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Parents' Guide to

Radio

By Nell Minow, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 11+

Lesson of kindness permeates inspiring true story.

Movie PG 2003 109 minutes
Radio Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 10+

Based on 8 parent reviews

Adam D.
Adam D. Parent of 10-year-old
March 20, 2018
age 12+

More language than "a couple" as listed in category section!

Great movie and a great James Horner soundtrack! It's best for 12 and up I'd say. There is much more language in this than described in content section. There are 8 uses of h-word, 7 used of s-word, 2 d-words.
brendanc94
brendanc94 Adult
April 24, 2016
age 7+

Very Inspiring Movie

To be honest after watching Radio it was a major influence on me and as a result back in High School I became the manager for the Varsity football team. Yes there may be some scenes like Radio being told to go into the girls locker room without him knowing there were girls in the locker room, Radio being left behind from going with the team onto the bus for an away football game, Radio being tied up in the equipment shed, and being arrested by the police while Radio was delivering Christmas gifts to the community that he actually was given, and having to deal with the death of his mother. However There's a lot you can learn from the movie like learning important life lessons on learning how to accept that everyone is different, Treating others with respect, etc
See all 8 parent reviews

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?

Our review:
Parents say (8 ):
Kids say (19 ):

This film may be as predictable as a Hallmark card, but it's as heartwarming, too. Radio 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).

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about disabled people they know and how they are treated. Do you think Radio was a respectful, accurate someone with a disability?

  • Why was Radio was so important to Coach Jones? If we cannot correct a mistake we make at the time, how 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

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