Themes: Fantasy Life, Domestic Abuse, Sibling Relationships
Main Cast: Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello, Lorraine Bracco, John Heard, Adam Baldwin, Ben Johnson
Release Year: 1992
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Two brothers are the victims of their widowed mother's violent drunkard husband who spares no rod with the youngest brother. Reverting to a world of make-believe, they imagine that their Radio Flyer wagon can fly and that in it they can escape their tormenting stepfather. This film deals in an almost make-believe manner with the serious issue of child abuse. It is narrated by Tom Hanks. ~ All Movie Guide
Review
Though at times falling into the familiar trappings of over-sentimentalized family melodrama, Richard Donner's sensitive tale of a childhood marred by abuse is ultimately redeemed by Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazzello's fine performances and Donner's symbolic handling of the material. It goes without question that child abuse is a difficult topic to present to an audience, though with screenwriter David Mickey Evans' decision to filter it through the innocent eyes of children, and director Donner's lens following cue appropriately, the film successfully conveys the trauma of abuse from a cinematically ideal perspective. Though a less established director may not have the skill to carry off the story with this approach, Donner's ability to extract skillful performances from his youthful actors provides the film with the precise performances it needs to succeed. Though never seen directly, Adam Baldwin's performance as the menacing head of the household who demands to be addressed as "the King" provides a faceless nightmare of a monster more threatening than any comic-book creature, and Lorraine Bracco's performance as a mother who refuses to see his atrocities is in turns frustrating and sympathetic. With an open-ended coda that offers no clear answers, the film remains true to its childlike sense of wonder and discovery. The fact the viewer is never given a clear indication as to the ultimate fate of the sibling so desperate to escape his troubled home safeguards the possibility of his victory in an obscure, endearing manner. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Tom Hanks - Older Mike; Sean Baca - Young Fisher; Robert Munic - Older Fisher; Daniel Bieber - 2nd Boy; William J. Bonnel - Uncle; Lennard Camarillo - 4th Fisher Friend; Victor di Mattia - Little Raymond; T.J. Evans - Big Raymond; Lois Foraker - Aunt; James W. Gavin - Pilot; Adam Hendershott - 1st Boy; Garette Ratliff Henson - Chad; Joan Hyman - 2nd Ticket Taker; Stephen Kahan - Coffee Shop Manager; Henry LaPlante - Priest; Susan Gale Linn - Waitress at Coffee Shop; Coleby Lombardo - 1st Fisher Friend; Michael Maiello - Gas Station Patron; John Mazzello - School Boy; Thomas Ian Nicholas - Ferdie; Scott Lloyd Nimerfro - Golfer; Isaac Ocampo - Jorge Hernandez; Rhea Perlman; Elden Ratliff - 3rd Fisher Friend; Reye Reed - Restaurant Patron; Kaylan Romero - Jesus Hernandez; Hattie Schwartzberg - 1st Ticket Taker; Dawan Scott - Bigfoot; Mike Simmrin - 2nd Fisher Friend; Paul Tuerpé - Market Cashier; Hannah Wood - School Girl; Steven Anthony Jones - Postman; James Oliver - Gas Station Attendant; Judy Taylor; Valorie Massalas; Mike Fenton; Abraham Verduzco - Carlos Hernandez
Credit
David F. Klassen - Art Director, Alexander B. Collett - Associate Producer, Sherry Fadely - Associate Producer, Harry Tugend - Co-producer, Jim Van Wyck - Co-producer, April Ferry - Costume Designer, Richard Donner - Director, Stuart Baird - Editor, Dallas Puett - Editor, Hans Zimmer - Composer (Music Score), Roberto Fernandez - Musical Direction/Supervision, Richard Alexander - Musical Direction/Supervision, J. Michael Riva - Production Designer, Laszlo Kovacs - Cinematographer, Rick Bieber - Producer, Lauren Shuler-Donner - Producer, Michael Douglas - Producer, David Mickey Evans - Producer, Richard Solomon - Producer, Peter McAlevey - Producer, Jennie Lew Tugend - Producer, Michael Taylor - Set Designer, Peter Donen - Special Effects, Ronald Judkins - Sound/Sound Designer, James M. Halty - Stunts, Mic Rodgers - Stunts, David Mickey Evans - Screenwriter
Representative Albums: "Old Strings New Strings," "Town & Country," "In Their Strange White Armor"
Biography
Filling the void left by the breakup of New Grass Revival, Radio Flyer combines solid musicianship with a newgrass sound. The band includes guitarist Dudly Murphy, fiddler and mandolinist David Wilson, bassist Steve Duede, and banjoist Roger Matthews. ~ Chip Renner, All Music Guide
Two young brothers escape their chaotic family life with dreams of flying. Inspired by a local legend, they attempt to build a working airplane. And in the process of transforming their ordinary red wagon into a fantastical flying machine, transform their own lives into an extraordinary adventure. "The King" (step-father) always beat the younger brother instead of the older one when he is drunk, causing the older one to care for the younger one a lot more. The mother has no idea about this abuse.
