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RAIN MAN
(directed by Barry Levinson, 1988)
The meaning behind "Rain Man" is that it's how a young Charlie Babbitt (played by Tom Cruise when he's older) pronounced his brother's name, Raymond, one time when they met before many years and years later, after Charlie grew up and forgot that he even had a brother. He forgot all about the existence of "Rain Man", the man who sang to him, and he started to believe that Rain Man was merely an imaginary friend he had made up.
Charlie Babbitt grew up and became a materialistic ******* who had disowned his father because dad refused to let him drive his nice car (dad was rich), so Charlie decided to not listen to him and he drove it anyway, leading to him spending a few nights in jail and dad never got him out. Rain Man begins with the news that dad is now dead. Will Charlie get some money out of this (he needs it now more than ever)? No -- the money goes to "Rain Man" (Dustin Hoffman), the long lost brother he forgot about, an autistic savant who's living in a nice institution with other folks who have mental disabilities. Charlie meets him once again and decides to take him out for a couple of days -- possibly Rain Man/Raymond will leave the institution forever. They head to Los Angeles and, after Raymond has a conniption fit about airlines that have had crashes (they're too frightening for him), they take the car and travel across the country. It's a road movie.
I'm not sure how much people really knew about autism in the 1980's, but I surmise that it wasn't heard about as much as today. Now everywhere you go, you hear about autistic people. Or people who have Asperger's Syndrome, like our very own The Rodent, who have a high functioning form of autism. Raymond Babbitt, though, is unusual because he's a savant -- his brain is practically an organic computer. He'll know any answer to a mathematical question that you punch into a calculator. If you play cards with him, he'll know what cards you're holding. If you drop a box toothpicks, he'll instantly know how many fell and how many are still in the box just by looking at how many dropped in practically a glance's amount of time. He'll read a telephone book and know everybody's name and phone number by memory real quick. He could be considered creepy and unreal and superhuman and alien. How would you like to find out that you suddenly had this genius for a brother? That's what happens to Tom Cruise in Rain Man and the movie allows us to witness them getting to know each other. As much as they can get to know each other.
Yes, this is one of those movies about a handicapped/special person that wound up winning all kinds of awards (it won Best Picture at the Oscars, among others). You make a good movie about somebody who has a different kind of brain, you're more likely to get showered with a lot of praise, a lot of attention, a lot of respect and maybe some big, big awards. Forrest Gump did it... so did A Beautiful Mind. Not all of these movies end up making it big (such as I Am Sam), yet I suspect there must be something deeply interesting to people about such films. What is it? Are we fascinated by the strangeness of human nature and its many forms of human appearances? Do people with different brains and different manners of behavior help teach us about ourselves and our own limitations?
Whatever it is, Rain Man is still a very nice and touching movie. It feels at times rather classic, like an Old Hollywood movie. It also, I thought, does not feel aged -- I swear I could almost believe this was set in 2013. Change a few things here and there and it would look completely fresh. Only Raymond's portable TV stands out as old, and yet, considering modern devices and phones that let us watch videos wherever we go now, that portable television does not seem so ancient. Give Raymond an iPhone and that's all you'd need to make Rain Man feel more current.
I also must say that I for once like Tom Cruise in something. He is very good here and also very sexy. It saddened me once this was over because it was time to get back to the Tom Cruise I don't really care for.
Dustin Hoffman is totally believable, although I'm not really sure if savants could really be as perfectly accurate as Raymond is. But he's perfectly believable as a lovable, extraordinary guy. Check out Rain Man.
(directed by Barry Levinson, 1988)
The meaning behind "Rain Man" is that it's how a young Charlie Babbitt (played by Tom Cruise when he's older) pronounced his brother's name, Raymond, one time when they met before many years and years later, after Charlie grew up and forgot that he even had a brother. He forgot all about the existence of "Rain Man", the man who sang to him, and he started to believe that Rain Man was merely an imaginary friend he had made up.
Charlie Babbitt grew up and became a materialistic ******* who had disowned his father because dad refused to let him drive his nice car (dad was rich), so Charlie decided to not listen to him and he drove it anyway, leading to him spending a few nights in jail and dad never got him out. Rain Man begins with the news that dad is now dead. Will Charlie get some money out of this (he needs it now more than ever)? No -- the money goes to "Rain Man" (Dustin Hoffman), the long lost brother he forgot about, an autistic savant who's living in a nice institution with other folks who have mental disabilities. Charlie meets him once again and decides to take him out for a couple of days -- possibly Rain Man/Raymond will leave the institution forever. They head to Los Angeles and, after Raymond has a conniption fit about airlines that have had crashes (they're too frightening for him), they take the car and travel across the country. It's a road movie.
I'm not sure how much people really knew about autism in the 1980's, but I surmise that it wasn't heard about as much as today. Now everywhere you go, you hear about autistic people. Or people who have Asperger's Syndrome, like our very own The Rodent, who have a high functioning form of autism. Raymond Babbitt, though, is unusual because he's a savant -- his brain is practically an organic computer. He'll know any answer to a mathematical question that you punch into a calculator. If you play cards with him, he'll know what cards you're holding. If you drop a box toothpicks, he'll instantly know how many fell and how many are still in the box just by looking at how many dropped in practically a glance's amount of time. He'll read a telephone book and know everybody's name and phone number by memory real quick. He could be considered creepy and unreal and superhuman and alien. How would you like to find out that you suddenly had this genius for a brother? That's what happens to Tom Cruise in Rain Man and the movie allows us to witness them getting to know each other. As much as they can get to know each other.
Yes, this is one of those movies about a handicapped/special person that wound up winning all kinds of awards (it won Best Picture at the Oscars, among others). You make a good movie about somebody who has a different kind of brain, you're more likely to get showered with a lot of praise, a lot of attention, a lot of respect and maybe some big, big awards. Forrest Gump did it... so did A Beautiful Mind. Not all of these movies end up making it big (such as I Am Sam), yet I suspect there must be something deeply interesting to people about such films. What is it? Are we fascinated by the strangeness of human nature and its many forms of human appearances? Do people with different brains and different manners of behavior help teach us about ourselves and our own limitations?
Whatever it is, Rain Man is still a very nice and touching movie. It feels at times rather classic, like an Old Hollywood movie. It also, I thought, does not feel aged -- I swear I could almost believe this was set in 2013. Change a few things here and there and it would look completely fresh. Only Raymond's portable TV stands out as old, and yet, considering modern devices and phones that let us watch videos wherever we go now, that portable television does not seem so ancient. Give Raymond an iPhone and that's all you'd need to make Rain Man feel more current.
I also must say that I for once like Tom Cruise in something. He is very good here and also very sexy. It saddened me once this was over because it was time to get back to the Tom Cruise I don't really care for.
Dustin Hoffman is totally believable, although I'm not really sure if savants could really be as perfectly accurate as Raymond is. But he's perfectly believable as a lovable, extraordinary guy. Check out Rain Man.