Radio gallery
What parents need to know
Violence
Sex
Language
Consumerism
Drinking, drugs, & smoking
Parents Need to Know
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.
User reviews
Parents say
Kids say
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?
QUALITY
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).
Families can talk about...
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.
Movie details
| Theatrical release date: | October 24, 2003 |
| DVD release date: | January 27, 2004 |
| Cast: | Alfre Woodard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Ed Harris |
| Director: | Michael Tollin |
| Studio: | Columbia Tristar |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Topics: | Sports and martial arts, Misfits and underdogs |
| Run time: | 109 minutes |
| MPAA rating: | PG |
| MPAA explanation: | mild language and thematic elements |
Great handpicked alternatives
Browse more movies
Top advice and articles
What parents and kids say
Share your thoughts with other parents and kids Write a user review
A safe community is important to us. Please observe our guidelines
QUALITY
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."
Was this review useful?
QUALITY
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...
Was this review useful?
QUALITY
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.
Was this review useful?
Poll
What are the different ways that you access Common Sense Media ratings and information? (Check all that apply)
What are the different ways that you access Common Sense Media ratings and information? (Check all that apply)
Total votes: 761