It’s been several years now since I’ve seen the movie Radio Flyer. I can appreciate the idea that the kids escaped physical abuse by escaping to their fantasy, but that does nothing to tell me what really happened.
Near the end where the younger brother flies off in their home made plane, it’s like he never comes back. Does that mean in reality he ran away? He was killed by step dad? What? The programmer/logical side of me wants concrete evidence of where the brothers are.
What a great movie. I cried my ass off. But, I think you have to suspend reality for the ending, and believe he actually flew away. It ruins it if you try to rationalize it.
I saw an interview with Tom Hanks when the movie was first released. He said that the little boy committed suicide by “flying” off of the cliff to his death.
Due to the dark subject matter of a little child committing suicide, the movie makers masked it with fantasy. However, the underlying story was that he escaped by suicide.
That’s the best answer I’ve heard yet. The little brother was imaginary. Young Tom Hanks ‘transferred’ to his little brother when he needed to escape reality. I can live with that.
I LOVE this movie, it reminds me very much of my own childhood, and every year or so I will rent it, watch it, and have a big ol’ crying party.
I guess this is why I am a writer: I never questioned what happened, I just accepted it. I could never be a scientist.
I just took the whole thing as a metaphor for escape. If suicide makes sense, so be it. But in that situation, you do what you can to get away from the pain. Pretending you can fly is one way, or escaping to a fantasy world. I have a very vivid imagination, so I always figured that the boy’s successful flight symbolized his ability to transcend the abuse and be free from his pain.
It’s too sad to think that he killed himself for me, though.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen this, but at the end of the movie, doesn’t Tom Hanks say the little brother is now a pilot and have a picture of him?