movie review rain man

Is it possible to have a relationship with an autistic person? Is it possible to have a relationshbip with a cat? I do not intend the comparison to be demeaning to the autistic; I am simply trying to get at something. I have useful relationships with both of my cats, and they are important to me. But I never know what the cats are thinking.

That is precisely the situation that Charlie Babbitt ( Tom Cruise ) is faced with in “Rain Man.” His brother, Raymond ( Dustin Hoffman ), is “high-level” autistic. He can carry on conversations, stick to a schedule, compile baseball statistics, memorize dinner menus and become disturbed when anything upsets his routine. He can also count 46 spilled toothpicks in an instant and calculate square roots in a flash. But what he is thinking? There is a moment in “Rain Man” that crystalizes all the frustrations that Charlie feels about Raymond, a moment when he cries out, “I know there has to be somebody inside there!” But who? And where? “Rain Man” is so fascinating because it refuses to supply those questions with sentimental but unrealistic answers. This is not a movie like “ Charly ” in which there is a miracle cure.

“Rain Man” works so well within Raymond’s limitations because it is a movie about limitations, particularly Charlie’s own limited ability to love those in his life, or to see things from their point of view. As the film opens, we see Charlie frantically trying to juggle his way out of a crisis in his Los Angeles business, which seems to consist of selling expensive imported automobiles out of his hip pocket. He is driven, unhappy, a workaholic. One day he receives word that his father – a man with whom he has had no contact for years – has died back East. At the reading of the will, he learns that he has received a pittance (including a prized 1949 Buick Roadmaster), and that his father’s $3 million fortune has gone into a trust.

Who is the trust for? Performing some amateur detective work, Charlie discovers with a shock that it goes to support an older brother he never knew he had – an autistic brother who has been institutionalized for years. Visiting Raymond at the home where he lives, Charlie finds a methodical, mechani cal, flat-voiced middle-age man who “definitely” knows things, such as that tapioca pudding is “definitely” on the menu, and that his favorite TV program is “definitely” about to come on the air.

“Rain Man” follows this discovery with a story line that is as old as the hills. Angry that he has been cut out of his share of the inheritance, Charlie takes Raymond out of the mental home and vows to bring him to live in California. But Raymond will not fly (he “definitely” recites the dates and fatalities of every airline’s most recent crash). And so Charlie puts Raymond in the front seat of the 1949 Buick and they head out on a cross-country odyssey of discovery.

It is an old formula, but a serviceable one, using shots of the car against the sunset as punctuation. The two brothers meet genuine actual Americans on the road, of course, and have strange adventures, of course. And although we have seen this structure in dozens of other movies, it is new this time because for Raymond it is definitely not a voyage of discovery.

Everything changes in the movie except for Raymond. In a roadside diner somewhere along the way, he still stubbornly insists on the routines of the dining room in his mental institution: The maple syrup is “definitely” supposed to be on the table before the pancakes come. Charlie at first does not quite seem to accept the dimensions of Raymond’s world and grows frustrated at what looks like almost willful intractability. Eventually, toward the end of the journey, he finds that he loves his brother, and that love involves accepting him exactly as he is.

“Rain Man” is a project that Hoffman and Cruise have been determined to bring to the screen for a long time. Barry Levinson came on board after three previous directors signed off on this material.

The problem, of course, was Raymond. If fiction is about change, then how can you make a movie about a man who cannot change, whose whole life is anchored and defended by routine? Few actors could get anywhere with this challenge, and fewer still could absorb and even entertain us with their performance, but Hoffman proves again that he almost seems to thrive on impossible acting challenges. “You want taller?” he asks in the audition scene in “ Tootsie .” “I can play taller. You want shorter? I can play shorter. You want a tomato?” And he can play autistic.

At the end of “Rain Man,” I felt a certain love for Raymond, the Hoffman character. I don’t know quite how Hoffman got me to do it.

He does not play cute, or lovable, or pathetic. He is matter-of-fact, straight down the middle, uninflected, unmoved, uncomprehending in all of his scenes – except when his routine is disrupted, when he grows disturbed until it is restored. And yet I could believe that the Cruise character was beginning to love him, because that was how I felt, too.

I loved him for what he was, not for what he was not, or could not be.

The changes in the movie all belong to Charlie, who begins the film as a me-first materialist, a would-be Trump without a line of credit. By the end of the film Charlie has learned how to pay attention, how to listen and how to be at least a little patient some of the time. He does not undergo a spiritual transformation; he simply gets in touch with things that are more important than selling cars. He is aided in this process by his girlfriend, Susanna ( Valeria Golino ), a Latino who loves him but despairs of ever getting him off autopilot.

By the end of “Rain Man,” what have we learned? I think the film is about acceptance. Charlie Babbitt’s first appearance in the movie has him wheeling and dealing in the face of imminent ruin, trying to control his life and the lives of others by blind, arrogant willpower. What Raymond teaches him is that he can relax, because try as he might, he will always be powerless over other people. They will do just about what they choose to do, no matter how loud Charlie Babbitt screams. Raymond has a lot he can teach Charlie about acceptance, even if it is the solitary thing he knows.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Jack Murdock as John Mooney
Lucinda Jenney as Iris
Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbitt
Valeria Golino as Susanna
Ralph Seymour as Lenny
Jerry Molen as Dr. Bruner
Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbitt
Bonnie Hunt as Sally Dibbs
Michael D. Roberts as Vern

Directed by

Barry Levinson
Barry Morrow
Ronald Bass
Hans Zimmer

Photographed by

Produced by.

Mark Johnson

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Rain Man Review

01 Jan 1988

133 minutes

It's sunset. Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) has kidnapped his autistic savant brother (Dustin Hoffman) from a care home. They're stranded in the middle of the desert when suddenly they're surrounded by survivalists - brutal gang members out for the kill. Charlie grabs his gun. He knows they have no choice but to shoot their way out. He dons his Ray-Bans, the music kicks in.

If studio bosses had had their way, 'Rain Man' would have been a different movie. They insisted this action sequence go in one of the rewrites to pick up the pace. But then, if 'Rain Man's production schedule had gone at all according to plan it would have been a Marty Brest picture starring Bill Murray as the loveable retarded brother of uptight businessman Dustin Hoffman.

Just be thankful that studio bosses don't always get their way. 'Rain Man', the film that went on to win Oscars for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, would not have been such a resounding success without the final unique grouping of talent.

The age gap between Hoffman and Murray as brothers may have been more believable, but despite Hoffman scooping the awards, Cruise is the one to watch. He makes the leap from film star to actor in this movie. Barely off screen for a moment, he has to go from being a nasty piece of work to someone that the audience can empathise with, while his co-star remains a wall of blank emotion and character tics. It's an ego-less performance that Cruise has rarely matched since.

