“Radio Flyer,” released in 1992, begins with the obligation,
common to a lot of children’s literature and film, to place its protagonists in
a harsh and cruel realm. Like a lot of animated characters who lose their
parents, are kidnapped, or have their homes burned or their families lost at
sea, this one starts on a sad note, with a divorce. The protagonists, Mike (Elijah
Wood) and Bobby (Joseph Mazzello), are taken by their mother to California,
where she marries an evil, alcoholic instigator who wants to be called The King
(Adam Baldwin). When Mom isn’t around, The King likes to abuse Bobby, who gets
black and blue scars as a result.
The mother, played by Lorraine Bracco, is really
strange, an engaging, intelligent, hardworking woman who somehow doesn’t notice
that she is married to an abuser. She also misses the scars on Bobby’s back,
and of course her kids, feeling untrusted and all alone, do not tell her about
the abuse. Instead, they begin to plan an escape for Bobby, by making his Radio
Flyer wagon with wings and an engine, so it will fly, and he can leave town and
never return.
They have some reason to think this plan will work.
Ebert told an example, “A kid named Fisher once coasted his wagon down a hill
and up the slope of a barn, and he flew through the sky so high he was almost
able to hitch a ride on the tail of a plane that was taking off from the
valley. Of course, Fisher also suffered a terrible fall, and when we finally
meet him, late in the picture, he is crippled, but there you have it: Heroes
have to take chances.”
Ebert continued, “I will not regale you with the
details by which Bobby's maiden flight takes place. I was so appalled, watching
this kid hurtling down the hill in his pathetic contraption, that I didn't know
which ending would be worse.” If he fell to his death, that would be impossible,
but if he flew up to the moon, that would be unforgiveable – because you can’t
escape from child abuse in a Radio Flyer, and even the people who made this film
should feel bad to say otherwise.
Who was this movie made for? Kids? Adults? What kid
needs a movie about a scared little boy who is the subject of alcoholic abuse?
Ebert asked, “What adult can suspend so much disbelief that the movie's ending,
a visual ripoff from "E.T.," inspires anything other than
incredulity? What hypothetical viewer could they possibly have had in mind?
"Radio Flyer" was a famous screenplay by David Mickey Evans, before
it was a movie. It was one of the hottest screenplays in town, maybe because of
the incongruity of its elements. If somebody at a story conference didn't
describe this movie as "child abuse meets Peter Pan," they were
missing a bet. It is utterly cynical from beginning to end, and never more
cynical than in its contrived idealism. Was the screenplay so sought-after, so
expensive, that no sane voice was heard, raising fundamental objections?
Hollywood fought tooth and nail to spend a fortune on this screenplay. Was the
movie launched in some kind of mass hysteria? I know that the voice-over
narration suggests that maybe this wasn't the way the story really happened,
and is only the way Mike, the older brother, now remembers it as an adult.” Tom
Hanks plays the adult Mike telling this story to his children, played by Adam
Hendershott and Daniel Bieber. But what did really happen? Did Bobby fall to
his death? Did the cops drag away The King? Did Mom get smarter? Ebert ended
his review by saying, “"Radio Flyer" is a real squirmarama of unasked
and unanswered questions. At the end, there's an 800 number you can call if you
want information on child abuse. I imagine the volunteers at the other end
would have some pithy observations about this movie.”
My cousin told me about this movie since he recorded it
on TV. Then he bought the movie and he showed it to me the next time I was over
his house. When I saw it, I probably thought it was nice, but when I thought about
it more, the more I realized that it was a stupid movie. Everything that
happens in here is unrealistic. What parent doesn’t notice the child getting
abuse or ask questions? Why wouldn’t a child tell anyone that they were being
abused? Why wouldn’t “any” adult notice the scars or anything? Why wouldn’t
they call Child Protective Services on the family? On top of that, what child
would think of an escape like this from child abuse without speaking to the one
parent they should trust? Also, why would Mike lost contact with Bobby? Why would they never speak to one another after that escape, if that did happen? If Bobby was separated from the family because of the abuse, wouldn't they still be in contact? Nothing really makes any sense. I read a theory that
people say Bobby didn’t exist because he only interacts with Mike, which isn’t
true. Maybe The King did kill Bobby by abusing him or maybe he did die when
they tried to have him fly away on the wagon and Mike was so petrified by that
incident that he fabricated that Bobby escaped and they never saw each other
again. There was supposed to be an ending where Mike took his kids to a museum
where they met Bobby and the brothers embraced. That would have been really absurd.
Bottom line: don’t watch this movie. Nothing about this works in any way.
Next week I will be talking about a made-for-TV movie
that I saw a little bit of when I was a teen, forgot about, then recently I
remembered it and saw it entirely in “Child Abuse Awareness Month.” Sorry for the
late posting. I was so tired from work that I took a nap and forgot to post.
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