Radio Flyer

Richard Donner was not only the director, but the producer on almost all of his films. This was partly because he served as a reliable broker of ambitious scripts, which he expertly rewrote into a workable form. He ripped apart a six-hundred-page script by one Mario Puzo for Superman, gutted the script for the Dickens adaptation Scrooged, and completely rewrote Shane Black's original script for Lethal Weapon. He probably killed some bold creative visions in the process (and the original ending of Lethal Weapon, for example, in which a drug-laden plane was supposed to crash into the Hollywood sign while snowing all of Los Angeles with cocaine, involving Sinatra's "Let it Snow", is just a shame), but in doing so he probably made sure that some of the stories were filmed at all. He was called to Radio Flyer after the studio was very unhappy with the results of the shoot so far, which was entrusted to screenwriter and first-time director David M. Evans. He was originally given the director's chair, along with a huge fee, due to the fact that this particular script of his was the subject of a tug-of-war between Warner and Columbia, as representatives from both studios were completely crazy about it. The victorious Columbia then pulled the chair out from under him and gave the job to the veteran Donner, who cast his signature spell, i.e. rewrote the entire script, fired anyone he didn't like (including the entire original cast), reduced the number of special effects sequences, and increased the budget by almost 100%. So Evans' directing credit is misplaced here, in my opinion, because we don't see his work reflected in the final product. ___ The film's resulting commercial and critical failure, in my opinion, came from the film's inability to fully decide between being a suburban kid feel-good film (feel-good scenes of childhood games, comedic moments) or a sad depiction of domestic violence from a child's perspective. Given how sensitive American society is to the subject of violence against children, the resulting flop is understandable. Personally, I also find classic 80's boyhood adventures like E.T. etc. quite depressing, so I wasn't shocked in the slightest; on the contrary, I admired how carefully the bleakness of the environment in which the titular kids grow up is portrayed this time around. As in most other films of this type, they come from financially struggling families who have no time for them because of work, and their adventures are based on having nothing at home themselves, so they have no choice but to explore their surroundings and give things a new context. Radio Flyer, however, comes up with an innovative (and absolutely perfect) element where that childhood angle and context is actually transformed into reality at the end. For a grounded audience, there could be no lesser satisfaction, but those who are aware that the truth must never get in the way of a good story will have no trouble accepting that reality must never get in the way of saving a life. Cinephile shorthand: if you like Blow-Up, you can't not like this movie. (05/02/2021) (less) (more)