Murray passed on the movie when he found out Hoffman was interested in playing the part intended for him. He knew it was the role that would get the plaudits, but as much as Murray has proved himself as a serious actor in recent years, there's no way he would have inhabited Raymond Babbitt the way Hoffman does. Hoffman spent a year working with autistic men and their families to understand their complex relationships. As a jobbing actor he'd worked in a psychiatric care home and he built on his experience from there, too.

Watching the extras on the DVD release allows you to glimpse the contemporaries on whom he based his performance. These were the men he thanked in his Academy Award acceptance speech, and one in particular is so close to Raymond in mannerisms and appearance it's hard to imagine the script wasn't written about him.

But the original script was slightly different. It was pitched by Barry Morrow, who'd previously written the Emmy-award-winning drama Bill, about a mentally retarded man who'd become a friend of Morrow's family. 'Rain Man' was a further exploration of that relationship. The title was chosen by Morrowís children after they went through a book of names deciding which sounded most interesting when mispronounced. It was very nearly No-man (Norman).

United Artists almost didn't pick it up because Warners were working on what was rumoured to be a similar project - 'Forrest Gump'. But then the 'Rain Man' in the original script was much closer to the Gump character: affectionate and always wanting to hug his cold brother. Hoffman was the one who pushed for the change to an autistic savant, who was the opposite in all respects. In fact, Hoffman's desire to make this crucial alteration and Marty Brest's reluctance to take it on board was one reason Brest parted company with the project.

The next director to sign up was Steven Spielberg. He brought in screenwriter Ron Bass to help him fine-tune the script and jetted off to Malibu with Cruise and Hoffman to work on the project. They all rented houses next to each other on the beach and spent the days swapping script notes and getting into the characters. This was a chance for Spielberg to fulfil the dream heíd had to work with Hoffman since seeing 'The Graduate' in the 1960s. He wasn't going to screw it up. But he never got the chance to realise his ambition.

In September, George Lucas said he was good to go on the third instalment of 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark', and Spielberg knew he wouldnít have time to get 'Rain Man' out and work with Lucas as promised. Regretfully he passed on 'Rain Man', breaking the news to the cast and Bass in person.

'Rain Man' was fast becoming the hot potato of Hollywood. Next to pick it up was Sydney Pollack. But his heart never seemed to be in it. He made the smart move of ditching the action sequence, but he wasn't keen on the whole idea of the road movie. 'I'd have made it if I could have stayed in New York', he commented, half joking.

But there was one man who couldn't stop thinking about Rain Man. Pollack's friend Barry Levinson had borrowed the script from him. He was driving across the desert one evening, watching the windmills spinning on the horizon, and he turned to his wife and said, 'You know, this would make a perfect backdrop for that bit where Charlie is talking to his girlfriend'. 'You should make that movie', she said. 'I can't', he replied. 'Sydney Pollack's making the movie'.

Fate dictated otherwise. Seven weeks before shooting, Pollack passed it over to Levinson. With a writers' strike looming, shooting could not be delayed. They already had a great cinematographer in Australian John Seale, who was good at seeing something bigger in the vast American landscape - as his work on 'Witness' and 'Children Of A Lesser God' had proved.

A couple of other pieces were needed to complete the puzzle. Hans Zimmer, then little known, was brought in to give a Cuban/African feel to the soundtrack. It was his first Hollywood movie and he pitched in with the perfect score, his haunting theme giving the brothers' journey a mystical feel. And then there was the unusual casting choice of Valeria Golino as Cruise's girlfriend. The part had been written as WASPish, blonde. Choosing someone whose native language was not English was a neat narrative trick; at a stroke Cruise's character had a reason to explain all his actions and in the simplest of terms.

This was not a movie that needed forced emotion; it played better because it was understated, because the ending is oblique and because it rang true. This film changed how many people perceived the autistic; suddenly they weren't 'retards' to be shut away, but intriguing individuals. Few movies really do this. But 'Rain Man' did something even rarer: it not only made the audience think, it made them happy.

Movies | 18 10 2023

Rain Man (1988)

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Rain Man Reviews

Now its portrayal of autism is seen as somewhat crude. However, there is no denying the power of the story and of Dustin Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance as Raymond Babbitt.

Full Review | Jan 2, 2024

the pairing of Hoffman and Cruise was lightning in a bottle, although on the surface it seemed like an utterly incongruous pairing

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 8, 2023

Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Raymond is light years away from the big lunk Lenny in Of Mice and Men or the deaf-mute girl in Johnny Belinda. It is, quite simply, the most memorable, impassioned performance of the year.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2023

Rain Man is a delightful and sentimental film about two brothers reconnecting and reconciling

Full Review | Jun 27, 2023

The film is unusually unsentimental in its approach to potentially mawkish material.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 17, 2023

Yet his [Tom Cruise's] charisma is what keeps Barry Levinson’s film running smoothly.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2023

Hoffman delivers a top-notch performance, while Cruise is right there behind him, in this emotional, delightful, road-trip that explores human connection and the power of empathy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 19, 2023

It's the Christmas picture that cares, the UNICEF epic, and that must explain why no one seems to notice, or to care, that from minute to minute. the story itself is second-hand hokum.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2022

My own comparatively mixed reaction is conditioned by a reflex resistance to any movie that seems to exploit a mental or physical handicap for easy pathos... Having stated this reservation, I must confess that Rain Man had me close to tears.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 8, 2022

The rigidity of Raymond's mind is Hoffman's opening to actor's poetry... He has created an image of disconnection and bafflement almost as memorable as Beckett's.

Full Review | Aug 4, 2022

At the point in Rain Man when Charlie would really change if the movie were committed to pursuing its premise to some logical conclusion, the film stops in Las Vegas so everybody can have fun, fun, fun, in expensive suits.

In every detail -- the superb soundtrack, the rich cinematography, the distinctively edgy editing -- Rain Man reveals itself as a move made with care, smarts and a refreshing refusal to settle for the expected.

The slack, windy script, by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass, is forever recapitulating the obvious, and the director, Barry Levinson, exercises no discernible control over it or his actors.

Mr. Cruise showed enormous promise in his early films, Risky Business and All The Right Moves. But since then, he's been on Cruise control... Here, he's back at work and it shows. In less obvious ways, the younger actor is every bit Mr. Hoffman's equal.

Despite its limitations, Rain Man has a welcome compassion, and, at its center, a simply wonderful performance by Hoffman.

