Netflix #1 Movie Is A Texas True Story

The Long Game is set in the 1950s and revolves around the story of five young Mexican-American golf caddies who, despite segregation laws, are determined to become players.

The boys end up creating a makeshift golf course in the middle of the South Texas desert and it is there that they begin to practice and perfect the game. The film tells a tale so inspiring that one would most likely assume it was fiction, but it is simply a retelling of the true story of the San Felipe Mustangs.

The Long Game serves as an adaptation of Humberto G. García’s book Mustang Miracle. Garcia was the first to tell the story of the San Felipe Mustangs and what obstacles they had to overcome to win the 1957 Texas State High School Golf Championship.

The original team consisted of Mario Lomas, Felipe Romero, Lupe Falen, Joe Trevino, and Gene Vasquez, all Chicano high schoolers living in 1950s Del Rio. 

In an interview with the bigcitysmalltown podcast, Garcia reveals to the audience that the boys often scavenged for clubs and equipment in the trash and creek. They learned the game by watching the golfers they caddied and built their own one-hole course to practice.

They needed somewhere to put their skills to the test because people of color were not allowed to play on the city-owned golf courses.

Garcia says the boys “learned the game well enough that they could compete with the kids that grew up in the country club and had everything.” 

In 2012, the San Felipe Mustangs, whose tale is retold in The Long Game, were inducted into the Latin American International Sports Hall of Fame, In 2016 the team was also inducted into the National Hispanic Heritage Hall of Honor.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2023, Gene Vasquez, who is portrayed by Gregory Diaz IV said “We were fighting brutal poverty and brutal discrimination. Our parents were migrants, they were illiterate, and we were very poor. So to us, this was very exciting because we could enjoy caddying, making a little money, and learning how to play golf by mimicking the golfers”

The Long Game premiered at South by Southwest on March 12, 2023, which was later followed by its theatrical release under Mucho Mas Media on April 12, 2024. Generally, the reviews were pretty positive, on Rotten Tomatoes it received a critics score of 86 percent and an audience score of 97 percent.

Even some of the fellow surviving San Felipe Mustang members attended the film’s premiere and left with smiles on their faces

If you are curious about seeing the story of the San Felipe Mustangs come to life on the screen, The Long Game is currently available to stream on Netflix. To learn more about the true story that inspired the film check out Humberto G., García’s book Mustang Miracle.