Sounds pretty boring, right? However, in the seemingly mediocre plot, there are many bright spots that can moisten your eyes. ——As for children who
insist on
running, they all know that for long-distance running, the most important thing is not physical fitness, not talent, not environment, not equipment, but persistence. If you are in the process of running without even starting to run, you will scream in your heart, "Ah Nima has to go up the mountain for more than ten or twenty kilometers. Who can run? I can't finish it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Danny Diaz is the kind of cute fat guy who looks very inconspicuous, but is very big-minded and can give people a sense of security. When Johnny was dispatched by Jim to find seven people for him to form a cross country team, the other five people all sneered and dismissed. Only Danny raised a fat face and said happily, I want to participate (but Johnny's mood at this time It’s a breakdown... We’re a runner, not a boxer. From the first training, Danny has always been the last one in the team-whether it is running on the road, running almond shell piles, running mountain roads, running competitions, his slow and clumsy figure like Winnie the Pooh is always a camel. With his back, head down, panting, and frowning, he caught up with his teammates with great difficulty, and was ridiculed by his teammates because of his fatness and running slowly, and he was scolded by Jim that we need seven runners, not seven runners and Danny Diaz. Say you think I pick on you, Diaz? Run faster, then I pick on someone else. However, he is also the one who insists the most-even if he has no physical strength, even if he is dizzy, he still keeps his feet on the ground step by step to his teammates , Ran firmly to the finish line. In the final California state final of the movie, I watched him run hard across the flat road, then gritted his teeth and caught up with several players in front when he went uphill, when the coach was about to lose hope of winning. When I appeared close to the finish line, the audience cheered, and then used the strength of breastfeeding to cross the finish line-with the fifth place in the group-I couldn't even breathe. After returning to my senses, I found that my palms were all red in my unconsciousness.
Who looked down on him before? Who later regarded him as a hero?
And Jim, the former coach of the football team, was expelled from the school because he was too bad-tempered and didn't know how to control his emotions, and he clashed with the students. It can also be known from his conversation with his wife that it is not the first time that he was fired or had to resign because he lost control of his emotions. In short, before taking up a job at McFarlane High School, he never insisted on developing a truly outstanding team from beginning to end. Even before he took office at McFarlane High School, he didn't plan to stay for a long time, so when the grocery store owner persuaded him to raise a seedling in the yard, he laughed a little jokingly and refused--Huh? It takes five years to grow up? Who said I'm going to stay in this dirty, messy place for five years?
But in the end he stayed for many years. He saw in those children that they were born with talents that were not well explored. He also saw the potential behind these talents that could turn them from humble, impoverished and discriminated picking farmers into the first in the history of the family. Possibility of college students, real athletes with their heads high. How can he give up? How could he let the children who are still shining with frankness in these eyes and who have not given up hope deep in his heart be buried? He persevered as soon as he gritted his teeth. From the beginning when I was out of breath when I was running, I got myself a bicycle and yelled behind the team members; from the beginning, I only used a stopwatch to count the speed, and then I checked the information and watched the video to correct the running posture. ; From the beginning, the attempt was to cultivate a good team and obtain good competition results to obtain high-paying employment from a good school, to later give up a better job opportunity and choose to stay at McFarlane High School... On the way, even if accompanied He persevered despite the players' ridicule and disdain, and the family's incomprehension and disappointment.
He is just an ordinary person, but he has achieved the greatness in the eyes of McFarlane.
——About freedom
For the seven children in the team, running is their innate ability, or it is like breathing, as natural as eating. Apart from the daily work of picking crops and attending classes (or perhaps dealing with family disputes and sneers from classmates), the only thing they can get pastime and feel unconstrained is running. Run on the way to school, run on the way down to school, run before dawn, run when the sun goes down, run on the road, run on the bridge, run in the orange grove. The steps are easy, breathing is even, and the body is smooth. Looking at their running posture, you will feel, ah, youth is so good, and you will sigh, how much vitality and energy are contained in their bodies.
Thomas almost wanted to find a short sight because of a family dispute. The reason Jim convinced him to get off the pier is actually very simple: if you fall, you won't die, but it is very likely that you will never be able to run again. But I know that running is the best thing that has happened to you right now.
At the beginning, Jose was just a poor man who stole coins from the vending machine and dressed in tattered clothes. After becoming a member of the team, he wrote a poem that made the female teacher cry:
We fly like black birds through the orange groves,
floating on a warm wind.
When we run, we own the earth.
The land is ours, we speak the birds' language.
Not immigrants no more. Not stupid Mexicans.
When we run, our spirits fly, we speak to the gods.
When we run, we are the gods.
The official poster of the movie selected a shot of the team members struggling to run to the sea-after qualifying for the state finals, Jim drove the entire track team to the beach to celebrate. This is the first time these children, who bury their heads in the dusty fields every day, see the sea-the sea that symbolizes hope, vastness, future, and freedom. You watch them stare at each other, at a loss, to wake up like a dream, startled, laugh, shout, scramble across the pitted beach, jump into the sea in the most unrestrained posture in their lives, and the setting sun is on their young bodies. Hot golden light casts on them, and the rushing waves wash away the long-storage dust on their bodies and the long-suppressed haze in their hearts-you will have an epiphany, yes, for these families are not rich, family pressure is heavy, but also For the descendants of Mexican immigrants who are discriminated against by white people, running is to bring them free breathing air, to clear the haze accumulated in their hearts, or to say redemption.