Rain Man is regulated so well in its emotional and psychological currents that many viewers may not be conscious of how deeply involved they are until it is over.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 4, 2022

Levinson, the lyric poet of fumble-tongued human groping, the ardent urgencies of the inexpressible, and the high comedy of people saying exactly what they don't mean, has found a subject that lets his highly specialized talents roar and soar.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 4, 2022

Rain Man really belongs to Hoffman, whose precisely limned Raymond is in a class with his other amazing transformations in Tootsie, Little Big Man, and Midnight Cowboy. It really cries out to be seen rather than described.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 4, 2022

Yes, Levinson's realization of the long-delayed film project is a road film, a buddy film, a long-lost brother film. It is also the best drama of the season and one of the best of the year.

It's a rarity for big-studio, big-star Hollywood: a $20 million picture in which nobody's ego is showing.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 4, 2022

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Review: rain man.

There’s a great Jonathan Demme movie waiting to bust out of Rain Man

There’s a great Jonathan Demme movie waiting to bust out of Rain Man , as it shares more than a few obvious parallels to Something Wild . But the gap separating Demme and Rain Man director Barry Levinson is a chasm between artistic insight and pander-ism. Rain Man ’s cross-country odyssey—as shared by Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) and his autistic brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman)—strains for the profound and complex sense of Americana that’s Demme’s typical thematic obsession.

This is apparent from Rain Man ’s opening, where Levinson bisects a smoggy Los Angeles background with a shiny red sports car, ironically scoring the scene to the Belle Stars’s hit cover of “Iko Iko.” It’s the L.A. parallel to the New York City skyline montage from Something Wild , but it packs none of that sequence’s seething, dangerous wonder, settling instead for an obvious comment about materialism and an unexploited joke: introducing quintessentially American pretty boy Cruise as a hood-ornament reflection.

The banality continues for two-plus hours, but it’s surprisingly less torturous than one might fear. The best that can be said about Hoffman’s Oscar-lauded performance is that it’s consistent, an actor’s equivalent to watchable white noise. Cruise is, of course, the exact opposite, suggesting a Danny Zuko-like high school jock mistakenly cast in Chekov’s Uncle Vanya , bugging his eyes and gesticulating with fervid abandon. Rain Man ’s own Abbott & Costello metaphor goes a long way toward explaining the casting intent, though it also adds a dimension to the pop-culture-laden humor that masks the film’s superficiality.

At times, Hoffman’s dialogue sounds catchphrase-ready; in retrospect, we can thank our lucky stars that “Uh-oh!” and “Four minutes to Wapner!” are only minor touchstones in the cultural lexicon. Yet props should be given to Hoffman for insisting on the relatively downbeat ending, which saves Rain Man from plunging into total offensiveness and marks its historical place as a dull Best Picture winner to put alongside Cavalcade and Gentleman’s Agreement .

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Film Review: RAIN MAN (directed by Barry Levinson)

by John Todd on March 10, 2019

GAMBLING WITH FAMILY

Rain Main is a heart-warming Hollywood tale that explores the relationship between a slick, fast-talking Lamborghini salesman, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), and his autistic, yet extremely gifted brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman).

When returning to Cincinnati to attend the funeral of his father, Charlie is disappointed to find that his inheritance consisted solely of an antique pocket watch and a 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible. His initial disappointment, however, soon transforms into a rage when he hears that his father’s $3 million fortune was left to his estranged brother, Raymond. In a desperate attempt to get his hands on the money, Charlie decides to kidnap Raymond from the care home where he resides and takes him back to his home in Los Angeles where he hopes to get himself declared as Raymond’s legal guardian.

Before the death of his father, Charlie was unaware that he had a brother and the entire movie revolves around the relationship that forms between the two siblings as they travel across the country by car. Raymond, however, is heavily afflicted by savant syndrome, which causes many problems between the two siblings whose lifestyles are vastly different. In contrast to Charlie’s high-flying, fast-paced existence, Raymond is a person who requires strict routine, and his demands soon start to test the patience of his hot-headed brother.

However, as time progresses, Charlie’s affection towards his newfound sibling begins to grow, especially when he learns that Raymond is a mental calculator whose savant syndrome allows his brain to count hundreds of objects at once at superhuman speeds. After learning about his brother’s remarkable skill, Charlie sees an opportunity to make enough money to clear his personal debts by training Raymond in the art of card counting and taking him to Las Vegas to play the popular table game blackjack .

When reaching The Entertainment Capital of the World, Charlie buys himself and his brother two identical flashy suits and tries his best to help him blend in. As they descend down the escalator, however, we see Raymond looking around in childish wonder at this surreal world that he knows he is not a part of. Nevertheless, in an attempt to please his demanding brother, Raymond obediently follows him to the blackjack table and commences with the six-deck shoe hustle.

Suffice to say, Raymond does not disappoint, and by the end of the scene, the pair have cleared over $80,000 in winnings — meaning Charlie is able to clear all of his debts and proceed in life without any financial worries. Money troubles aside, Charlie begins to realize that his brother is much more important to him than he initially thought, and a new challenge arises in his life when people try to take Raymond away from him forever.

Though Rain Man may seem like just another road movie on paper, the outstanding performances of Cruise and Hoffman (who won an Oscar for the role) indeed are a sight to behold and their on-screen relationship is what makes this movie a timeless classic. Happy, sad, funny, and serious, emotions run high from start to finish, and the film has a powerful message that the audience will never forget: family is more important than anything.

Though harsher critics of Rain Man have claimed that the movie was guilty of exploiting a genuine illness and using a highly exaggerated stereotype of autism to achieve a greater dramatic effect, I do not think this is the case. In fact, Rain Man was arguably the first movie that explored the issues surrounding people with autism on the big screen. Of course, not everybody who has autism has these superhuman abilities, and of course, this part of the illness was amplified to carry along the plot, but that should not deter us away from the positives.

In the end, Rain Man , directed by Barry Levinson, is a beautiful story that reminds the world that everybody, no matter their condition, deserves to be loved and is capable of loving in return. Autism affects many people around the world, but this movie has done its part in changing people’s perceptions regarding this disorder for the better.

This is not the only film that is blackjack themed, the movie 21 tells the story of the MIT Blackjack Team that broke the bank at Vegas.

ABOUT JOHN WOODS

John is a professional copywriter with seven years of experience creating gripping content for a wide variety of businesses. His work has been published on UC Today , No Jitter , Customer Contact Central , and InGenius . He is a versatile writer who specializes in the fields of Technology, Cloud Communications, Travel & Leisure, as well as Gambling and Online Casinos. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, watching football, playing guitar, and trying to learn Spanish.

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Rain Man (1988)

Directed by barry levinson.

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Description by Wikipedia

Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of an abrasive and selfish young wheeler-dealer, Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant, of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Charlie is left with only his father's car and collection of rose bushes. In addition to the two leads, Valeria Golino stars as Charlie's girlfriend, Susanna.

Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting Kim Peek, a real-life savant; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of Bill, an earlier film that Morrow wrote.

