In fact, the filming is quite blunt, and some places are not very logical. It’s okay if a genius brother can build a flying car, and it’s okay for a child to hide wires in the oven. Why does the stepfather set the empty oven on fire? Fortunately, the wonderful performances of the two lovely children covered up these faults. Elijah Wood's signature big eyes have been shining with ethereal light since he was a child, and his face is still full of flesh; while the younger Joseph Mazzello always has a sadness, and his eyes seem to say that there is only sky or endless. The distance is his home. He reminds me of another child star, Haley Joel Osment, who is said to have considered Mazzello for the lead role when Spielberg made "Artificial Intelligence", and his vision is very close to mine! The brothers are very close, and the content of half the film is about their journey of playing with their faithful shepherd dogs and brave adventures in the California countryside. The golden sunshine and innocent childhood in California in the 1960s are believed to have brought back memories of many viewers, especially There are siblings.
If this film only has the above content, it will be a warm film very suitable for children's audiences, and also suitable for nostalgia for adult audiences. Yet the rest of the film shatters this possible theme. The different eyes of the two children actually represent their different fates in the film. A single mother brought her two brothers across the United States to California, happily starting a new family. However, the younger brother Bobby was repeatedly abused by his stepfather, and the older brother Mike could only stare with tears in his eyes but could not do anything. I was wondering why they didn't tell mom, Bobby, who had just been beaten, said sadly to his brother, "Mike, promise me, don't tell mom, she's very happy now." What a pitiful and sensible child! The elder brother is also very considerate. By being scolded for deliberately doing bad things, he attracts the attention of his mother.
And this heart-wrenching tragedy, the film ends with an eye-popping ending. In Mike's memory, Bobby rode the flying car transformed by the brothers (that is, the film name radio flyer) and flew to the place of his dreams and became a pilot. It turned out that his sad eyes contained a yearning for the sky. This romantic happy ending was a relief for Bobby and a relief for the audience. But the film also hints that this is just Mike's way of remembering Bobby. There are even comments on IMDB that Bobby doesn't exist at all, just Mike's imaginary brother, a dark projection of himself who really suffered from childhood abuse. He also gave evidence why only the younger brother was abused, why both brothers had stomachaches at the same time, and why the mother didn't react violently to Bobby's disappearance. I don't think it's very likely, otherwise the theme of Tom Hanks' commitment to taking care of his younger brother at the beginning and the end becomes a commitment to the illusion of non-existence. Coincidentally, I watched it the day before, and the filming time of "The Fantastic Drifting of Pi", which was filmed 20 years apart, also has similar elements, as Tom Hanks said at the end of the film: "The so-called truth, or history, exists only in telling in the mind of the man because that's just his way of remembering or remembering."
I don't think it really matters whether Bobby is dead or not, what makes me struggle is the position expressed at the end of the film. In the face of suffering, we not only take the way of escape, but also advocate flying out of the cliff to get rid of it. This obviously not only misleads the child audience, but also fails to teach them how to deal with the problem. And so many warm and touching brotherhoods in front of them seem to be aimed at children's audiences. And that bleak plot is obviously not for an adult audience with bad childhood memories. So I think the target audience for this film is confusing.
In short, children and those with childhood shadows, stay away from this film.
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