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Radio - 10/24/03 - PG - 109m
Cuba Gooding Jr. - Radio
Ed Harris - Coach Jones
Alfre Woodard - Principal Daniels
Director: Michael Tollin
Written by: Mike Rich
John Logan & Marshall Herskovitz
Studio: Sony Pictures
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ROBLYN
About a mentally challenged man who becomes an inspiration to a high school football team. Coach Jones (Harris) takes a chance on Radio (Gooding Jr) and invites him to help support the football team. As with any feel good movies, you have to have your typical racist villain who picks on Radio to the end where they are good friends. Why do they always do it this way? They can never have a “good” person who befriends Radio and stays good friends throughout….or have a bad kid, who doesn’t come around and stays the bad kid. You always have the bad turning good. I guess that helps make the movie a tearjerker at some points, but it’s not always realistic.
There if far too much racism or “ignorance” for the unknown. What I admire about Radio or mentally challenged individuals is their innocence and purity. They have no evils guiding them. They trust everyone (which can be unfortunate) and see the good in everyone, not the bad. If only life were more like that.
Radio had a typical family life. Fatherless and mother working extra shifts to keep food on the table. He had a life like a lot of people have but only he is mentally challenged. It does not mean incapable of doing anything, just a little slower than others.
The only thing I didn’t like about this movie is the fact that it took place in the 60/70’s era and there was no “politically correctness” back then, so there shouldn’t have been in the movie. They used the term “mentally challenged” which was inaccurate. Only one scene did they use the term “severely retarded”. I hate that term myself, but if you are going to make a movie based on a true story set in an age of non-political correctiveness, then you should tell it like it is. Maybe then, would it hit hard at home, because it is such a harsh word not used today.
Coach Jones had his own personal demons for why he took Radio under his wing. Radio was a good movie and a feel good movie with some tears and laughter. They show the real Radio at the end of the movie and it makes it so much more real when you see there really is a “Radio”. When I originally saw previews of the movie, I thought Cuba was overacting, but actually seeing the entire movie and the real Radio at the end, it was well acted.
Roblyn
