Themes: Football Players, Saintly Fools, Living With Disability
Main Cast: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ed Harris, Alfre Woodard, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brent Sexton, Debra Winger
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 109 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Hollywood filmmaker Michael Tollin directs the sports drama Radio, based on a true story and adapted for the screen by Mike Rich (The Rookie). Set in a small South Carolina town during the '60s, the film stars Ed Harris as Harold Jones, a high school football coach who barely has time to spend with his daughter, Mary Helen (Sarah Drew), or his wife, Linda (Debra Winger). When Coach Jones meets the mentally challenged student who goes by the name of Radio (Cuba Gooding Jr.), he allows him to help out with his football team. While the townsfolk just aren't sure about Radio hanging around the team, the star player Johnny Clay (Riley Smith) is downright mean about it. Nevertheless, Radio continues to support the team for the next three decades. Also starring Alfre Woodard as the principal. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
Cuba Gooding Jr. is famous for the poor quality of his post-Oscar work, so it was natural to assume that his performance as a mentally handicapped football assistant would be all bug-eyed caricature. It's definitely possible to quibble with some of his facial expressions, but Gooding actually underplays more scenes in Radio than he overplays. That leaves the movie on the whole in the range of B to B+ material. Good for a hankie or two -- with the right audience -- it's mid-level inspirational stuff that's delivered competently, but with little distinction. Radio does earn some credibility by being based on a real person, James Robert Kennedy, and the fact that it doesn't just follow the typical sports movie arc of seeing the team through one memorable season. Director Mike Tollin has been around a ton of sports movies in his day, so it's to his credit that Radio is more about how a special individual -- in the least condescending sense of that word -- impacts a whole town, rather than a specific athletic program. (Radio also walks the sidelines for the boys' basketball team). The central issues are the same as they would be for any group trying to seamlessly integrate someone who's intellectually different -- how to encourage him and give him a place without allowing his suggestible judgment to endanger either himself or others. In the role of Radio's champion and surrogate father, Ed Harris is a bit too saintly to effectively personify this central tension, but he does such likeable work that he's also not worth criticizing. Radio will please a lot of skeptics simply for the fact that it mostly avoids maudlin scenes and emotional manipulation. However, it doesn't rank especially high as either an underdog sports movie or a complex consideration of the mentally disabled. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Chris Mulkey - Frank; Sarah Drew - Mary Helen; Riley Smith - Johnny; Patrick Breen - Tucker; Harold W. Jones - Himself; Mike Anthony - Himself; James Gooden - Teacher; Rebecca Koon - Waitress; Tammy Christine Arnold - Woman in Stands; Mark Robert Ellis - Football Referee; Michael Flippo - Bus Driver; Therond Justin Adams - Laird; Evan Aldrich - Danny; Joseph Barrett - Autograph Kid; Bert Beatson - Hoop Player; Kenneth H. Callender - Don; Megan Coffman - Melodee; Othello Coleman III - Hanna Player; Rev. Eugene Cryer Jr. - Pastor Wickland; Charles Garren - Clive; Michael Harding - Irv the Cop; James Robert "Radio" Kennedy - Himself; Michael Kroeker - Young Cop; William E. Lykes - Assistant Coach; Dorothy McDowell - Joyce Ann Yearwood; Deborah McTeer - Linda's Friend; Jamie Murdaugh - Student; Ty O'Farrell - Ron Wilborn; Benjamin L. Peters Jr. - Hallway Kid; Kasheem J. Peterson - Football Player; Kate Powell - Honeycutt's Squeeze; Shelley Reid - Cop #2; Bill Roberson - Del; Hi Bedford Roberson - School Receptionist; Leonard Wheeler - Hoop Referee
Credit
