Radio Days

For other uses, see Radio Days (disambiguation).
Radio Days

Radio Days theatrical poster
Directed by Woody Allen
Produced by Robert Greenhut
Written by Woody Allen
Starring
Narrated by Woody Allen
Music by Dick Hyman
Cinematography Carlo Di Palma
Edited by Susan E. Morse
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Release dates
  • January 30, 1987 (1987-01-30)
Running time
 85 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $16 million USD
Box office $14.8 million

Radio Days is a 1987 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen, who also narrates. The film looks back on an American family's life during the Golden Age of Radio using both music and memories to tell the story. It stars an ensemble cast.

Plot

Joe (Woody Allen), the narrator, explains how the radio influenced his childhood in the days before TV. The young Joe (Seth Green) lives in Rockaway, Queens in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The tale mixes Joe's experiences with his remembrances and anecdotes, inserting his memories of the urban legends of radio stars, and is told in constantly changing plot points and vignettes.

Even though Joe's Jewish-American family lives modestly in Rockaway Beach, each member at one point during the film finds in radio shows an escape from reality through the gossip of celebrities, sports legends of the day, game shows, and crooners, with the majority of the stories taking place in the glitz and glamour of Manhattan. For Joe, the action adventure shows on the radio inspire him as he daydreams about buying a secret decoder ring, an attractive substitute teacher, movie stars (who may or may not be as honest as they appear), and World War II.

Meanwhile, several other parallel stories are told, from an aspiring radio star named Sally White (Mia Farrow), Joe's Aunt Bea (Dianne Wiest) and her (mostly fruitless) search for love, and during the middle of the film on the radio the tragic story is told about a little girl named Polly Phelps, who falls into a well near Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. It becomes a big national story as the family listens to it. Sadly, Polly does not survive.

Cast

Music

The film's soundtrack, which features songs from the 1930s and 40s, plays an integral and seamless part in the plot. It was released on cassette and compact disc in 1987.

Track listing

No.TitleArtist(s)Length
1."In the Mood"  Glenn Miller3:33
2."I Double Dare You"  Larry Clinton2:49
3."Opus No. 1"  Tommy Dorsey2:58
4."Frenesi"  Artie Shaw3:01
5."The Donkey Serenade"  Allan Jones3:21
6."Body and Soul"  Benny Goodman3:26
7."You and I"  Tommy Dorsey2:44
8."Remember Pearl Harbor"  Sammy Kaye2:29
9."That Old Feeling"  Guy Lombardo2:45
10."(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover"  Glenn Miller2:54
11."Goodbye"  Benny Goodman3:31
12."I'm Gettin' Sentimental Over You"  Tommy Dorsey3:38
13."Lullaby of Broadway"  Richard Himber2:29
14."American Patrol"  Glenn Miller3:33
15."Take the "A" Train"  Duke Ellington3:00
16."One, Two, Three, Kick"  Xavier Cugat3:23

Release

The film was screened out of competition at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

Home media

Radio Days was released on DVD by Fox Searchlight Pictures November 6, 2001. A limited edition Blu-ray of 3,000 units was later released by Twilight Time July 8, 2014.[2]

Reception

Critical response

Radio Days currently holds a "Fresh" 88% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average score of 7.9/10.[3] In his four-star review, noted critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described Radio Days as Allen’s answer to Federico Fellini’s Amarcord and referred to it as "so ambitious and so audacious that it almost defies description. It's a kaleidoscope of dozens of characters, settings and scenes - the most elaborate production Allen has ever made - and it's inexhaustible, spinning out one delight after another."[4] Vincent Canby of The New York Times referred to Allen as the "prodigal cinema resource" and spoke of the film saying, "Radio Days [...] is as free in form as it is generous of spirit."[5]

David Denby wrote for New York that: "[...] The real glue, however, is the lullingly beautiful popular music of the period — Cole Porter, Dubin and Warren, big-band jazz, crooners, torch singers, Carmen Miranda. The music, perfectly matched to images of old wood and brick buildings and old glamour spots, produces a mood of distanced, bittersweet nostalgia. Radio Days becomes a gently satiric commemorations of forgotten lives."[6]

In a poll held by Empire magazine of the 500 greatest films ever made, Radio Days was voted number 304.[7]

Accolades

1987 Academy Awards (Oscars)

1987 BAFTA Film Awards

1988 Writers Guild of America Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Radio Days". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
  2. ↑ "Radio Days (1989) (Blu-Ray)". Screen Archives Entertainment. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  3. ↑ Radio Days at Rotten Tomatoes
  4. ↑ "Radio Days". Chicago Sun-Times. January 30, 1987.
  5. ↑ Canby, Vincent (January 30, 1987). "Woody Allen's Fond Remembrances Of 'Radio Days'". The New York Times. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  6. ↑ Denby, David (February 9, 1987). "Woody Allen's nostalgic Radio Days is exquisitely crafted, but the picture is suffused with mediocrity". New York Magazine. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Empire Features". empireonline.com.
  8. 1 2 "The 60th Academy Awards (1988) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-07-31.

Further reading

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