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| Year:
2003 |
Rated:
PG |
Runtime:
109 min. |
| Starring:
Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris, Riley Smith, Sarah Drew, Alfre Woodard |
| Directed
by: Michael Tollin |
| Written
by: Mike Rich |
| Music
by: James Horner |
| Movie
Studio: Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment |
| Full
Details: IMdb |
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Review |
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Review
by: Barry Waller
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Rating: HUGE
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“Radio”:
A True Story, a Wonderful Movie
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I had the opportunity to get an
early look at the new film "Radio" starring Cuba
Gooding Jr. as James “Radio” Kennedy, a mentally challenged
young man who's life, and the lives of the people of Anderson,
South Carolina were changed forever after he was befriended by a
middle aged high school football coach named Harold Jones,
played by Ed Harris. After seeing it, I would recommend that any
student of life in need of a boost in spirit do the same.
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It's ironic that there are thousands of people who spend their
time almost obsessively trying to weave their beliefs and
feelings into fictional tales for movies, plays, television or
books, when almost invariably the best and most touching stories
are right there in real life.
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Screenwriter Mike Rich has received universal praise the past
two years for his first two film works, "Finding
Forrester" and "The Rookie," films that contained
lessons of life connected to a love of sports. The former
Portland radio news announcer, who exploded onto the movie
writing scene following the sale of his award winning first
effort in 1998, wisely stayed in form with the “Radio”
screenplay. Like his other work, it’s an uplifting lesson
about humanity that uses sports as a background. This not a
“football movie” however, any more than “The Rookie” is
mainly a baseball movie, or “Hoosiers” is mostly about
basketball.
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"Radio", like "The Rookie", is a
life-affirming piece based on a true story, and Mike Rich
continues to show that staying true to the heart of a story
should be how all films are crafted. Rather than try to hard to
make his point known to the audience, Rich shows a real talent
for allowing the story to be told in an honest and unassuming
manner. It's a rare gift in the movie business, and one to which
more screenwriters should aspire in a world in need of substance
over hype.
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The Producer/Director team of Brian Robbins, and Michael Tollin
has had only one film that rated any praise during their
partnership, "Varsity Blues", another film with
football as a major theme. Robbins turned over his usual
director job to Tollin this time, and Tollin, in just his third
time as an accredited film director, obviously recognized the
quality of the story and Rich's brilliant script.
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Tollin captures the feel of rural and poor South Carolina in the
early 1970s, without taking away from the story by resorting to
any of the usual cheap shot racial slants that are too often a
part of “period pieces” set in the deep South. In this case,
those who have the “heavy” roles are not acting out of
racism, but out of the fear and ignorance some carry around when
dealing with those who are mentally challenged.
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The football sequences during the film are all excellently shot
and portrayed honestly as well, as Tollin allows the audience to
get caught up in the emotion of high school football just as one
would sitting in the bleachers. There is no phony made up
championship game at the end, no attempt to change this
heartwarming story that was initially published as a story in
”Sports Illustrated” several years ago, that went mostly
unnoticed at that time.
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Perhaps the only artistic license taken by the young director in
filming the movie in the “low country” of southeast South
Carolina, far more rural still today than where the events
occurred, at T.L. Hanna high school in Anderson, which is
located in the state’s northwest “high country”. The
recognition Tollin should rightfully receive soon for this
carefully crafted film will hopefully keep him doing similarly
understated and true to life films in the future.
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Even though the production team has shown once again that great
art can be created without a huge budget in this film, the
superb screenplay, along with the story itself, attracted actors
who performed as though they were born to play the lead roles.
Harris, arguably the most underrated actor today, has a love for
football that goes back to his playing days at Columbia
University, and his portrayal of a highly respected workaholic
coach, and teacher is right on.
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Harris already has received a quartet of Academy Award
Nominations; for best actor in” “Pollock” (2001), and best
supporting actor for his work in “Apollo13” (1995), “The
Truman Show” (1999), and “The Hours” (2003). It’s a
pretty good bet that Harris will get his fifth chance to win a
well deserved with this effort.
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Movies like “Radio”, that will stay with viewers long after
they depart the theater, have taken home plenty of those coveted
gold statuettes in past years, and this perfect performance by
Harris may finally get him the nod when the envelope for best
actor is opened out in Hollywood next year.
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Harris’ biggest
competition may come from Gooding Jr., who already has an Oscar
for his supporting role in “Jerry McGuire” back in 1996.
