Radio

When Coach Jones arrives at practice, he notices his players crowding the supply shed. Some are throwing footballs against the thin metal walls, snickering, while others are standing nearby, pretending to warm up. When questioned about what was going on, the players say nothing. And in the silence, you can hear a whimper. Jones rushes into the shed to find a young mentally-disabled black man, bound at the hands and feet by duct tape, with tears streaming down his face. Terrified, the young man squirms away until Coach Jones calms him down enough to cut him free. With his feet no longer bound, he immediately runs from the building. Tripping on the way out, falling at the feet of his torturers, before quickly scrambling away and running home.

This is one of the first scenes we see in the movie Radio, a drama based on the true story of 23 year old James Robert Kennedy and his time at T.L. Hanna High School, located in South Carolina. The film was released in 2003, but set in 1976. In short, Coach Jones, the high school’s football coach, takes a liking to the young man who walks by their football practice each day. He asks him to join the practices and help out, and then eventually the games. Being very shy at first, James does not share his name with Coach Jones. So Jones begins to call him Radio since the character clearly has a passion for them. Several members of the community are much more hesitant to accept Radio into their school system. But Coach Jones, along with other members of the community, see the potential and goodness that the boy has. It is through these various trials and tribulations that James and Coach Jones formed their friendship that is still strong today.

Though I could write pages and pages about the story of Radio, I want to dive into the details surrounding the Radio’s neurodiversity and how his character is being portrayed. But I highly encourage you to take the time to watch this movie. I have also included a link to a more detailed plot summary here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316465/plotsummary

This film is quite unique compared to the others I plan to review in the fact that it is a biography, meaning it is based on a true story and Radio is a real person. When that appears on the screen before a movie, I always wonder just how accurate the film is. I found a pretty detailed breakdown of several comparisons between what happened in real life and what happened in the movie on espn.com (that article is linked below). In my opinion, the three biggest differences were:

1. Coach Jones was a volunteer assistant coach when Radio first began coming around. He did not become head coach until 1985.

2. As far as the real Jones knows, the boys never physically hurt Radio like they did in the opening scene of the film. He did say they sometimes teased him, whether this was about his disability, his race, or just done in a playful way it does not say.

3. There was no conflict regarding Radio joining the school from the school board or Frank like there was in the movie. Coach Jones said, “When they first started talking about making a movie, I asked the school superintendent, ‘Did anyone ever call you up about Radio?’ And he said not once” (Merron).

The other differences between the film and Radio’s real life were related to the timeline. Several things like how long it took Radio to talk, when he began joining the football team, and when his mom died did happen but over a longer period of time. Of course for the sake of the film, those events had to be squeezed into an hour and forty-nine minutes. Apparently the main conflict and resolution of the movie is not based on real events. However, this does not mean Radio did not face opposition. In one scene of the movie, Radio and Coach are at a diner eating lunch. Many wandering eyes watched them followed by disapproving looks. No one called the superintendent of Radio’s school to put in an official complaint, but I would bet there were still plenty of whispers and questions. I also think it is pretty cool that Jones took a liking to Radio and made it a priority to involve him, when he was just a volunteer assistant coach. The other coaches seemed to take a liking to Radio too, but none had the bond like him and Coach Jones.

As I mentioned before, this film is unique because it is based on a real man’s life. Movies based on real stories always seem to tug at the heart strings a little more already, but it is the ending that is always my favorite. When they include pictures and videos of the real people and what is happening in their lives today. In the film, Jones asks Radio’s mother “what is wrong with him”. She replies, “Doctors couldn’t give it a name, they just say he’s slower than others”. In real life, Radio’s condition is a genetic one. His biological father and younger brother have a similar neurodiversity. Though a few changes were made to the character, Radio is still portrayed in a morally sound way. He is portrayed accurately as the director worked with the real James Kennedy when writing the film. Anything that is added is challenged he overcame, but not so much in a way that made him unrelatable. Sometimes neurodiverse media can make characters seem almost supernatural with what they accomplish (that is dangerous territory). This is a real man that other neurodiverse individuals can relate to and everyone can look up to. The other main character worth noting is Coach Jones, he also provides a character identity that we can relate to and be challenged by to really see neurodiverse individuals, maybe when no one else does.

So I want to challenge you. Have you been passing someone in between periods in the hall that you refuse to make eye contact with? Is there someone at your church you could say hi to? Maybe even a guy with a shopping cart who always walks by your practice. Or, you are the person walking by everyone else. Be like Coach Jones, be a friend.