere you.
You're kind of almost like,oh, come on, buddy, you can keep
(35:30):
it up.
Yeah, well, yeah.
You know, you don't want topiss them off in a way, because a
lot of times people are like.
They react.
You're like, you run faster, fat.
And they will.
You know what I mean?
Because they get offended andthey want to do it.
But then, like, if you'relike, dude, come on, you got this.
Shut the up.
Like, no, I don't.
I hate you.
(35:52):
Yeah, that's interesting.
I.
I know nothing about crosscountry that isn't in this movie
or watching these guys runwhen I'm driving by going, oof.
Why would you do that to yourself?
Hilarious.
Yeah.
But we say all this to say, ifyou haven't seen this movie, you
(36:12):
don't have to like, running.
Like, JJ doesn't really careabout it, but the story is compelling
enough.
Character progression is strong.
You're endeared to what'shappening on screen.
Kevin Costner is great in this movie.
I think he plays his roleexceptionally, and I think the supporting
cast with his family and therunners really makes you feel something.
(36:33):
And I think that's what, like,I talked about earlier.
What I like about this moviethe most is, like Jay said, when
Danny Diaz does his thing atthe end, like, you feel that you're
like, he's out there savingthe team.
Like, he did it.
He stepped up, and you feel that.
And that's what this moviedoes really well is it makes you
feel something, makes you wantto believe in something, makes you
feel like you're a part of something.
(36:54):
And at the end of the day, Ithink that that's what this movie
is shooting for and should becommended for it.
Yeah, it's definitely another case.
And I will say Kevin Costneris really good in this one, but it
is another case where thepeople around him are even better.
Like, I love the team.
I love his family.
Like, I love the team's families.
(37:15):
Like, when they go into the.
The Diaz mom and, like, she'sgot all the clothes and.
And it's misspelled.
Yeah.
Like, I love all that.
Like, and it's just so heartwarming.
And you're just like, you wantthem to win, to have that success
because they do a great job inthe writing and the storytelling
of, like, endearing thesecharacters to you.
(37:38):
Like, you want them to besuccessful and have that.
And I think to Matt's point,like, that's why I get so, like,
rah rah at the end whenthey're actually talking about the
real people and they show themrunning and talking about what they
did in life and the fact thatthey graduated here and they came
back and they're doing thisand that.
I'm like.
Because it's.
It's weird because it's not tosay that they wouldn't have achieved
(37:59):
anything without running crosscountry, but you have to ask the
question, right?
Like, would this group ofindividuals had been.
Would they have been assuccessful or make as big an impact
as they seem to have had ifthis situation and they hadn't had
Coach White turn up and decide to.
I.
Absolutely.
(38:20):
I mean, we can't saydefinitively, but they talked about
it with the dad with, like, book.
What did they say?
It was something like, booksdon't, like, pick.
What did.
I don't remember that phrase,but it was basically something like,
book.
Like, reading never helped me,like, pick.
Like, be a picker or somethinglike that.
Or like, obviously you couldnever know.
(38:41):
Like you're saying Jay.
But I think like anything whenyou have hope, it raises the possibilities
of what you believe that youcan do.
And they realized, hey, thisis something I never thought.
And it raised the hopes of the communities.
And all of a sudden, peoplethat thought they were destined to
just be pickers and even theirparents thought that and were breeding
them the premiums out the right.
(39:02):
Raising them to.
To be the very same thing.
They suddenly realize we'recapable of more and my son can go
to school but also still helpthe family.
Like, yeah, I'd like to thinkit changed that trajectory.
Obviously, we'd never know,but I think it had a massive hand
in it.
Yeah.
And it doesn't work with everyone.
(39:22):
I think there's the one kidthat they talk about that ended up
in trouble.
Yeah.
Like, he.
Yeah, he didn't get out.
But so not every.
It's not always successful.
But I really think if you canfind not just sport, like a group
that's gonna put you in theright direction and help you feel
like you're maximizing yourtalents and your skills and you have
(39:43):
a passion for it, like, itjust helps keep you grounded and
in the right place.
But I think Alec would havebeen one of those people where they
would have flash, like, reallysuccessful runner, got stuck in his
room for the next 10 years andtalked to three human beings.
I think that was generous.
Now he's in charge of kids playhouses.
(40:07):
Oh, God, I love it.
Tell me, though, Matson, thatyou did not just completely understand
the.
The dinner scene when she justkeeps bringing him.
Oh, dude.
Yeah.
When you're.
You're on the eating it.
You're on the mission, I think.
Did I tell you guys this story?
When we went probably, andlike, literally we were knocking
(40:30):
doors.
We didn't do that much inVegas, but we ended up knocking on
a poly famous door thathappened to be a member.