Rain Man received overwhelmingly positive reviews, praising Hoffman's role and the wit and sophistication of the screenplay, and was the highest-grossing film of 1988. The film won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards (March 1989), including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman. Its crew received an additional four nominations. The film also won the Golden Bear at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

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Rain Man (United States, 1988)

The movie chronicles the emotional and physical journeys of two mismatched brothers as they traverse the country (traveling from Cincinnati to Los Angeles by car) and get to know one another. The “twist” is that the older man, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), is an autistic savant who is incapable of being in a normal human relationship. His younger brother, Charlie (Tom Cruise), is a hustler whose reasons for “bonding” with Raymond are initially financial. He wants to become Raymond’s caretaker so he can have access to the latter’s $3M inheritance – money Charlie feels he’s entitled to at least half of.

Although Rain Man was widely loved when it was released 30+ years ago, it’s a classic example of a motion picture that was honored for “in the moment” views rather than with an eye toward its long-term reputation. Its “progressive” views of those with autism are embarrassing by today’s standards and its overall superficiality makes one wonder what the voters were thinking when they cast their ballots in the early days of 1989.

One weird scene is jarring when viewed today: the elevator kiss. Susanna, trying to initiate Raymond into the possibilities of affection between men and women, forces an unwanted kiss on the unsuspecting older brother. (His eventual verdict: it’s wet.) This scene, intended to be playful (and received that way) in 1988, is borderline-creepy in 2020. The film’s permissive attitude toward an inappropriate encounter says a lot about how society’s views have changed over the last three decades.

It’s easy to assail Rain Man as one of the least-deserving recipients of the Best Picture Oscar for the simple reason that it is one of the least-deserving recipients of the Best Picture Oscar, rounding out a decade that was replete with such examples (others include Ordinary People , Out of Africa , and Terms of Endearment ). The film’s greatest asset – that it warmed the hearts of those watching as two brothers overcame barriers to form a deep bond – seems false and saccharine in the way it is approached. The only aspect of the relationship that survives is the chemistry between Hoffman and Cruise. That continues to shine even though most of the rest of Rain Man has dried up.

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MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Rain Man’--Not the Ordinary Buddy Film

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Although it roams across expanses of America, “Rain Man” (citywide) is a small, mostly interior journey: the awakening of two walled-off souls. Actually, it’s more like the greening of one soul, Tom Cruise’s Charlie Babbitt, and the nudging of another, Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond Babbitt, Charlie’s older brother, whose autistic condition makes “awakening” far too dramatic a word.

Because we’ve had dozens of buddy films about journeys of discovery, we can plot the scenario like a road map: The special qualities of one will work on the other to change him, or perhaps both of them, and probably not for the worst.

In that respect “Rain Man” will disappoint no one. (It does hold a notable surprise, but more about that later.) Though it seems impossible that wheeler-dealer Charlie, Mr. Sharper Image incarnate, will ever put anyone ahead of Numero Uno, there’s a little room for hope by the movie’s end. And as far as the unelastic Raymond can stretch, he does, as he moves from lifelong institutionalization to a week of freedom on the road.

It’s greed on Charlie’s part that has brought the two together. Notified that his father has died, he goes back to Cincinnati to lay claim to his estranged parent’s estate, some $3 million, only to learn that it’s been left in trust to an older brother he never knew he had: Raymond. The next shock is learning that Raymond is autistic and institutionalized. The third shock comes when Charlie virtually kidnaps Raymond and sets out for Los Angeles, hoping to use Raymond’s presence as leverage to work a deal for at least part of the money.

Charlie’s savvy girlfriend Susanna (the splendid Valeria Golino) has put up with his egoism for the year they’ve gone together, but his coldheartedness with Raymond disgusts her, and she cuts out early in the trip. (Legions of Golino-watchers will be pleased to hear that she returns in the predictably crowd-pleasing Las Vegas sequence.)

Las Vegas aside, the film is an odd, dry odyssey, kept deliberately unsentimental by director Levinson (“Diner,” “Tin Men”) by writers Ronald Bass (“Gardens of Stone”) and Barry Morrow (TV’s “Bill: On His Own”) and, in particular, by Hoffman’s spare, poetic performance.

“Rain Man’s” singularity lies in the challenge that Hoffman has set himself. In staying true to his character’s limitations, Hoffman has an available range of emotions a little narrower than from A to A-.

Instead of making eye contact, Raymond stares upwards over his partner’s shoulder. In the matter of his beloved television show, he has an interior clock more persistent than a migrating bird’s. Ordered to choose between two very different options, he will pick one firmly. With the next sentence he will pick the other. And although his brain functions phenomenally with numbers, the concept of money is forever beyond him.

Somehow, Hoffman makes all this hypnotically interesting, and, through impeccable timing, sometimes terribly funny--a sweet humor which never betrays Raymond’s unalterable character.

Identified with the film since its beginnings three directors ago, Hoffman creates a walled-off human being whom we understand, mostly, and whom we worry about prodigiously: Raymond next to high glass windows, Raymond terrified by a sudden loud noise, Raymond put off his rigid rituals of eating, dressing or watching “People’s Court.” By the time Charlie and Raymond’s trip is only half over, we are even seeing the world as Raymond does. As struts, rails and fence posts fly by on the West-bound highway, we suddenly know exactly what Raymond’s computer-brain is doing with them: Its counting them.

However, for an audience, Raymond’s condition means that the whole trip is exactly the same. The scenery may change, but like a windup walking toy with lifetime batteries, Raymond never will. Everything else: color, variety, intensity and enough motive power to drive the story forward must come from Cruise. And that’s where the picture’s surprise lies.

As handsome, careless Charlie, an imported car broker about one subpoena away from being a con man, Cruise gives his loosest, most authoritative performance since “Risky Business,” but one with far greater range and maturity. If Raymond seems rigid, Charlie, when we first meet him, is hardly a limitless fund of patience or tractability either. To watch ordinary decency flower in this rocky soul is an unfolding delight.

And it does flower, until Charlie’s crucial scene with an obtrusive psychiatrist. That small, key role turns out to have been played by director Levinson himself. It’s a strange choice by a usually sensitive film maker, since his talents may not entirely lie in this direction. Here, in what should be Cruise’s pivotal scene, Levinson acts as a stone wall, giving back nothing and seemingly unsettling Cruise as well.

Audiences will have to decide for themselves whether a pledge that Charlie makes at “Rain Man’s” end will be kept or not--it becomes a sort of Rorschach test of Charlie’s character. What no one can argue is that “Rain Man” (MPAA-rated R) is Cruise’s quantum leap, so that it can be said unblushingly that he holds his own with the masterly Hoffman.