It’s not like Gooding Jr. hasn’t done some very able work
since then; but this is the type role, and the type performance
that will put a talent such as Gooding back on the “A” list
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It’s a known fact that portrayals of characters who are
“challenged” in some way draw increased interest from the
Academy voters, but if Gooding Jr. dashes up to receive the
award again in 2004, it won’t be simply because of Mr.
Kennedy’s low IQ.
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Just like the actors portraying those society labels as
“different”; Cliff Robertson (“Charly” - 1968), Dustin
Hoffman (“Rainman”- 1988), Daniel Day Lewis (“My Left
Foot”- 1989), Tom Hanks (“Forrest Gump”-1994), and
Geoffrey Rush (“Shine”-1996), Gooding Jr. would take home
the prize because he was able to clearly portray how “Radio”
is far more like everyone else than expected, and better in many
of the ways that matter most.
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Like those other characters, some real, some fictional, but
still believable, James Robert “Radio” Kennedy shows that
far from being a “lesser person” in comparison to the bulk
of mankind that makes those judgments, he is actually superior
in many more important ways. That fact becomes clear as the
story unfolds, and the audience shares the same lessons that are
learned by coach Jones, and eventually everyone in town.
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Gooding Jr., is nearly mute for the first half-hour of the film,
and then slowly comes out of his shell as his relationships with
the football team, students, teachers, and then townspeople
grow. Mr. Gooding stays true to the real character, now in his
mid-fifties, who is still inspiring a third generation of T.L.
Hanna students, 38 years after he first became a permanent
fixture at the school, and on the sidelines. In doing so, Gooding Jr. avoids playing the role as someone who
should be pitied for his lot in life, which is a key message
that comes across quite beautifully in this film. |
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At the heart of “Radio”, the nickname given the shy and
reclusive Kennedy by Jones, because of his love for listening to
music on one of the many old radios he’s collected in his days
pushing and even riding in an old shopping cart around town, is
a story that illustrates the power that comes from living by the
“Golden Rule” above all else. |
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The love that develops out of compassion between the two men,
vastly different in every way, leads to life lessons for both
that first transformed a team, then a school, and finally a town
at a time when great changes in our country were pulling people
apart based on age, religion, and politics, even members of the
same household. |
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When experiencing this film, the audience reaction will be clear
proof that Rich, Tollin, and especially Gooding have really
“hit their mark“. During many scenes, “Radio’s”
antics, or what he is trying to say to someone, will cause those
in the theater to let out a heartfelt belly laugh. It’s at
that moment, or maybe hours after leaving this beautiful film,
when the realization hits; that everyone was actually laughing
out loud in public at a mentally challenged person struggling,
the at him messing up trying to fit in. |
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Certainly the idea of that sort of reaction to such a person
would be unthinkable out on the street, and political
correctness would force one to condemn those who would dare to
chuckle at another’s frailties. However, it suddenly hits
anyone examining this theater reaction more in depth, instead of
just feeling guilty about it, that those who would divert their
eyes and ignore a person like “Radio”, do far more harm than
laughter. |
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The villains in this movie are those that want to “protect”
Mr. Kennedy from harm and send him where “He can receive
proper care and supervision.” They are probably not evil
people, but Rich’s take is that they are the biggest
impediment to tapping into what everyone; even “Radio” has
to offer to others. |
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The real James Kennedy had no problem with others laughing at
his expense, something all of us normal people can even enjoy
most of the time. That’s how the laughter from the seats in
the theater can’t help but hammer home the writer’s point,
and the central lesson the film seeks to impart. |
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Those that see a challenged person and somehow feel guilt will
turn those negative thoughts into predjudice, and avoidance of
those like Mr. Kennedy; that is the epiphany that Mr. Rich
shares over and over in this movie. Linked to that shared wisdom
is the evidence provided by “Radio’s” life itself, that if
everyone treated a person who has an IQ 60 points lower oneself
the same as someone who has one 10 points lower, they may find
out something very special. |
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There are plenty of people who dress up in clown suits and paint
their faces to induce laughter from others, just for the sheer
joy of the act. They don’t mind if they have to slip on a
banana or get a pie in the face to do it either. James Kennedy
soaked up the laughter than came his way, also from people who
began to enjoy him for exactly who he was, and blossomed into a
veritable love reactor. It didn’t take long for the whole town
of Anderson, made up of all types of people, to feel the effects
