Great Performances In A Well Done Fact-Based Film

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2011)

The highlights of this film are the two absolutely superb performances by Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ed Harris. Gooding was the title character - James Robert Kennedy, a mentally disabled young man known simply as "Radio" because of his love for radios. Harris played Harold Jones - a local high school teacher who was also coach of the Hanna High School football team and the school's athletic director. The movie is the portrayal of how their relationship develops, with Jones taking the young man under his wing, so to speak, and making him part of both the team and the school community, fighting the efforts of many of the townsfolk and school board officials to have him removed.
It's certainly a heartwarming story, although it's not exactly what I'd call a tearjerker, although there are moments when tears might flow (particularly the death of Radio's mother.) There are question raised throughout the movie that are often hard to deal with. One admires Jones' devotion to Radio, but one wonders why he seems unable to show the same devotion to his own daughter. It's great to see Radio becoming gradually accepted as part of the team and school, but the movie doesn't shy away from the question of whether he isn't being treated more as a mascot than anything else - certainly a question that ran through my head on a number of occasions as we watch Radio lead the team on the the field and join the cheerleading squad from time to time. Jones' own personal motivation is finally explained as he relates a childhood experience to his daughter that illustrates why he feels so strongly for Radio. In the end, Radio's place within the life of the school is made more "official" and Kennedy is apparently still roaming the halls and the sidelines of Hanna High as an official 11th Grade student for as long as he wants to be one - this being based on a true story.
"Based on a true story" always makes me wonder. Kennedy is real, and he's really at Hanna High and he and Jones are really friends, so there's obviously a strong basis in fact for this movie. I wondered, though, about what seemed to be the surprisingly easy acceptance of Radio among the townspeople. Although the whole community was concerned about the on-field performance of the football team, aside from one parent and one school board official, people seemed largely unconcerned about or uninterested in Radio himself - which struck me as a surprisingly bland reaction for a small southern town in the late 1960's to have for a mentally disabled young black man. But clearly it worked long term. I did appreciate that this was about much more than the football team. The football team was the backdrop for what happened, but no more than that. This was't an "underdog overcomes" sports story. The Hanna High team didn't have a great season in this movie; neither Radio nor Coach Jones inspired them to win anything of significance. The football team just became in some ways a microcosm of the community, as they grew more and more accepting of Radio, to the point at which Radio's presence was simply a given.
This is a very well done film, one of the better "based on a true story" films I've come across. (8/10)