A United Artists release of a Guber-Peters Co. production. Producer Mark Johnson. Executive producers Peter Guber, Jon Peters. Co-producer Gerald R. Molen. Director Barry Levinson. Screenplay Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow based on a story by Morrow. Camera John Seale. Editor Stu Linder. Music Hans Zimmer. Production design Ida Random. Art director William A. Elliott, set decorator Linda DeScenna. Sound Richard Goodman. Associate producers Gail Mutrux, David McGiffert. With Dustin Hoffmann, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Jerry Molen, Michael D. Roberts, Lucinda Jenney.

Running time: 2 hour, 20 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).

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The Art of Autism - Empowering through the Arts

A look back at the movie Rain Man and how our views of autism have changed

A look at a classic film’s depiction of autism and that developmental disability’s subsequent treatment three decades later

By Nils Skudra

I first watched Rain Man , a 1988 cult classic film starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, when I was much younger and in the early stages of finding out more about the nature of autism after having learned that I was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. I saw the movie again this past weekend, and watching it for the second time made an indelible impression on me with respect to its portrayal of autism and the enormous strides that have been made in our knowledge of autism in the 30 years since Rain Man’s release.

The film opens with Charlie Babbitt (depicted by Cruise in one of his finest performances), a narcissistic and selfish young wheeler-dealer in Los Angeles who is struggling to resolve an impending crisis for his car dealership over its failure to comply with EPA standards. While trying to extract himself from the descending financial bedlam, he decides to take a vacation to Palm Springs with his girlfriend/employee Susanna (ably portrayed by Italian actress Valeria Golino), who has innumerable difficulties in her relationship with Charlie due to his refusal to share important personal details and his failure to really listen closely to her concerns.

However, upon suddenly learning of the death of his estranged father, Charlie abruptly changes course for Cincinnati in order to attend the funeral with the preeminent desire to discover what inheritance he may have been left. To his bitter chagrin, Charlie discovers that he has only inherited his father’s prize rosebushes and fancy but antiquated automobile while the estate’s net worth of $3 million has been placed in a trust fund for an anonymous benefactor. After pulling some strings with a banker, utilizing his polished skills at conning, he learns that the lucky recipient is none other than Raymond Babbitt (played by Hoffman), an autistic individual who turns out to be Charlie’s older brother. The funds have in fact been entrusted to a trustee who oversees their distribution to the Walbrook Institute where Raymond lives. A treatment facility for people with mental and developmental disabilities, it has been home for at least 20 years to Raymond who is arguably moderately high-functioning but still unable to really care for himself and all that entails.

Having been previously unaware of his brother’s existence, Charlie is incredulous to discover that despite having inherited $3 million Raymond simply has no understanding of the concept of money. In addition, the director Dr. Bruner and Raymond’s ward attendant Vern inform Charlie about the significant social challenges that Raymond struggles with as a person with autism, including a tendency to repeat certain statements over and over; difficulty with making eye contact; an extreme sensitivity to touch; a specific set of rituals and routines he is accustomed to which cannot be disrupted; and high anxiety which he suppresses by continually rocking back and forth or reciting the lines “Who’s on first, what’s the guy’s name on second base?” – lines from an old Abbott and Costello show. Having no prior understanding of autism, Charlie concludes from all this that Raymond is a “retard,” and in his determination to ensure that he obtains his share of the inheritance he essentially kidnaps his brother, taking him along for the ride without securing the permission of Dr. Bruner. Although Raymond replies “Yeah” when Charlie asks if he wants to accompany him to Los Angeles, he is unable to process the actual import of the question, and consequently once he leaves the Walbrook grounds he repeatedly insists on going back since his departure obviates his regular routines.

The ensuing road trip is a journey filled with humor but also with extreme aggravation. Due to his self-centered personality and lack of understanding about autism, Charlie displays a cruel insensitivity toward Raymond’s challenges throughout the early part of the voyage. In one particularly funny scene, Raymond walks in on Charlie and Susanna having sex, the concept of which is foreign to him, and imitates their private vocalizations as he watches TV in their room. Since this would normally be considered a violation of privacy, Charlie becomes very incensed and aggressive, insulting Raymond and telling him that the sounds he heard are none of his business, prompting Susanna to abruptly leave in protest of this treatment. In another scene, when Charlie and Raymond are in a diner about to order breakfast, Charlie loses patience as his brother keeps insisting that “maple syrup is supposed to be on the table before the pancakes,” grabbing Raymond by the neck and scolding, “Don’t act like a fucking retard!”

As their road trip progresses, Charlie is forced to grudgingly adjust to Raymond’s particular idiosyncrasies, frequently being pushed to the breaking point of his frustration. In a hilarious moment after they leave a motel in Missouri, Raymond repeatedly insists that they go to Kmart in Cincinnati to buy underwear despite the fact of having been given a fresh pair by Charlie since he is accustomed to wearing clothing from that particular store. This prompts an aggravated Charlie to stop the car in the middle of a backcountry road and get out and start screaming, “What difference is it whether underwear is from Kmart or not?! Underwear is underwear!” In the audio commentary, director Barry Levinson remarks that although Charlie is the ultimate con man, “the autistic can’t be conned with a good kind of sales talk,” and this scene comically illustrates that point.

Gradually Charlie begins to form a bond with Raymond after learning that he was in fact the “Rain Man” who Charlie had previously only thought to be an imaginary childhood friend who comforted him during the years of Charlie’s turbulent relationship with his father. In addition, following his observation of another meltdown in which Raymond begins screaming and hitting himself in panic at the sight of hot bathwater running, Charlie realizes that Raymond was institutionalized because of the fear that he might harm Charlie with his unpredictable behaviors.

Furthermore, he comes to recognize Raymond’s intellectual skills, which include a keen attention to detail, an eidetic memory and mathematical genius (reflected in the diner scene when he is instantly able to count the exact number of toothpicks that have fallen on the floor), as assets to Charlie’s goal of winning enough money to resolve his business’ financial difficulties. This plays out in a Las Vegas casino where Raymond counts the poker cards with such consistent accuracy that he and Charlie come under suspicion of using illicit techniques in order to win. Nonetheless it proves highly effective, enabling Charlie to win over $86,000 before he is told by the casino management to leave the state for his alleged illegal activity. Ultimately, however, as Charlie is further exposed to Raymond’s erratic nature, he is forced to weigh the prospects of whether Raymond’s well-being is best served by having him live in an outside world where he is significantly vulnerable or by returning him to the Walbrook Institute that would provide him with care while keeping him in a sheltered existence.