-Regarding equality,
they are Mexican immigrants-they don't have white skin, don't have much knowledge and skills, some are just the tenacity to work like a bull and the will to stubbornly like a cow. Their grandparents and parents were all landlords or supervisors, or a lower level, pickers. They will be laughed at by white people, cast their eyes, and maliciously slander them, even though they have not done anything bad.
The facilities at McFarland High School are very sad. The playground is overgrown with weeds. There is not even a physical education teacher or a biological science teacher. The so-called football team coach is also some insecure jerk who can't stop eating his apple got all bent out of shape. These children deserve better education conditions.
However, in running, all racial inequality has been wiped out-after all, it is based on speed and strength, right? You are white, you can play golf, your school facilities are good, your coaches are well qualified, so what if your clothes and shoes are famous brands? Like Thomas said, this ain't golf. Regardless of the venue, you can't pretend if you don't care about equipment, this is a real run.
The Palo Alto Invitational at the beginning was actually a disastrous defeat. The opposing players made fun of them disdainfully when they first came on the court. It's a pity, but after all, they didn't train to run in the mountains, but they still lost on the slopes. Thomas's painful and unwilling expression when he was overtaken by his opponent because he clearly saw the victory in front of him but because his legs were not strong, he still feels distressed in retrospect. This is the first chance to prove that they do not lose the white doll.
The final against Clovis High was McFarland's first victory-it can be said that all hope has seen the light from here. In the state qualifiers 24 days later, they ranked fourth and successfully entered the finals. What I want to mention here is the comparison between the McFarland team and the other three teams that have reached the state finals: The top three white kids are also very happy, but they don’t know that they are accustomed to the victory. They feel that they can enter the finals for granted. They are happy. It has to be superficial-simply applaud, simply cheer, and simply laugh. And everyone in McFarland, when they saw their school's name appeared on the scoreboard, they knelt in a circle, crossed their chests, and bowed their heads in silence-this is the most sacred ritual for them to express gratitude. To participate in the state finals, for the youngsters who have seen the biggest vegetable field and the gangsters in the community, it is not only that they are chased by the coach for running ten kilometers, twelve kilometers, and ten kilometers every day. Six kilometers, the result of sweating how much God knows is also a gift from God. Before they met Jim, they never dreamed that something as great as the sky would happen to them.
There is no suspense about the victory in the California State Finals, otherwise this movie may have to be criticized as unfinished by everyone who has good thoughts and dreams. At the moment when the results are announced, you can see that other schools are incredibly unbelievable-what? Who are the champions? This group of Mexican immigrants? This group of people of color? It's not enough to be disagreeable - ah, it's them, we really lost this time, it seems that they are not as useless as we thought. In fact, in many cases, it is not convincing to use lip service or violent actions to promote racial equality (Master Martin Luther King Jr. don't beat me...). In sports, in the field of running, real people are created equal-as long as you are willing to work hard, as long as you work hard enough, you are likely to win and you can prove that you are not incompetent. This group of teenagers whose average face value multiplied by ten is no better than the Youth Academy, but with their sweat and tears, they exchanged the pride of the entire McFarland, fought for the glory of the Mexicans, and proved true racial equality.
- About love
heart a woman, also from Colombia, South America, the whole drama has among the widest of all the roles - Read the "Modern Family" this US drama viewers may find Gloria has a very deep impression. Whether it's family or friends, regardless of blood relationship, she can treat them equally and give her the love and care she can give. For those family members who even have different skin colors, each one of her truly faces each other and truly loves each other.
Perhaps this is also a commonality among South Americans? The Mexican immigrants in McFarland's movie are a typical example. When Jim just moved, the aunt next door came to say hello, and the meeting gift was a chicken (this thinking is really...); Natalia brought her to the shop like a generous hostess when Cheryl’s car broke down. Give her a manicure and call a male ticket to help repair the car; although the grocery store owner doesn’t know much about running, he also showed silent support for Jim’s coaching career; Diaz’s mother is a very strong woman and even takes care of it. Some rude women will insist on inviting Jim door to dinner (please pay attention to Jim staring at the pan with the horrified expression of Mexican things in units of "stacks"), and gave him a few large lunch boxes of dishes. For the family; Julie’s sixteen-year-old manhood ceremony is arranged by Mexican neighbors in almost the entire block: from the early morning to prepare the banquet, to decorate the venue, to the car parade in the evening-although unpleasant things happen, but the first The one who pushed Julie away and ran in front of her to block the attack and protect her from the perpetrators was also the loyal track and field team members.
The White family is obviously white, from the skin color to the last name, they are all whites who look down on them and maliciously exclude them. They have enough reasons to despise, be indifferent, and ridicule this family, but they exchange hatred with great love, and pay for revenge.
And this is why Cheryl wants to stay in McFarlane so strongly even after her daughter is injured for some reason-here, they are accepted and loved. Here, they can be regarded as having a real home. It is great love that gives the family who has been constantly moving and unable to take root for a long time, to have a real place of belonging.
——So, even if this movie does not have the majestic and majestic setting of "The Hobbit 3", it does not have the dazzling special effects of "Women's Federation 2" (...), and it does not have the "Little Yellow Man with Big Face" to make people laugh. The speeding heartbeat deliberately sells cuteness, and the lack of the ingenious design of "Mind Mobilization" does not prevent "McFarlane" from entering the top of my favorite movie of the year.
No need for bells and whistles, no need for thrills, let's listen quietly to McFarlane's primitive and simple cry.
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