Rain Man

This week, I watched the movie Rain Man for the first time. When I began talking about reviewing movies and writing a blog over their neurodiverse characters, multiple people suggested that this movie be on my list. Similar to the other movies I have previously reviewed, I highly encourage you to watch it. I found it on Amazon Prime Video. Considering I finished it just minutes before typing this, my feelings about it are still very fresh, so I am just gonna say I was VERY unsatisfied with the ending. But the movie was still very good overall and perfect for this discussion. As with all my blog posts, it will be best if you have seen or know the storyline of the media being reviewed. So if you cannot find the 2 hours and 14 minutes it takes to watch Rain Man, I have linked a plot summary you can read here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/plotsummary

The film opens with one of the two main characters, Charlie Babbitt who is played by Tom Cruise, very passionately negotiating deals over the phone for his car business. Right off the bat this character's personality begins to shape. His language, attitude, and anger issues give a clear picture that he is not the sweet and gentle type. He is intense, impatient, and knows how to hold a grudge...basically the exact opposite of who you would picture working with or being around neurodiverse individuals. And when Charlie and his long lost brother Raymond’s adventure begins, it does not come from a place of love and desire for brother bonding. Charlie wants to use Raymond as a bargaining chip! However, as the days go by, we see Charlie begin to understand Raymond more and even discover a memory they shared from when they were boys. So what changed for Charlie? After the shock of having a brother was there another shock about him having autism? How did Raymond feel? Did he understand what Charlie was doing? Let’s dive into it…

A: Charlie Meets Raymond & Learns of His Condition

When Charlie first learns that Raymond is his brother, he talks with a doctor at the institute, Dr. Bruner. He questions Dr. Bruner about Raymond’s condition:

Charlie: Is he crazy?

Dr. Bruner: No

Charlie: Is he retarded?

Dr. Bruner: No not exactly…

Charlie: He’s not crazy, he’s not retarded but he’s here.

Dr. Bruner: He’s an autistic savant. People like him used to be called idiot savants. There’s certain deficiencies, certain abilities that impair him.

Charlie: So he’s retarded.

Dr. Bruner: Autistic. There’s certain routines, rituals that he follows.

As mentioned in my Forrest Gump blog post, Autism has just recently begun to be understood. This film was released in 1988 and multiple scenes show people who have never heard of or seen someone with autism. One scene in particular that comes to mind is when Charlie takes Raymond to see a different doctor (not Dr. Bruner) when he realizes just how difficult it is to take care of him. Charlie tells the nurse in the waiting room that Raymond is autsitic, she claims she’s never heard of it.

Charlie, being very new to this himself, tries to better understand Raymond. But more often than not he just becomes frustrated and lashes out at his brother. I was honestly shocked multiple times throughout the film at Charlie’s harshness. But his words and actions were probably a lot more accurate compared to real life than if he would have immediately been kind and understanding of his brother. People don’t need a reason to be mean, and we often do not like what we don’t understand. We didn’t know a lot about the autism spectrum in 1988, so we were not kind to those who had it.

B: Raymond is a “Genius”

As Charlie and Raymond spend more time together, Charlie starts to recognize a unique talent Raymond has. When the waitress spills a box of toothpicks on the ground, Raymond takes one look and knows exactly how many are there. At the doctors office, the doctor asks Raymond a series of multiplication problems with triple and quadruple digit numbers. Using a calculator to check, Raymond answers in seconds and is correct every time. “He’s a genius”, Charlie exclaims. Raymond clearly has a talent with numbers. However, when he is given questions related to money, he is unable to make the connection and answers incorrectly.