The film’s strengths include the superb performances by all of the cast members, especially Cruise and Hoffman in the lead roles, and its portrayal of the intellectual benefits and social challenges associated with autism. The ability to focus very narrowly on and excel in a topic of specialization, having an eidetic memory, and astute attention to detail and organization are highly desired qualities in the workplace, and in the present time many employers are specifically seeking job candidates on the autism spectrum because of their possession of these particular skills. At the same time, the film also captures with striking accuracy the sensory difficulties and high anxiety levels that accompany autism’s positive aspects. Raymond’s challenges at processing the import of certain statements exemplify this point since he consistently replies “Yeah” to questions that have significant ramifications for his life without making an actual distinction between the meanings associated with the different options posed by those questions. This is illustrated near the film’s climax when a psychiatrist asks Raymond whether he would prefer to stay with Charlie or return to Walbrook, and when Raymond answers “Yeah” to both questions it convinces the psychiatrist that Raymond is unable to distinguish between the two and therefore incapable of making an informed decision for himself.

The film also does a superb job in the portrayal of Charlie’s character development. Over the course of the journey, he transforms from an uncaring and insensitive narcissist, whose only interest lies in obtaining his share of Raymond’s inheritance and who is constantly aggravated by his brother’s behavior (at one point exclaiming “This guy’s a fucking fruitcake”), into an empathetic human being who is genuinely concerned about Raymond’s vulnerability and future well-being. Towards the close of the film, Charlie is determined for Raymond to live with him because of the bond that they have forged, even refusing an offer of $250,000 from Dr. Bruner in exchange for Raymond’s transfer back to Walbrook. However, as he observes Raymond’s difficulties with functioning independently and controlling his anxiety levels in the outside world (reflected in a particularly painful scene in which Raymond repeatedly bangs his head in panic against a glass door after causing the smoke alarm to ring), it is his concern for Raymond’s welfare that motivates Charlie to make the ultimate sacrifice of agreeing to send his brother back to the institute on the understanding that they will provide the best care for him. But his newfound empathy and brotherly bond persists at the close of the film since he promises to visit Raymond on a regular basis.

While Rain Man delivers a powerful message of understanding and personal transformation, it is also characterized by a significant number of errors in the characters’ perception of autism.

For example, when the two brothers are in the waiting room at a small-town hospital, Charlie tells the nurse that Raymond is autistic, to which she replies, “He’s artistic?,” a response that one would not hear today since virtually all medical practitioners in the present have a familiarity with autism in light of the substantial strides that have been made in professional knowledge of autism. In addition, when Charlie meets with a doctor and discusses Raymond’s condition, the doctor states that “most autistics don’t communicate” and that Raymond is “very high functioning.”

However, the subsequent three decades of advances in medical understanding of autism, together with firsthand experience of interacting with people on the autism spectrum, have demonstrated that while many autistic individuals are unable to communicate verbally, there are also innumerably more who, while challenged in their social interaction, can do so and are perfectly articulate. Furthermore, the doctor’s description of Raymond’s particular range of autism is arguably inaccurate and would be considered so today since most individuals who are labeled “high-functioning” tend to be much more articulate and not display as many of the particular behaviors exhibited by Raymond in the film.

The film also fails to delve into the ability of autistic individuals to live successful independent lives. While Raymond’s extreme tendencies, lack of understanding about money (reflected in a deleted scene in which he incurs the wrath of a convenience store manager by tearing open and consuming the food items without paying for them), and inability to process the import of different statements demonstrate his need for specialized care, there are countless autistic individuals who live independently of institutionalization and excel in the careers that they follow.

In addition, since the rate of people born on the autism spectrum in the United States has reached approximately as high as 1 in 57 in states like my own North Carolina in the subsequent three decades, numerous autism organizations have emerged which aid autistic individuals in developing independent living skills and finding employment. Since Raymond is featured as a representative for those with autism, the film’s failure to explore their potential for independent living can project a negative impression among neurotypical viewers who may be unfamiliar with the different ranges of autism, leading them to see autistic individuals as collectively incapable of leading independent lives and therefore requiring the care of mental institutions.

Finally, the attitudes of the lead actors themselves toward autism would also merit significant critique in today’s environment. In the special features on the Rain Man DVD, Dustin Hoffman discusses the interactions that he and Cruise had with different autistic individuals as part of preparing for the role of Raymond, remarking on how their lives had been so significantly affected by “this illness.”

In addition, Hoffman states that he and Cruise felt that by showing enough love and empathy toward people on the autism spectrum, they could be released as if by a magic touch from their shell, a message which he hoped to convey in the film. While these intentions might have been well-meaning, they reflect a paternalistic and condescending belief that autism is a disease which can be cured, an attitude that would be widely considered offensive today. Furthermore, due to the advances in professional and popular understanding of autism over the subsequent three decades, it is now generally accepted that far from being an “illness,” ASD is a permanent neurological condition that cannot be removed or cured, and its associated social challenges can be overcome through diligent effort while its intellectual benefits can be utilized to the fullest advantage in order to lead successful and independent lives. Indeed, it could be argued that while Hoffman delivers a superb performance as a neurotypical actor portraying an autistic character, his attitude on autism would not have been brought to the role if it had been given to an actor who actually had autism.

In summation, Rain Man articulates a powerful message about the importance of understanding autism and how doing so can transform perspective of a neurotypical individual and make them more empathetic in the process. This is portrayed very movingly in the relationship between Charlie and Raymond, whose actors exhibit superb chemistry together. At the same time, however, the film’s portrayal of autism reflects perceptions among the public and the medical establishment that were commonly held at the time of Rain Man’s release, and thus it inaccurately characterizes some of the traits associated with autism as well as Raymond’s particular range on the spectrum.

In addition, through its depiction of an autistic main character whose severe symptoms require specialized institutional care, Rain Man fails to provide a more multifaceted representation of how different individuals on the spectrum can succeed independently in the outside world. When watching this film, it would do well for contemporary viewers to keep in mind the significant strides that have been made in professional and popular understanding of autism in the subsequent three decades, which they can thus appreciate in comparing present-day knowledge of autism’s diverse nature with the perceptions featured in Rain Man .

“I am an artist on the autism spectrum, specializing in Civil War/Reconstruction history as a second-year graduate student at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and I have been drawing hundreds of Civil War-themed pictures since the age of five and a half. As a person with Asperger’s Syndrome, I have a very focused set of interests, and the Civil War is my favorite historical event within that range of interests. It is therefore my fervent desire to become a Civil War historian and have my Civil War artwork published in an art book for children.I am also very involved in the autism community and currently serve as the President/Head Officer of Spectrum at UNCG, an organization I founded for students on the autism spectrum. The goal of the organization is to promote autism awareness and foster an inclusive community for autistic students on the UNCG campus. The group has attracted some local publicity and is steadily gaining new members, and we shall be hosting autism panels for classes on campus in the near future.

