Radio
Short description
Radio is a drama set in Anderson, South Carolina, where a high school football coach named Harold Jones notices a young Black man with an intellectual disability who is known around town as Radio because of the portable radio he carries everywhere. After others mock and mistreat him, Jones takes him under his wing, and Radio becomes a fixture at practices and games and eventually a student at the school. The friendship that grows between the two men draws criticism from parents and supporters who believe the coach's attention to Radio is distracting him from the team's season.
Michael Tollin directed the film, his second feature after Summer Catch, from a screenplay by Mike Rich. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays Radio and Ed Harris plays Coach Jones, with Alfre Woodard, S. Epatha Merkerson, Debra Winger and Chris Mulkey among the supporting cast. Columbia Pictures, Revolution Studios and Tollin/Robbins Productions backed the project on a budget of 35 million dollars, and it went on to take in 53 million dollars worldwide.
On IMDb the film holds a 6.9 rating from roughly 47,000 votes, while on TMDB it has a 7.4 from around 926 votes. A critics' rating of 5.1 from 121 reviews places it below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The true story of James Robert Kennedy, nicknamed "Radio," and his relationship with Anderson High School coach Harold Jones was described in a 1996 article by Gary Smith in "Sports Illustrated." It was later republished in the book "Beyond the Game: A Collection of Gary Smith's Sports Writings."
- The working title of the film was "Someone to Lean On."
- Filming began on October 14, 2002, in Walterboro, South Carolina, and wrapped in December of the same year.
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