During my ethics course for my neurodiversity certificate, we did some pretty heavy reading. One of the readings expressed the author's strong opinions about how neurodiverse individuals should not be represented as having “special abilities” or “superpowers”. She felt this made them seem even more abnormal and gave them unrealistic expectations to live up to. Like once a child was diagnosed with autism others would immediately expect them to be extremely talented in some other area. I understand her point and agree, to an extent. It is actually very common for people on the autism spectrum to have a very strong passion and become very knowledgeable in that area. I say this based on what I have heard and seen through my education courses and personal experiences. My younger cousin for example was very good at memorizing things. He knew every road exit from Lebanon, Mo to Branson, Mo in order. There is another little boy I had in a practicum class. Everyday he would ask me “what kind of car does Miss Groce drive?” I would answer and he would then ask follow up questions about the year, make, and model. He was very interested in cars and thus had learned and remembered a lot of facts about them. This is common and speaks to the argument that they are not dumb. They are very intelligent. Their brains just work in a different way and when their needs are properly understood and met, they can thrive. It is borderline touching on the supernatural in the way Raymond’s abilities are shown in this film. It does not ruin the quality of the whole movie but is important to point out and recognize.

C: All The Little Moments In Between

The movie does not follow one straight line from Charlie meeting and being unkind to kids brother to loving and understanding him. There are multiple ups and downs and sometimes right when you think they’re making progress, Raymond gets upset and Charlie gets mad. Raymond’s form of autism is very high functioning, meaning he is still able to do a lot of things on his own. However, he still has problems communicating, learning, and expressing himself, possibly even understanding his own emotions according to his doctors at the institution. This is why his schedule and routine is so important for him. It establishes control and consistency. So when the brother he hasn’t seen since he was a child swoops him away on an adventure with his personal agenda as the main focus, it is no surprise that Raymond has several upsets. I think it is important to note that non-neurodiverse individuals could feel the same way in this experience. Raymond just reacts differently. When he becomes upset/nervous he repeats the same joke over and over again and in extreme cases he screams and causes self harm.

This is all very new to Charlie, and he reacts in a variety of ways. Sometimes he gets mad and scolds Raymond, calling him an idiot, a retard, or telling him to act normal. Sometimes he bends over backwards to just get Raymond exactly what he wants, like buying him a portable television or driving back to LA instead of flying. At first I think Charlie did this just to get Raymond to be quiet. But somewhere along the line I think he started to do it because he liked Raymond. He wanted him to be happy and he started to understand that these patterns give him comfort. Charlie and Raymond have lots of good moments amongst the bad ones. And by the end of the film, Charlie sees the good in Raymond. He becomes very angry when others act like he is incapable and becomes very determined to remain in Raymond’s life. Sometimes it just takes a little experience to get to know the person, because too often we don’t see the person, we just see the neurodiversity.

This film is much different than the other two we have looked at. Similarly to Radio, this film is set farther back when the general population did not have a lot of experience with autistic people and there were two main characters instead of one. But in Radio, the main character that was not neurodiverse (Coach Jones) was already a kind man who went out of his way to help Radio, and both were better off because of it. In Rain Man, the main character that was not neurodiverse (Charlie) was unkind and inconsiderate of Raymond's condition. He was just a means to an end. But Raymond had an impact on Charlie and in a different way, they were both good for one another. This is not to say Charlie was an evil person. But the relationship created was much more accidental than intentional like the one between Radio and Coach Jones. I think this teaches a different lesson, that we should question what we don't understand. Too often when we see someone who is neurodiverse in public or having an episode, we turn our heads and walk away. Sometimes it may come from judgement, but I believe most of the time it comes from a lack of knowing what to do. Once again, we are scared of what we don't understand. And so it is easier to walk away. The week Raymond and Charlie spent together was in no way easy, for either party. But they learned about one another. They both adapted and grew in both their relationship and as individual people.

I think this is a great film. It is a little hard to watch with the R word and the way Raymond is treated, but that is unfortunately realistic and sometimes we need to face that. As mentioned above it walks the line of making Raymond look like he has a superpower, which can be dangerous. But overall it is a very emotional and impactful movie. I would not suggest this as a movie for neurodiverse people to necessary relate to or find comfort in. I think it will have a bigger impact on those that are not neurodiverse and cause them to do a look inward to see how they are treating, talking to, and judging others in their life. Hopefully it allows them to see how wonderful these individuals are, and just how special a friendship could be with them.