Rad

Dir: Hal Needham

1986

****

Rad is skill, and if you weren’t a child of the 80s then you should know, skill is rad. Now you may ask, as absolutely no one did in 1986, why the world would need another BMX film when 1983’s BMX Bandits is so unbeatably awesome. It’s a good question, but I would argue that the world coped rather well with having Beat Street and Breakin’ exist as the same time, and also the world is stupid anyway, just shut up and watch this awesome film. I’m not sure a single-worded film title has ever described itself so accurately before or since. BMX Bandits is awesome but it’s a very different film, the BMX riders have a mission, the BMX is their mode of transport and their tricks merely assist them in achieving something unrelated to cycling. Rad on the other hand celebrates what was a subculture that was far from mainstream. BMX bikers were pesky talentless kids to most adults, Rad explained that there was much more to it than that. You have to bear in mind, the X Games didn’t exist and wouldn’t be created for another nine years. The film is about a seventeen year old small town kid called Cru. Cru works hard at school and has two jobs, one working at a local café and the other working a paper round. Everyone likes him and he’s a very decent chap. He’s also a BMX nut and spends most of his life sitting on a saddle than standing on his own two feet. When Cru’s local town endorses the local construction (ha!) of a track and event called ‘Helltrack’, riders from all over the country flock to compete. It’s never clear why this town in particular is chosen as its terrain can’t be that different to that of many other towns but these are minor details. Duke Best, president of The Federation of American Bicyclists and owner of Mongoose bicycles, secures the deal with the city department using what seems like underhand methods (again, not sure why) and sets the price money at $100, as well as fame and a brand new Chevrolet Corvette. He soon becomes annoyed by the presence of young Cru and does everything he can to prevent him from entering the race (again, for no real apparent reason). Cru qualifies but is told that due to a last minute rule change, cannot compete due to a lack of sponsor. His seven year old sister comes up with the idea to start a t-shirt company and essentially sponsor themselves and when told that the sponsoring company must be worth $50,000 at least, the townsfolk give them money in order to help out their local lad. I’m not sure the business side of the story adds up but again, these are just minor details. However, Cru doesn’t just have to face greedy business owners, fiercely competitive cyclists and angry old people in general, no, he’s got to face his mother (played by Talia Shire) too, a dreaded thing in the 1980s. Talia Shire (Adriiiiiiiaaaaaaaan) was a pretty big name in 1986, quite a coup for such a small production. Turns out she’s quite a push over and understands that he can take his SATs (which take place on the same day as Helltrack) six months later, in the remote chance he won’t be a multi-millionaire BMX superstar by then. Thanks Mum. Another cliché avoided is the will they/won’t they romance. Cru meets Christian Hollings, a BMX rider/trick artist who has been told by her sponsors to attend the event and look pretty (but not enter), and the pair soon hit it off romantically. They don’t split up, they don’t argue, they listen to each other and never fly off the handle with each other. Unheard of, even in today’s romances. Indeed, their big shared scene is at the beginning of the film, rather than at the end, at for my money it gives Dirty Dancing a run for its money. The pair attend a youth disco (even though both actors were around 23 at the time) and out-dance the other cyclists (who borrowed their costumes from the cult sci-fi TV show V – no, seriously, they did) by dancing on their BMXs. It’s like Flashdance, Dirty dancing and Footloose all rolled into one, except with bikes and you never see their feet (but I’m sure they were really cycling). The script really isn’t that bad either. The climax of the film, the Helltrack race itself, was filmed close to winter, so leaves were painted green and the cast wore summer clothes in cold weather and made it look like summer. That’s passion. That’s BMX passion. It looks cheap at times, it was clearly made on a small budget and not all of the actors could act (in the classical sense) and basically it shouldn’t have worked. There are probably quite a few idiots that will tell you it didn’t work but that is why they are idiots. It’s a beautiful bit of nostalgia, the critics hated it but the audience loved it. It’s got everything you could want and it explored something new, a subculture that Hollywood still hasn’t touched. It’s called Rad because it is rad, although it’s original title was ‘Balls Out’, but it still would have been rad had they had gone with it, they would have just attracted a different audience is all. The soundtrack is also of the highest awesomenessness.

“God, what I wouldn't give to go ass-sliding with you right now.”