But they were in thePolynesian war, and they had a lot
of that in Vegas.
And it was like 30 minutesbefore we were supposed to go to
our scheduled dinner.
And Polynesians, as you know,just call what it is.
They.
They love to eat, and they can eat.
And we told them, we told the.
(40:51):
The mom, hey, we got dinner alittle bit.
But you know what people do.
You've been on the mission, Jay.
You know, especially in thePolynesian culture, you want to show
hospitality, you feed people.
Yeah.
She started off with the drink.
She's like, just, elders,elders, just drink this.
Drink this.
All right, fine.
It was kool Aid.
We drank it.
Then she got out a cookie, andthen she was like, just eat this
cookie and then start a poll.
(41:12):
And after that, I was like,I've been right.
I was like, how do I havekalulu pig, like, pork in front of
me rice.
And I've got, like, Mac saladcoming in.
Like, what is happening right now?
And you have to eat it becauseshe's just like, she's basically
your auntie next door.
So by the time we walked out,like, I tell you, we were.
I was full to the back.
Like, just.
I was doing the poly shufflebecause I was like, we have to go
(41:35):
to this family.
And this family.
We were eating.
It wasn't one of the ones that.
Because you get some coolfamilies that feed you a ton, you're
like, they're your OGs.
This is a family that.
It was like, a really specialthing because they didn't have you
a lot.
You knew.
The mom had already told you.
I can't remember what we wereeating, but I remember she texted
us and, like, you're like, all right.
So I told.
I was.
It's my favorite companion atthe time.
(41:57):
I was like, lydecker, dude, webetter eat shiz out of whatever she
makes us.
Because we know she worked hard.
I threw up after that onebecause I was like, I just didn't
have enough room.
And so I felt that.
Yeah, that scene.
I was like, oh, yeah.
Dude's just like three sheetsto the wind.
Just like, he's not drunk,but, man, he's food coma out of his
(42:17):
mind.
I laugh every time I watchthis movie at that scene.
Because I.
In yuma, which is 75 Hispanic,and we.
I was a zone leader there.
So I went out with theSpanish, and I'm.
I don't speak Spanish.
I was not a Spanish guy, but Iwent out with Spanish guys, spoke
(42:39):
rice and beans, and I didn'tspeak a lick.
And these don't tell you therules of engagement when you go eat
in a Hispanic family's houselike that.
And they don't speak English.
So I'm sitting there, justthis freaking white dude, chilling.
Not.
I have no clue what's goingon, but just.
It was.
It literally played out justlike you see in this movie where
(43:03):
I would eat.
And if you put food in frontof me, I'm going to eat it, because
I'm not.
One, I'm fat, and two, I'm notgonna be rude.
And it was really good food.
So I'm stuffing my face, andthey just keep going.
And finally, freaking elderlytower looks over at me, and he goes,
dude, you just have to stop eating.
He goes, if you.
(43:23):
If every time you clean yourplate, they think you want more.
And I was like, you could havetold me there's six plates ago.
Like, I was so hurting.
Luckily, they.
They went on doing theirthing, and I just sat on the couch
and completely zoned outbecause I was sitting there going,
just don't puke in the house.
Just don't be.
I was so full.
It was hurtful.
It was so good, though.
(43:45):
So good.
Yeah.
Enchiladas and sopapillas.
Like, it was just.
Dude, that was.
And it was, like, on theborder of San Luis, Mexico.
So, like, this was real.
Like, this wasn't.
You were eating some grinds.
Oh, dude, it was so good.
Like, yeah.
Everybody tells you if you gosomewhere with Hispanic culture and,
(44:07):
like, they're like, oh, you'regonna end up.
Watch out.
They're gonna try to feed youchitlins and freaking chicken feet.
I'll eat all that.
Because the way they make it,it's delicious.
Don't get me wrong.
Lard is your friend, dude.
And don't get me wrong, like,things like menudo smelled like,
oh, boy, did it taste good.
(44:28):
You get a nice piece of breadand soak that up.
Yes, please.
The last thing I'll say onthis movie, that resonated whenever.
And Jay's.
Jimmy J.
Knows me well enough, and he'sbeen privy to some conversations
with my wife sitting rightnext to me.
Sometimes we call it Latinaspice because Tay is, like, half
(44:51):
Hispanic, and when it hits, it hits.
And those scenes where the momjust, like, takes over and is, like,
just bullish and making thingshappen, because that's a real thing
in the Hispanic community.
It just makes me gigglebecause I'm like, she's not to that
extent, but it comes outsometimes, and you're just like,
so, okay.
Yep.
Just.
(45:11):
Here.
What do you need?
Oh, yeah, Jay's partner's notHispanic, but she might be, you know?