I have also been pursuing a side career as a freelance journalist, and I have had at least 8 articles published in local magazines and newspapers from various cities and towns in North Carolina and in Pittverse Magazine (based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), which is staffed entirely by people on the autism spectrum. I am very keen on contributing articles as a regular blogger for the Art of Autism. Among my ideas for article topics are my experiences with disclosing my diagnosis in the workplace; and local businesses which are staffed by people on the spectrum and which donate their proceeds to autism causes. Through these blogs I hope to highlight the issues of autism’s portrayal in film, the challenges of discrimination that autistic individuals encounter in the workplace, and to promote support for local organizations that are dedicated to autism causes.”

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Thank you for your historical appraisal of RAIN MAN, Nils!

I watched Rain Man again last night after having seen it initially when it was first released, and I found your comments and summary very lucid and useful. Thank you!

I watched this movie recently and was appalled at Charlie’s treatment of Raymond. Shocked that I did not even remember that even though I saw the movie when it came out. It shows that we’ve come so far in understanding and being understanding of people with autism. I was wondering how people on the spectrum felt about the movie today. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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Rain Man Movie Poster: Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise walk down a road together

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 14 Reviews
Kids Say 41 Reviews

Parents Say

Based on 14 parent reviews

Parent Reviews

Great message, great performances but not for younger kids unless you show them an edited version.

This title has:

Great messages
Great role models
Too much sex
Too much swearing

Report this review

Loved the way this was put together, good movie just explain to kid, not that bad please let you kids watch this, great road movie, excellent film to watch with 7th- grade + boys.

Too much consumerism
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking

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The Untold Truth Of Rain Man

In 1988, a movie with a confusingly weather-related title topped the box office, shone at the Academy Awards, and introduced a previously unaware public to a developmental disorder called autism — or rather, to one version of it.

Rain Man starts with scheming car salesman Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) learning that he has an older brother with autism, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), to whom their late father left most of his fortune. Charlie decides to become Ray's legal guardian as a cash grab, and he effectively kidnaps him from the institution he's been living in for decades. Driving back to LA from Ohio, Charlie realizes that Ray is both more brilliant and more developmentally challenged than he realized. His impatience runs straight into Ray's reliance on routine as a source of stability, and Charlie is eventually forced to think about the needs and demands of someone other than himself.

The movie was so successful that the title has become a byword for someone who struggles socially but has genius-level mathematical and memory abilities. But the untold truth of Rain Man is that what you see on the screen is nowhere near the full story.

Rain Man drew on multiple real people for inspiration

Believe it or not, the script for Rain Man – and especially the character Ray — was inspired by multiple real people.

The plot point that sees Charlie kidnap Ray from the institution and petition to become his guardian was taken from something original screenwriter Barry Morrow actually did. Without the avaricious motivation. Morrow became the legal guardian of his friend , Bill Sackter, to prevent him from being sent back to the institution he'd lived in for most of his life. Before Rain Man , Morrow told this story in the TV movie Bill , starring Mickey Rooney as Sackter.

Morrow also partly based Ray on Kim Peek, a man he'd met in 1984 who was a mega-savant with skills similar to Ray, as well as similar disabilities. Unlike Ray, Peek — who died in 2009 , aged 58 — was not autistic. However, he did have an incredible memory. By the time he died, Peek had memorized around 12,000 books. He could read two different pages at the same time, with one eye on each page. He could also remember the day of any date, as well as any zip code, map or travel route across the US. Peek also had mental disabilities that affected his physical coordination, and he needed help to get dressed and brush his hair and teeth. Plus, he couldn't understand metaphors or do basic reasoning.

When Morrow won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Rain Man , he gave Peek the statuette. Peek generously let people hold it at public appearances.

Rain Man went through multiple writers and directors

According to Rolling Stone , Rain Man went through three directors and six writers before finding the dream team of screenwriter Ronald Bass and director Barry Levinson.

Barry Morrow came up with the story, based on his relationships with Kim Peek and Bill Sackter, and he wrote the first script for MGM. The studio eventually handed it to Ronald Bass , who only had three minor screenwriting credits to his name but would later write The Joy Luck Club , Dangerous Minds , and My Best Friend's Wedding . As for Levinson, he was an established screenwriter by the time he came to Rain Man . He'd even been nominated for two writing Oscars — one for the Al Pacino-starring And Justice for All and another for Diner , which he'd also directed. He'd also just directed the Vietnam War comedy Good Morning, Vietnam .

Looking at the script, Levinson felt that there was too much action, which detracted from the heart of the story — the relationship between the brothers. One draft even had Ray building a motorcycle from scratch to escape a motorcycle gang. So Levinson and Bass worked together to create a draft that put the focus back on the Babbitts. As Levinson told Rolling Stone , "If I can make the relationship work with these two guys on the road, then that's enough for me." Unfortunately, a writers' strike meant the script wasn't finished by the time filming started. But Morrow and Bass still won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Rain Man , while Levinson picked up Best Director.

A lot of famous filmmakers turned down the project

While Rain Man was going through its drafting phase, multiple well-known actors and directors signed on and dropped out. Potential directors included Tootsie and Out of Africa director Sydney Pollack (who'd later direct Cruise in The Firm and act opposite him in Eyes Wide Shut ) and Martin Brest , famous for Oscar-winner Scent of a Woman and infamous for writing and directing Gigli , a favorite of the Razzies .

The most famous director attached and then detached from Rain Man was Steven Spielberg. In a 1990 interview, Spielberg explained that he'd spent five months working on Rain Man with Cruise, Hoffman, and screenwriter Ronald Bass. But he had to leave the project to fulfill a promise to George Lucas that involved making Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade . Spielberg said that he regretted departing from Rain Man , especially when the awards started rolling in. "Maybe I should have forgotten my entire friendship with George Lucas," he laughed .

On the acting side, Mel Gibson turned down the part of Ray, and Mickey Rourke turned down Charlie . Rourke had also previously turned down another part that ultimately went to Cruise — Maverick in Top Gun . One interesting combination we never got to see involved Bill Murray playing Ray and Hoffman playing Charlie, but Murray declined the role .

Dustin Hoffman considered quitting

Dustin Hoffman threw himself into researching the role of Ray. He read books by autistic author Temple Grandin and non-autistic scientist Dr. Oliver Sacks, who wrote about a pair of twins, John and Michael, who both had autism and extraordinary mathematical abilities. The scene in Rain Man in which Ray is able to tell immediately how many matchsticks have spilled onto the floor is based on something the twins actually did .

Hoffman also studied a documentary about Joseph Sullivan , an autistic mathematical savant with an incredible memory, whose mother worked as a consultant on Rain Man . In fact, Sullivan met Hoffman on set. Hoffman also estimated that 90% of Ray's dialogue and many of his mannerisms came from an autistic man named Peter Guthrie. Peter's brother, Kevin, sent Hoffman tapes of their conversations.

