The inspiration behind 'The Long Game'
The inspiration behind 'The Long Game'
Director Julio Quintana and actor Julian Works talk about making the movie that highlights the improbable true story of five Mexican-American golfers winning a Texas high school title in 1957.
The feel-good movie of the year just might be a golf movie.
“The Long Game” is coming to theaters Friday, April 12. The movie is based on a book, “Mustang Miracle,” a true story about five Mexican-American kids who caddie at a swanky local country club in 1957 and fall in love with golf.
Due to racial discrimination at the time, the junior golfers — Joe Trevino, Gene Vasquez, Felipe Romero, Mario Lomas and Lupe Felan — have no place to play and only a few second-hand clubs. So they carefully create their own little course, El Llanito Country Club, in the desert. The teens get noticed by the new school superintendent (played by actor Jay Hernandez), who finds them a coach (played by actor Dennis Quaid) and a conventional Hollywood Cinderella story ensues.
Except it’s not a Hollywood ending, it’s real.
The teen caddies are from Del Rio, a south Texas border town situated about 150 miles west of Antonio. They form the San Felipe High School golf team and thanks to their dedication, persistence and determination in overcoming seemingly insurmountable resistance, the team shocks Texas by winning the state high school championship — by 35 strokes. If “Hoosiers” and “Tin Cup” had a baby, it would be “The Long Game.”
Hernandez is the mentor who sees the teens’ potential. Julian Works plays Joe Trevino, the young caddie who turns into the team’s big hitter and star player. “The Long Game” was directed by Julio Quintana, who also directed “The Vessel” and “Blue Miracle.”
Quintana and Works recently sat for a digital interview on The Golf Show 2.0 — a podcast I co-host. Here are the highlights:
Q: How did this project get started?
Julio Quintana: The “Mustang Miracle” book was brought to me by the same producer of my last film, “Blue Miracle,” also a true story. [Note: Blue Miracle is about a down-and-out captain competing in a fishing competition and also stars Dennis Quaid.] At first, I thought it was too similar to “Blue Miracle,” but the more I dug into what these boys actually pulled off, I decided we had to do it. I knew about Julian because he auditioned for “Blue Miracle” and it came down to him and one of the other guys. I decided he was too tough and cool.
Julian Works: [Laughs loudly.]
Quintana: But I love the guy. When I was doing some script revisions — Julian doesn’t know this — I was imagining him the whole time. When I finally finished the script, I sent it to him and here we are.
Q: Julian, what did you have to do, golf-wise, to prepare for this role?
Works: Luckily, I had picked up the game two years before Julio sent over the script. Everyone knows about the golf bug. Once you start, you never stop. Once I got the story — and on top of that it was a Latino story — I was really excited about it. I felt really lucky to get the script.
Q: Did your golf game improve?
Works: The most important thing is the swing, right? Whenever I watch a movie about some kind of sport, if your form is way off, you’ve already lost me. So one of the most important things was my swing on camera, along with the rest of the cast. As far as where the ball landed, Julio did some great AI editing so I didn’t have to worry about that. I was comfortable with my swing. While shooting, we were playing golf every day and we all just got better. It translated with the movie. The characters started off with really raw mechanics. Jay [Hernandez] and Dennis [Quaid] helped us, so as the movie progressed, we also actually progressed.
Q: What is your most memorable moment on a golf course?
Quintana: I don’t know man. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get balls out of the water.
Works: [Laughs hysterically.]
Quintana: After a while, you start stealing balls on the range, and going out and playing with them. It just wasn’t worth it. Julian got really good at golf and the weird thing is, he was using these antique clubs. The heads were tiny. The clubs were old and he was out there sinking putts on camera. I give him a lot of credit, he did get pretty decent at golf. That was impressive.
Works: The driver got in my head a bit, it looks so different. It was really cool to use those old clubs. I don’t think I would ever use them to play today. When you’re a hundred yards away from the green, as long as you get the ball up in the air, it’s going to look good on camera. I was really happy with the outcome.
Q: If you can hit those old blades, today’s modern clubs should be easy for you.
Quintana: I still have 20 sets of old clubs in my dad’s basement from the movie. He keeps asking me, “What are you going to do with those clubs? I’ve gotta get them out of my house.”
> RELATED: Barred from a segregated golf course, these Texas teens built their own
Q: Julian, what was your character like?
Works: Right off the bat, Joe Trevino was searching for respect. He’s dedicated, but he doesn’t have the energy to prove it, because his father isn’t supporting his dream to play golf. He was searching for respect through the game. When you’re a caddie working at a golf course and sneaking over on the course to practice hitting balls, that’s a prescription to create any golfer. You have to practice. For Joe, golf was the sport that took him away from home and whatever he was dealing with personally.
