When Charlie Babbitt's father dies, he leaves millions of dollars not to Charlie (Tom Cruise), but to his autistic savant brother Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) of whom he was unaware. In an effort to gain partial control of his father's estate, Charlie takes Raymond from the institution where he had been living and the two embark on a cross-country road trip. Along the way, Charlie and Raymond uncover the details of their family history and gain an understanding and appreciation of one another.
Autistic Characteristics Portrayed
- Takes things literally
- Difficulty with changes to routine
- Difficulty with social interaction
- Lack of nonverbal communication
- Repetitive behaviors
What We Liked
The relationship between Charlie and Raymond was portrayed very honestly. Charlie's transformation over the course of the film was inspiring and could be relevant to viewers who are encountering an autistic individual for the first time. While he attitude and behavior at the beginning of the film was less than acceptable, by the end of the film he had learned to adapt his own habits to coexist with Raymond's idiosyncrasies.
Rain Man was one of the first films to feature an autistic character in a lead role. As such, the movie did do a lot for the autistic community in terms of raising awareness. Many people probably knew nothing about autism or maybe had heard of it but didn't know what it was really like. It's possible that people who didn't know anything about autism saw this movie and were intrigued enough to go out and learn more about it. If nothing else, I think that Rain Man got the term "autism" out there in the public eye. So in that sense, Rain Man did make a positive contribution to the autistic community and society in general.
What We Didn't
Once again, this film reinforced the stereotype that all autistics are savants. The tendency of filmmakers to focus only on the savant aspect of autistic characters is extremely harmful to the autistic community. It invalidates the contributions that non-savant autistics make to society by implying that people on the autism spectrum have nothing to offer unless they have savant-like skills.
Seeing as this was the first major film about autism, the misconceptions that are portrayed in it reached a huge audience and instilled those stereotypes in many people's minds. I think it's highly likely that many people only know about autism what they learned from Rain Man. While I do think that the film is worthwhile and that there is definitely useful information to be learned from watching it, it becomes detrimental when people start basing their conceptions of the entire autistic community on this one not entirely accurate portrayal of an autistic man.
Overall Grade: C+
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