of “Radio’s” emitted “radiation”. |
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This true story truly showed how all it took was one righteous
man to reach out a hand to James Kennedy, for reason’s Harold
Jones never fully understood. Once the miraculous changes in
James begin to have their magical effect on Jones and then
others, it doesn’t seem to matter why anymore. Everyone just
knows in their hearts and accepts that the reason is less
important than the result for “Radio” and especially
themselves. |
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The friendship the coach and Kennedy develop also brings Jones a
level of enlightenment from his previously tedious existence,
and in the end, it’s clear that the small spark of human
kindness that Jones set to “Radio”, ends up igniting a blaze
of love inside him. James Kennedy turned out to be made of stuff
that would burn very bright if given the necessary catalyst, and
he still warms a small town today, with an inborn fuel
consisting of loyal friendship, and pure love of his fellow man. |
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The perfect understanding that Gooding Jr. appears to have for
Mr. Kennedy makes it very easy to understand how the real
“Radio” has captivated everyone with whom he has come in
contact over the last four decades, once the compassion begun by
a highly respected coach, who inspires others to do the right
things off the field just as he does on the gridiron, slowly
releases James from the captivity of human prejudice and
intolerance. |
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Debra Winger, a three time Oscar Nominee who is known to be
quite picky about the roles she takes, appears in her first
studio film in 8 years, playing her relatively minor role as
Jones’ understanding, and supportive wife in fine fashion. Ms.
Winger and Mr. Harris seem quite comfortable and believable as a
couple and parents of a teenage girl, played by newcomer Sarah
Drew. In her first movie role, Drew doesn’t appear to be
intimidated by the movie’s trio of talented heavyweight stars. |
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All of the performances in the movie seem to indicate plenty of
inspiration, and generosity among the cast. Even the lesser
roles of Jones’ assistant coach, played by another newcomer,
Brent Sexton, his players, and the townspeople of Anderson, are
all well cast and well played throughout the movie. Veteran
actor Chris Mulkey does a good job as the banker who tries to
keep “Radio” away from the school and his star athlete son,
played by Riley Smith. |
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Tollin avoids having that dogmatic pair suddenly morph into
something they aren’t, but like James Kennedy in the early
part of his rebirth, Smith’s unlikable character shows even he
has been changed by effects of “Radio’s” loving nature,
enough to evade his fathers deep seeded intolerance, and
indicate that further redemption is probable. |
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The inclusion of the exceptional acting talent of Alfre Woodard
as the school principal, including a proper amount of worry and
restraint that a person would have who has chosen that career,
which makes her character; like so many others in the film, very
believable. Fellow esteemed actress S. Epatha Merkerson appears
James’ beloved mother, and the two highly respected actresses
are just one more positive of the film. |
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Like those in the more major roles, those two certainly came
with impressive résumé’s, that include an Oscar nomination
plus two Golden Globe awards for Woodard, and a Tony Nomination,
along with an Obie and other acting awards for Merkerson’s
past work on the New York stage. She is best known for her long
time role as Lt. Van Buren on the hit TV drama “Law and
Order”. |
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It’s pretty obvious that the director and the actors really
“bought into” what this wonderful story had to say, which is
probably why they came to the project to begin with. Everyone
involved looks to have wanted very badly to make this movie
something that would continue to inspire viewers long into the
future, just as “Radio” Kennedy, now Anderson, South
Carolina’s most famous native son and ambassador, has done for
nearly 40 years. |
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I suggest going to see this lovely and moving film quickly when
it opens late this fall, because the lines could get long, once
word of mouth, and the critical acclaim that it should receive,
get to the masses. See it with someone you love, and make sure
to take plenty of Kleenex to this unforgettable, and inspiring
masterpiece. |
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As previously explained however, there will also plenty of
laughter in what should be a very enjoyable movie going
experience, and also some well-shot and realistic football
action. However, in the end what moves the viewer, and stays
with them after seeing “Radio”, will be the notion that the
divine nature of the human heart, and how its value in guiding
our lives, when allowed to in a cynical world, far outweigh the
intellect that too many people today value far greater than the
capacity to truly care for others. |
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COMMENTARY |
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Naailah HUGE |
Its a fabulous movie with an amazing story.A story which touches one
heart. Its
about friendship which changes completely the life of two
individuals. This
movie is simply one of the best. |
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