Q: How did you like the 1957 clothes and haircut styles?
Works: You never prepare yourself for that until you’re in it. I’m really thankful for everyone who worked behind the set to make it look good. Once you put on the clothes and do the dialogue, as an actor, it’s just much easier to get in that world. Julio did a great job of making us feel like we were in that moment.
Q: So you’re so into the scenes that you don’t have time to look around and think, “We look weird.”
Works: There was one scene that got cut that I thought was so cool. We were supposed to run up to a movie theater with a giant marquee that said, “Giant” starring James Dean. Just reading that in the script took me back in time. The script puts you in places mentally, but the clothes and the sets really put you there physically.
Q: That scene sounds so great, Julio, how could you cut it?
Quintana: Well, we weren’t able to shoot it because we couldn’t afford to pay for the rights to “Giant.”
Works: [Laughs again.]
Q: Tell me about the beautiful high school letter jackets you guys wore.
Works: That was such a cool jacket. We caught a lot of flak when we went to Del Rio for an advance screening because it wasn’t the colors of the original school had. [Note: The original jackets were purple in color. In the movie, they’re burgundy and maroon.] For the aesthetics on camera, the burgundy looked really good. That jacket was a classic. I definitely loved it.
Q: Did you get to keep it?
Works: No. That’s a question I should ask Julio.
Quintana: That’s also in my dad’s basement. We kept a lot of stuff in case we had to do re-shoots. I guess we’re well past that point now.
Q: What was the most difficult scene to create?
Quintana: In Mexico, shooting the sequence of running across the river was very demanding. We were shooting all night. The hardest day was shooting the final parade. The cars our heroes were riding in started overheating after a couple of takes. They’re cars from the ‘50s and we didn’t have mechanics on site. There was radiator fluid gushing out all over the place. So we had three or four guys who ran out to push the car up and down the road for about an hour while it looks like Dennis [Quaid] is driving. We had to pull together somehow to keep it going. That was sort of how the whole movie went. It was very similar to how the boys built their own course in the movie.
Q: Who was the best golfer of all the actors?
Works: I think you’re looking at him. Actually, Dennis was way above my level for sure. That was the great thing about having Dennis on set. He took it to heart to make shots look authentic.
Q: Do you realize you’re both going to be invited to play in a bunch of celebrity pro-ams from now on?
Works: I would have to get used to not saying “Cut!” after each bad shot.
Quintana: Yeah. “Another take!”
Works: I’d be super excited. I’ve played at a few different great courses around Los Angeles. We played some great courses in Colombia. I’m ready for it.
Quintana: I’d be happy to caddie for Julian. I can critique his form.
Q: The scene where Dennis Quaid says, “I’m not here to babysit a bunch of juvenile delinquents” sounded exactly like what somebody would say in 1957.
Quintana: I think Dennis changed that line to “juvenile delinquents.” I might’ve had some more modern words.
Q: Some of the characters seen in the movie are still alive. Did that put extra pressure on you to capture their story authentically?
Quintana: It was a lot of pressure. A couple of those guys really do credit golf for changing their lives and learning responsibility. That’s what I learned about golf from this. There is so much honor and integrity in the game. By its nature, it’s a really good avenue for young people to grow up and mature. There are so many things — if you don’t replace your divot or you don’t rake the sand trap, you mess it up for the next guy. Nobody keeps your score, there’s no referee. It’s a great training ground for life.
Q: How did the advance screening go in Del Rio, where the real story took place?
Quintana: It was one of the most fulfilling screenings we’ve ever done. They filled all eight screens in an eight-screen theater. They had cheerleaders lined up in front of theater, cheering as we arrived. They declared it “Mustang Miracle Day.” The whole town turned out, all dressed up in purple. They also noticed the things we didn’t get right and they grilled me about it. They were very appreciative of somebody telling their story. It was pretty powerful to see the older people who went through this and see their reactions as they were honored by the whole town. That day was a celebration of the original boys more than it was celebration of our movie. Our movie was just an excuse for everybody to remember what those boys had done. It was an honor for us.
Works: As an actor, you’re always looking for your next job. You read a story and if you’re really passionate, you go ahead and do it. You don’t realize the impact on the actual people until you meet them. The love we felt that day really pulled on the heartstrings and reminded me why I do this. I felt all in awe. There was a moment we were at a local country club, and Lupe, one of the actual characters in the move, was there. To see him, his emotions anad all the people cheering for him and giving him roses — it was special.
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