RADIO

4 Stars - Inspiring

The true story of James Robert “Radio” Kennedy lifts our common humanity.  The opportunity to put his story on screen is an example of the power of cinema to enrich our lives and give us a picture of who we can become.

 Played by Cuba Gooding, Jr., Kennedy’s mental retardation has isolated him from others for the first two decades of his life in the small town of Anderson, South Carolina.  Nicknamed “Radio” because of his love for the music he listened to, he was never without a radio,   Playful and loving, Kennedy longs for relationships and finds himself drawn to the high school athletic fields where he watches the students practice football.  It is there that he forms a relationship that is still present thirty years later.

The relationship begins when a group of football players ridicule and terrorize him.  When their coach, Harold Jones (Ed Harris) discovers them, he not only takes punitive action against the players but also invites Kennedy to assist the team.  The coach’s invitation creates a relationship that transforms Kennedy’s life, as Coach Jones and the entire community come to love and accept him.

For many small towns, football is a community-defining event.  Symbolized by the meeting in the local barbershop following each game, the team’s success represents the success of the entire town, with the football coach virtually revered.  So when Coach Jones invites a retarded African-American man to stand with the team and participate in their weekly worship, Radio’s presence there is like inviting a homeless person onto the platform of a church’s worship service.  His presence there creates both feelings of acceptance and opposition.

The oppositional figure is that of the town’s banker, Frank Clay (Chris Mulkey) and his son, the star player, Johnny (Riley Smith).  Fearing that Radio will make a mockery of their team, both Frank and Johnny create an increasing storm of protest.  This confrontation becomes a crisis of identity not only for Coach Jones, but for the entire town as well.

The secondary story within this larger tale is that of Coach Jones himself.  A driven football coach who lives for the game, Radio unlocks his heart.  Too busy to give his daughter and wife the attention they desperately desire, Coach Jones is unexplainably willing to put his time and his career on the line for Radio.  Confused and angry, his daughter Mary Helen (Sarah Drew) is taken into his confidence when he explains that as a young teen he had seen a retarded boy kept under a house behind barbed wire for two years and had done nothing.  This confession bonds them as Coach Jones not only opens his heart to Radio but to her as well.  It is then that Jones puts his relationships in first priority by being willing to resign as a coach in order to love his family and be loyal to his friendship with Radio.

This is a common human failing.  Allowing the good to keep us from the best, we can give our lives to football or work and lose our family and friends.  The best of our humanity is achieved by elevating love to our first priority and having everything else serve that goal.  “Radio” exemplifies this truth.

 

 

DISCUSSION:

1. When Coach Jones allows football to consume his life, his wife is understanding yet lonely.  When she sees football also taking her husband from their daughter then she speaks up.  Why do you think she did not speak up for herself?
2. It is often said that football games are the worship services of our civil religion.  Do you agree with this or do you believe we worship at the altar of other cultural gods?
3. The way our society often dehumanizes the mentally retarded persons, leaving many to fend for themselves in homelessness, is reflective of our own values.  What do you believe needs to change within us that would cause us to treat all retarded persons as Kennedy was treated by Coach Jones?
4. The film presents the barbershop as the gathering place for the community.  Does your community have a similar gathering place?  If so, what is it?  If not, why not?
5. At the end of the film, we are shown the real Radio and Coach Jones.  What do you believe the experience of having Radio in their high school for thirty years has done to the students and townspeople?   

 

 ________________

Cinema In Focus is a social and spiritual movie commentary.  Hal Conklin is former mayor of Santa Barbara and Denny Wayman is pastor of the Free Methodist Church. To contact: http://www.cinemainfocus.com.