No, but I certainly watchedquite a few Abuelas when I was in
Arizona.
Yeah.
And.
And they don't give a Ifyou're a member of the family or
not.
If you are in the vicinity,you are part of the crew.
(45:33):
You better accept it.
You do the.
You fight it.
They will win.
Yeah.
And I.
Half the time, I didn't knowwhat they were saying, but I would
just be like, point me in theright direction, because I don't
want to be on the other.
The wrong end of that flamebecause, boy, yeah, I remember.
Yeah, I love that.
All right, should we rate thismovie even though we've barely talked
about the movie at all?
(45:54):
Let's do it.
All right.
My movie.
I'm gonna give this movie afour and a half.
I did really enjoy it.
I could watch this movie anytime.
Casey loves it.
In fact, it's one that, like,we bought the digital version because
we would watch it enough that,you know, we'll pick up and watch
it just because it's feelgood, it's entertaining, it feels
good, It's.
I like movies like this thathave some semblance in reality.
(46:18):
And I'm with you, Matson.
I like that this one's morereal than not.
There's less creative licensetaken with this movie, at least the
overall plot than.
Than a lot of other ones thatare based on a true story.
And I like that because at theend of it, I like to see people succeed
and I like to see people growand get better and.
(46:39):
And I love sports.
And whether I want to run ornot, I enjoy it.
And the acting is really good.
The story's great.
You really start to feel forthese characters and not just these
kids or the coach, but thefamilies around them and the community
that they live in and.
And it's just.
It's really interesting.
Like I never even heard ofMcFarland until I watched this movie.
(47:01):
And now I'm like, wow,interesting place, I guess.
But like, what a cool settingfor something like this to happen,
right?
Like this small town that's ina state that's known for its big
cities and, you know, sportsteams and everything else.
And here you have this smallcommunity with this small high school
(47:22):
track or long distance runningteam and.
And they find success andchange their lives and it's just
cool.
I like it.
Feels good.
Very good movie.
It's a good way to end the month.
Four and a half for me.
I'd watch it anytime.
Alec, what about you?
I'm also gonna give it a fourand a half.
(47:43):
It's.
It's a really good movie and Igot some gripes with it, but it's
mostly the Hollywood gripes ofstuff that you put in that just doesn't
make sense.
Having grown up and ran.
I knew about McFarland.
Never raced against McFarland because.
Oh yeah, you were down therefar away.
(48:03):
But only time I would haveseen the Farland would be at state.
And I never went to state, but I.
Everybody who does crosscountry in Southern California knows
the legend of McFarlane.
And when I went to highschool, it was, you know, past their
real dominant stretch.
Yeah.
But I knew about them and soit was kind of cool to see the story
(48:25):
that kind of started it all.
Nice.
I'll say so.
Yeah.
Four and a half.
I will watch it again.
I might watch just the last 30minutes again because it happens.
But it's a good movie.
I liked it.
Had you seen this before?
Nope.
Nice.
It's interesting.
I had no idea.
I didn't even think about thefact that you were down there in
(48:47):
Southern California andprobably would have heard about it.
Nice.
All right, Matson, bring us home.
I'd never seen this movie allthe way through another one of Those
that I'd seen a good chunk ofit and it was pretty easy to guess
how it ended.
But why are you guys giving ita 5 is my question.
(49:10):
What's the 0.5 deduction?
Alec, I understand yours, thenitpickiness of the running, but
what about you, jj?
I think for me, they, like,they did spend a little too much
time, in my opinion, on likethe family dynamic of his family,
(49:30):
like the coach's family.
Like, some of that felt forcedto me, like with the daughter.
And I think part of it is Idon't like the actress that plays
his daughter.
So it's a me thing.
Like, I don't like her very much.
She's been in a couple of TVshows that I really enjoyed and nothing
that I've seen her that I'mlike, yeah, she's great.
And so she drives me crazy.
(49:51):
And then the fact that like the.
The fights between him and hiswife a little bit and then like that
stuff.
Whoa.
I don't know what the hellhappened there.
But that was fun.
I like you.
I don't know, but that was cool.
Shifting in the middle of it.
But yeah, like, I.
It's one of those things where.
That's my gripe.
Alec learned a new trick.
(50:13):
Oh, this is gonna be fun.
If you want to see it, gowatch the video on YouTube if you're
just listening.
But yeah, so that's my gripe,I think, is the family dynamic.
Little too much of that for me.
Yeah.
I'm sitting here trying tofigure out why I wouldn't give it
a 5.
As far as sports movies thatmake me feel good, I still don't
think it.
It hit five for me, but Idefinitely think it's a solid four
(50:35):
and a half.
And will I watch it again?