Thomas Minton - Art Director, Tierre Turner - Associate Producer, Michael Piotrowski - Boom Operator, Margery Simkin - Casting, Denise Wingate - Costume Designer, Vincent Lascoumes - First Assistant Director, Mike Tollin - Director, Chris Lebenzon - Editor, Harvey Rosenstock - Editor, Caitlin Scanlon - Executive Producer, Todd Garner - Executive Producer, Wyatt Belton - Hair Styles, Stacye Branche - Hair Styles, Toni-Ann Walker - Hair Styles, Mary Morgan-Kerlagon - Location Manager, James Horner - Composer (Music Score), James Horner - Musical Arrangement, Laura Z. Wasserman - Musical Direction/Supervision, Cheri Minns - Makeup, Rick Pour - Makeup, Carrie Angland - Makeup, Stacye Branche - Makeup, Robert Presley - Camera Operator, Patrick B. O'Brien - Camera Operator, Clay Griffith - Production Designer, Don Burgess - Cinematographer, Sara Flamm - Production Manager, Brian Robbins - Producer, Mike Tollin - Producer, Herbert W. Gains - Producer, Jeffree Bloomer - Production Sound, Robert Greenfield - Set Designer, Julia Starr Sanford - Set Designer, Andre W. Duncan - Set Designer, Simon Rhodes - Sound Mixer, Hector Gika - Sound/Sound Designer, Ryan Crawford - Stunts, Tyler Daum - Stunts, Donté R. Hunter - Stunts, Herbert W. Gains - Unit Production Manager, Mike Rich - Screenwriter, Trisha A. Stanard - Production Assistant, Terrence B. Zinn - Production Assistant, William Cook Jr. - Production Assistant, D. Tobias Denney - Production Assistant, Elizabeth A. Dennis - Production Assistant, Steven Goldfried - Production Assistant, Frances Fiore - Unit Publicist, Joel Negron - Additional Editing, Joseph Thomas - First Assistant Camera, Zoran Veselic - First Assistant Camera, Michael J. Coo - Key Grip, Jim Henrikson - Music Editor, Kenneth Karman - Music Editor, Lisa Jaime - Music Editor, Isabel Henderson - Post Production Supervisor, Jennifer Corey - Production Coordinator, Dwight Benjamin-Creel - Properties, Michael J. Leone - Script Supervisor, Paula Harris - Second Assistant Director, Dan Hegeman - Sound Effects Director, Bruce Tannis - Sound Effects Director, Thomas Kittle - Special Effects Coordinator, Robert Presley - Steadicam Operator, Michael Tackett - Still Photographer, Tom Bellfort - Supervising Sound Editor, Karen Keyes - Costume/Wardrobe, Omar Simmons - Costume/Wardrobe, Keva Keyes - Costume/Wardrobe, Frederick Spencer - Costume/Wardrobe, Fred Stahly - ADR Editor, Edward T. Cox - Assistant Chief Lighting Technician, Russell D. Cook - Assistant Location Manager, Kathy Rayle - Assistant Production Coordinator, Randall R. Milazzo - Assistant Properties, Craig Kohtala - Best Boy Grip, Mark Gilmer - Camera Loader, Justine Hempe - Casting Associate, Steven McGee - Chief Lighting Technician, Tom Jones Jr. - Construction Coordinator, Sandra Collier - Costumes Supervisor, Michael Hertlein - Dialogue Editor, Michael Bonsignore - Dolly Grip, Michael Brennan - Dolly Grip, Tona B. Dahlquist - Extra Casting, Peter Fandetti - First Assistant Editor, Michael Broomberg - Foley Artist, Diane Marshall - Foley Artist, Larry Kemp - Foley Editor, Paul A. Simmons - Key Costumer, JoJo Stephens - Key Hairstylist, Frank M. Fleming - Leadman, Steven Cueva - Second Assistant Camera, Christophe LeChanu - Second Second Assistant Director, Larry Sauls - Set Dresser, Michael Rayle - Cable Person, Lucy Sustar - Foley Mixer, Howard A. Anderson Company - Title Design, Alicia Lowe - Art Department Coordinator, Daniel Kupresan - Assistant Editor, Meredith Apel - Assistant Editor, Lara Grant - Assistant Editor, Jennifer Martinez - Assistant Editor, Ramiro Belgardt - Assistant Music Editor, Jeff Goodwin - Department Head Makeup, Branden Spencer - First Assistant Sound Editor
James Robert Kennedy (born October 14, 1946 in Anderson, South Carolina, USA), grew up most of his life carrying the fascination of radios. His nickname, Radio, was given to him by the townspeople because of the radio he carried around with him everywhere he went. He still attends T. L. Hanna High School and coaches the football team. He is known to ask students before football games, "We gonna get that quarterback?"
