Radio
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Is it age appropriate?
About our ratings -
Is it any good?
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Common Sense says
Lesson of kindness permeates inspiring true story.
Why We Rated This 
for Ages 11 and Up
The good stuff
What to watch out for
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Violence:
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Sex:
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Language:
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Consumerism:
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Drinking, drugs, & smoking:
What Parents Need to Know
This review of Radio was written by Nell Minow
Parents need to know that this movie has a couple of bad words and a sad death (off-screen). In a cruel prank, Radio is sent into the girls' locker room (nothing shown). Characters are cruel but learn their lesson. Even though it is set in the South in the decade after the Civil Rights Act was passed, the movie avoids stereotyping the white residents as racist.
Families Can Talk About
Talk to your kids about the media in their life. We have more tools and tips that can help
- Families can talk about disabled people they know and how they are treated. They could also talk about why Radio was so important to Coach Jones, and how sometimes, if we cannot correct a mistake we make at the time, we can find a way to use what we have learned to prevent another mistake in the future. They could talk about how the coach decided what his priorities really were and about how Radio showed that he understood some things better than people who thought they were smarter than he was.
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More on Radio
What’s the Story?
RADIO begins in 1976 South Carolina, where small town high school football is very serious business. Cuba Gooding, Jr. plays Radio, described by his mother as "just like everyone else, but a little slower." He pushes a shopping cart around and barely speaks. When members of the local high school football team mistreat him, the coach (Ed Harris) invites Radio to watch a practice. Soon, Radio is helping out, and with the coach's encouragement, he begins to interact with people and eventually becomes an "honorary" student. But complications arise when others in the community view Radio's involvement as a liability and a distraction. All is happily resolved in time for the inevitable "We learned more from him than he ever learned from us" speech and the montage showing the real Radio still leading the team onto the field, 25 years later.
Is It Any Good?
Radio may be as predictable as a Hallmark card, but it's as heartwarming, too. This is a nice, old-fashioned family movie about the importance of kindness. The characters learn that some things are more important than being smart. The audience learns that that lesson can apply to movies as well as people.
It's always a little too easy to have minority or disabled characters in movies serve as saint-like or magical creatures who teach others how to be more authentic, yet this film handles the challenge better than most. Harris and Gooding give their characters depth and decency to provide some grounding for the story and keep it from getting too sugary. But they really have to carry the entire movie. Debra Winger appears in the thankless understanding-wife role (though she does carry a copy of Betty Friedan's revolutionary Feminine Mystique through one scene).
Movie Details
Studio: Columbia Tristar, Director: Michael Tollin
Run time: 109 minutes
Theatrical release: 10/24/2003, DVD release: 01/27/2004
MPAA Rating: PG for mild language and thematic elements
Run time: 109 minutes
Theatrical release: 10/24/2003, DVD release: 01/27/2004
MPAA Rating: PG for mild language and thematic elements
Our Members Say
See all 15 member reviews
Most Recent Reviews
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I rate this title iffy for age 11 and give it
- My highlights are:
Touching movie. I strongly recommend it.
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I rate this title on for age 10 and give it
- My highlights are:
- Good role models
Perfect and good messages
I just cried, and smiled. Remindes me of some special people that didnt care about diffrences, and thir impact. Thius should be seen by many if not all people.
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I rate this title on for age 7 and give it
- My concerns are:
- Excessive violence
greatest ever
obviously one of the best sports movies of all time violence may be an issue for smaller kids but still
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
Good Movie about Football
Radio was a really nice guy and he made everyone love him.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
Slow moving but good message
We watched this as a family with my 5 year old son and 10 year old daughter. It is rather slow moving and predictable (my husband fell asleep) but there are some great lessons about how one person can make big change in a community. My daughter found the father-daugher relationship in the movie really sad. Its worth spending some time talking about with your daughter.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
Radio is a meaningful movie that shows being nice can really pay off!
This movie is about a mentally retarded young man who lives a challenging life. He always wanders around in the day time and stops by a high-school football field one day. He loves radios, and country music. The coach of the football team feels bad for Radio and so he lets him be the "Team mascot". Radio gets to know the entire team and starts to make friends. Then, after the football season is over, the coach doesn't want to leave Radio behind so he finds a spot at the school he teaches at so that Radio can do things around the school. Then, just as things start to become really good for Radio, his mom passes away. The coach feels terrible and since he has gotten to know and care for Radio, he decides to quit coaching the football team and spend more time with his family, which now includes Radio since the coaches family adopted him. Radio grows up to be a sweet, interesting guy who loves football and his family.
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I rate this title on for age 8 and give it
Excellent movie. The movie is about Cuba Gooding Jr's character who is developmentally disabled. He was perfectly happy wandering around on the streets, but always stopped by to watch football practice at the local highschool. He loved listening to the radio whether it be a football game being broadcast or music he liked to dance to. The football coach saw his passion for football and decided to make the quality of his life better by taking him under his wing and giving him tasks to do to help out the team. People from the town fought to have him taken out of the school, but Radio had an affect on the kids at school. He was loved by them and the football coach, so much that he sacrificed his coaching job to keep Radio in the school system. Definitely a wonderful feel-good movie. Personally, I like movies that remind you of the important things in life. Keeps you grounded and reminds you that life isn't always so complicated when it comes to doing the right thing. There's nothing else like having someone care about you to make you feel good. I felt that some of the kids in the theater were too young to be there and couldn't grasp the concept, but if their parents were there to explain it to them, then the movie would be rewarding.
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I rate this title on for age 8 and give it
Good lessons here
This was a helpful movie for my 10yo daughter. Seeing how other people live and how disability doesn't make someone less of a person is an important lesson. Cuba Gooding Jr. does an amazing job of acting. The scene where Radio gets taped is a little scary. It is sad to see how some people treat the disabled or people of color. Another good movie with this theme is "The Boys Next Door."
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I rate this title pause for age 11 and give it
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Even though I wouldn't normally recommend a movie with racial themes and mean-spirited jokes to children, the tolerance and kindness lessons outweigh that. I think it would be fantastic for a junior high school class to watch and discuss the themes of this movie.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
A great family film
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I rate this title pause for age 0 and give it
Radio is a wonderful, tear-jerking but not sad and inspiring film.
I saw this a very long time ago and I will remember that it was a big tear-jerker. It was excellent, however. Inspiring, thoughtful, has a great lesson and story. I loved it and I want to own it, but younger kids might find it boring or very sad. The social behavior is bad. The movie centers on a colored person is mentally slow, and a bunch of kids at school play very mean pranks on him and call him names. All of those kids are white and there is a lot of prejudice going around, a lot from adults, against this man. He is deprived of certain thinsg and the story creates very sad and heartbreaking scenes in this way. Theres a little bit of language, if I remember, but nothing much else. Its for teens and up. A wonderful movie throughout.
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
one of a kind!!
The perfect movie for the whole family!
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
Rodio is such an inspirational movie! I recomend it for everyone
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I rate this title on for age 0 and give it
a favorite for all time...
this is one of my favorite movies forever....i wanna buy it so bad i just love it! i cried and laughed and it made me really feel with the characters it was just amazing!! it was so sweet too i think that everyone should watch this movie at least once in their life...
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