I really like the movie, butthere's certainly other feel good
sports movies that I enjoyeven more than this one.
It's not that, like, it'sfunny that I'm question if I had
watched anything because thisis the sports movie that was made
for me.
Like, this is my life for awhile, but I also don't really care
(51:01):
about running anymore.
But I do and I don't because Iwatch in the Olympics and some other
things.
So I don't know, like, it's just.
It's one of those things I'mlike, should be the movie I watch
all the time.
I'm sure I will at some pointbecause, man, it made you feel good.
But it's not the best sportsmovie or movie that has sports in
it.
Like, I was far more emotionaland like Rudy.
(51:21):
But Rudy has its pitfalls.
Like, remember the Titans.
Like, maybe this movie justneeded better music.
And it would have been a five.
Maybe that's what it was.
Could be.
Because remember the Titanswithout their soundtrack wouldn't
be a five.
They freaking smash that outof the park.
Because the movie's still good.
But I don't know, like, reallygreat movie.
If you haven't seen it, gowatch it.
(51:42):
I really think you'll feel good.
And that's what's awesomeabout this movie.
You don't have to care about running.
You could care less about allthose things.
I promise you, you'll be intrigued.
And like JJ said, you'll becheering for Danny Diaz.
That's not Danny Diaz.
So good.
I love that line.
I think you hit it on the head.
Like, I don't.
I think it's just one of thosemovies that, like, I like it, it's
(52:05):
really good, and I feel goodafter it, but I don't go, oh, McFarland,
you know what I mean?
Like, there's movies.
And when I think of fives,like, that's the.
That I'm like, I'll eitherfight you two over it like a freaking
other movies that I've givenit five.
And you're like, what the areyou doing?
Like, back the off.
But.
Or.
But this isn't one of them.
Like, I.
I have, like, I think about itand I go.
(52:26):
I don't just get like, oh,amped to watch McFarland.
Yeah, like.
Like a movie like that for me,that you guys wouldn't care about
so much.
Just like Friday Night Lights,the movie.
Like, that movie.
It's funny because I wish Iwould have played football.
Maybe it's because I shouldhave done what I.
Because I was a good runner.
I just lean on that.
But that movie makes me, like,I really go through the emotion of
the feels.
And I know it's not everyone'sfavorite, but I'll fight you on that,
(52:48):
because that movie, like, itstruck a chord.
Where this movie, it's funny,it should strike more of a chord.
But this movie is more aboutthe community aspects, more so than,
like, the core essence of thesport and the struggle and persevering
through the lens of the sport.
It's more through the lens ofthe community, which I think is what
makes it a great movie.
But I think that's when Ithink of this movie in terms of,
(53:09):
like, what it means from asport and the feels that I get it's.
The feels of like, what Danny D.
Has meant to like thecommunity and not so much like the
team in the essence of thatcross country team.
Whereas, like, remember the Titans?
Or the feels I get for FridayNight Lights when they lose, like,
man, I just, like, I get sickto my stomach a little bit and I
(53:32):
don't know, something likethat for me where I just have more
of a reaction with that.
Where this movie, I think it'slow expectations of you're like,
this movie can't be any good.
Like, it's about running, like what?
And then it's like really good.
Yeah.
No, I agree.
There it is.
Pretty high scores.
I think it's the highestscoring across the board that we
did.
Oh, yeah.
100 close was feel the Dreams,but yeah, even that one I don't think
(53:57):
was straight four and a half.
So I think some of us on thatone because it's got issues, but
yeah, so good way to finish.
I like it.
Alec, tell everybody wherethey can find it.
Oh, God.
Here we go.
Great.
There.
Perfect.
Love it.
So thank you for tuning intoweek five of Kevin Costner Sports
(54:18):
Movies where we talked aboutthe three of us reliving our high
school glory days.
If you made this point ofvideo, drop us a comment.
Leave us a like, let us knowwhat you guys think of McFarland.
Best place to find us is onYouTube where you can see our smiling
faces or Matson when he'seating outside of that.
(54:39):
Patreon is a place to getinvolved with our content.
Special thanks to our patrons,Rich and cb for their selections
this month.
Nice, strong month for March.
I don't know how we're gonnatop it.
Knowing what's on the docketfor April.
My treat.
You're all welcome.
Thanks for that.
Yes.
With that, I will kick it backto our legendary leader, the King
(55:01):
of Crash, the Titan of Terror,A JJ, easy.
You have to ease his pain.
He keeps doing that in the microphone.
All right, well, there it is.
I got blurry.
That's how pissed he got me.
My way, blurry.
(55:22):
So with that, as always, weappreciate you tuning in.
We'll catch you on the next one.
Bye, Vista, baby.
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