At one point in the film one of the boys fit wings and a lawnmower engine to a Radio Flyerwagon, enabling the younger boy to fly away from home to escape his abusive step-father "The King". There has been speculation that this fantastical journey was intended as a metaphor for suicide, but this has been denied by Donner.
The film was originally to be directed by screenwriter David M. Evans, but he was replaced by Richard Donner due to his inexperience. Re-shoots followed after poor test screenings and the budget jumped from $15 million to $35 million. The original script called for more fantasy sequences involving a worm man and zombies. These ideas were scrapped when Richard Donner replaced Evans. The film opened to mostly mixed reviews from critics and lackluster box office results.
Roger Ebert and Leonard Maltin both vilified this film for presenting fantasy as a way of escaping child abuse. Said Ebert, "I was so appalled, watching this kid hurtling down the hill in his pathetic contraption, that I didn't know which ending would be worse. If he fell to his death, that would be unthinkable, but if he soared up to the moon, it would be unforgivable—because you can't escape from child abuse in little red wagons, and even the people who made this picture should have been ashamed to suggest otherwise." [1]
Because the film in fact ends with Bobby successfully evading his step-father forever, viewers (including Ebert himself) have taken to speculating on the "true" ending, assuming that the one presented was a case of an unreliable narrator. In interviews, director Richard Donner has insisted that there is no cryptic, implied ending to the film. Bobby simply flies around the world in the Radio Flyer wagon. However, several theories have emerged concerning Bobby's real fate.
Bobby, who got beaten by the step-father, was really a figment of older brother Mikey's imagination. Mikey was abused, and he used "Bobby" to dissociate from the abuse, wondering out-loud to Bobby (in the flashback) why his step-father only hits Bobby and never himself. At the end of the movie "The King" is hand-cuffed shortly before Bobby flies away in the flyer, and the implication is made that "The King" will be put in prison for a long time, so the flying away of Bobby represents the idea that Mikey will no longer need Bobby to help him psychologically escape the child abuse. Further justification for this theory is that the movie fails to show interaction between Bobby and any of the other characters except Mikey, and, throughout the movie, evidence is shown that Mikey's imagination tends to exaggerate such as the buffalo appearing outside Mikey's window, and the excessive blood on the scene when "The King" injures Shane, the dog. As a father, Mike even tells the "Bobby" angle to his son. At the end of the movie Tom Hanks finishes telling his kids the story about his brother and he asks his kids, "Now do you understand what I mean about history being in the mind of the teller?", his kids say "Yes.", and Tom Hanks replies,"Cause that's how I remember it." (Wow! I--Peter McAlevey--helped make the movie--pls. see Entertainment Weekly circa 1992--as co-executive producer and even I didn't think of this analysis of the ending. Touche. The may have accomplished all the things Michael Douglas, Rick Bieber, Richard Donner and myself tried to explain. But, I suspect, like any true work of art, more theories will abound.)
Bobby's journey is a metaphor for the child's suicide, due to his severe abuse.
The Radio Flyer couldn't really fly, and Bobby died during the liftoff attempt.
Bobby was beaten to death by his step-father, "The King". Mikey, the older brother, suppressed and changed this memory to a more fantastical ending.
Trivia
The film takes place in the mid to late 1960s, however in one scene the boys buy a monster comic book and on the bookshelf is a Transformers comic book which did not exist until the early 1980s.
