SESE 240
Movie Review Radio
Based on a true story, the movie Radio follows a young man named James Robert Kennedy. It opens up showing a bit of insight in his life as he walks through town with a cart avoiding eye contact, insults, and speaking to others. He gets called a moron by a man, and children are shooed away in the first few minutes. It is clear he is different from the people he is around as he walks daily with a cart full of his things and his radio. Walking past the football field like usual, he one day stumbles upon a football thrown over the fence, and when he doesn’t listen to a players demands to return it he again gets insulted called “dummy” He makes gestures by waving his hands in the air, specifically his right one, and makes no eye contact. He acts as if he cannot hear what he has been told and makes no effort to talk. He shows obvious signs of an intellectual disorder. The first incident that happens in the movie is when he is bullied and taped up, thrown in a shed by the football player who called him a dummy and some team members. When the football coach, Coach Jones, finds him he’s terrified and runs away from the crowd as fast as possible. He displays more traits of his disorder by appearing a bit socially awkward. As the movie progresses Coach Jones takes him under his wing, inviting him to practices and even noticing his infatuation with radios enough to give him the nickname Radio. Radio visits daily practices and games, and becomes a friend of much of the team. Coach Jones gets him to talk more, interact, and even begins teaching him at school in a classroom. Radio is ecstatic about sports and shows his love of his friends and school. However, Radio’s stability is questioned by residents of the town and his previous bully’s father when the death of his mother strikes and he is left alone in the home. The connection he has come to share with Coach Jones is proven after Radio’s mother dies and the coach is the only one