Despite all his research, two weeks into filming, Hoffman felt that he wasn't doing Ray justice. "It was the worst work I had ever done," he told the AP . At one point, he suggested the production replace him with Richard Dreyfuss. But it was while filming the scene in which Ray talks about his underwear — from Kmart at 400 Oak Street in Cincinnati — that Hoffman had what he felt was an epiphany into his character. He explained to the AP, "I suddenly realized ... he is nowhere if he's not in the now. ... I know something about obsession, and I'm comfortable being obsessive. The rest of it just took care of itself."

Tom Cruise was seen as an odd casting choice

Tom Cruise was cast early on in Rain Man 's long pre-production lifespan. But he was seen as an odd choice for a dramatic movie in which the emotional arc rested largely on his shoulders.

As Barry Levinson explained to The New York Times , Ray doesn't change because he's most comfortable with routine. Charlie is the one who goes on an emotional (as well as literal) journey, from self-centered wheeler-dealer to a caretaker who tries his best to understand Ray. Up until Rain Man , Cruise had been seen as a good-looking action or romantic lead. His three biggest movies had been Cocktail , in which he played a rebellious cocktail bar owner, Risky Business , where he played a rebellious teenager, and Top Gun , in which he played the Maverick . None of the roles had an abundance of emotional depth.

Cruise agreed Charlie was "a challenge," but that was the appeal. He told the AP , "It was different. ... It was the best role that I've had in my career to date." And his co-star was confident in him. Hoffman and Cruise improvised with each other, including playing each other's characters, and Hoffman said of Cruise to The New York Times , "We were linked into each other — which allowed us to be rough with each other. There's an emotionality between us that's very difficult to act — that permitted moments to happen between us."

Rain Man put a big city on the Hollywood map

When the Rain Man team was looking for somewhere to serve as Wallbrook (the institution where Charlie finds Ray), the producers got in touch with Cincinnati-based location scout Lori Holladay, who recommended Kentucky's St. Anne's Convent, a spot Holladay remembered from growing up in the area. In 1988, the convent was home to nuns belonging to the Congregation of Divine Providence, but in 2012, it was sold to the Diocese of Covington, which now rents it out as a retreat. The crew added a fake pond for a scene between Ray and Charlie that's shown in publicity stills but didn't make it to the film.

The film's funeral was also filmed in Kentucky, at Evergreen Cemetery. And the restaurant scene involving spilled toothpicks was filmed at Pompilio's restaurant in Newport, KY. As of 2019, the restaurant still had the table Hoffman and Cruise sat at. Then-owner Frank Mazzei told WCPO of the superstars, "They were very nice to work with. ... They particularly liked our lasagna."

The city of Cincinnati claimed a few pivotal locations, too. The Dixie Terminal served as a bank, and Ray, Charlie and Susanna (Valeria Golino) drove across the Roebling Bridge. Kristen Schlotman, executive director of Film Cincinnati, credits Rain Man with sparking interest in filming in the city, with the town's credits including The Killing of a Sacred Deer , The Ides of March , and Carol .

Oklahoma is very proud of Rain Man

As most of Rain Man is a road trip, the producers had to find somewhere that Ray and Charlie could travel through. According to Mary Nell Clark (via Tulsa World ) , then-executive director of the Oklahoma Film Office, Oklahoma earned the honor thanks to its "old gas pumps, breathtaking landscapes, the rustic look."

The scene in which Ray stands in the middle of an intersection blocking traffic was shot in Guthrie, OK. The man driving the pickup truck who shouts at Ray was local oil producer Jack Cope , whose wife had bought him a spot in the movie at a charity auction. Cope improvised his lines opposite Hoffman.

Another local who stole a scene was Byron Cavnar, who played the man in the psychiatrist's waiting room. Byron and his wife, Elmeta, were supposed to sit quietly. But Byron started chatting to Hoffman about the Pony Express, and Levinson silently turned the cameras on.

Other Oklahoma locations include the farmhouse where the brothers watch The People's Court with the Dougherty family, all of whom received credits. And the tiny gas station where Charlie and Ray stop to make a call from a phone booth — with gassy consequences — was filmed in Cogar, OK, which had never even had a movie theater. Even the motel that's supposed to be in Amarillo, Texas, was actually in Oklahoma. To this day, Rain Man holds a special place in Oklahoma's collective heart, as it's the only Best Picture Oscar-winner to have been shot in the state.

The phone booth fart scene was too real for Tom Cruise

Rain Man may be the only Best Picture winner to have a fart joke ... but Tom Cruise wasn't laughing.

When Ray and Charlie are crammed in a phone booth in remote Oklahoma, Ray lets one rip, accompanied by the phrase, "Uh oh, fart." Still on the phone, Charlie asks in disbelief, "Did you fart, Ray? ... How can you stand that?" He then tries to crack the door open. But as with many of the lines that made the final cut, that moment wasn't in the script. Cruise told The Graham Norton Show that Hoffman really farted in the tiny phone booth and that he was "grossed out" by his co-star. Cruise stayed in character enough to call Hoffman by his respective character's name, but he really was trying to open the door. "I tried to get out of the booth, and everything I said to him was real," Cruise added.

For his part, Hoffman has no regrets. He's said that the scene is one of his favorites from Rain Man , telling interviewer Rajeev Masand that Levinson encouraged them to improvise, so when Cruise went with the gaff (well, guff), Hoffman kept the scene going, too. "And it's one of the high moments of my life. I have done Shakespeare, and I have done plays by Arthur Miller, but nothing can touch the fart scene," he said.

The car was the star

Sure, Hoffman and Cruise were the ones with their names on the poster. But the third star of Rain Man was the Sequoia Cream 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible that both drove (pun intended) Charlie and his father apart and brought him and Ray together. Not only did spending hours on the road force the two brothers to get to know each other, but it was their father's decision to leave Charlie the car and Ray everything else that pushed Charlie to seek his sibling out (and ultimately kidnap him for the inheritance).

However, the car was even rarer than Charlie claims. He tells Susanna that Buick only made 8,000 production models of the 1949 Roadmaster convertible, but according to auction site Hemmings , it was only 2,911. And two went on to star in Rain Man . One was used for the green screen shots, and the other was used for driving scenes.

In 2012, one of the two cars sold for $170,500 at auction. Levinson bought the other car after production wrapped. It later appeared on docuseries Chasing Classic Cars , and Levinson loaned it to host Wayne Carini for a fundraising effort in aid of an autism charity, as Carini's daughter Kimberly is autistic.

Rain Man wasn't expected to be a hit

This side of the 1989 Academy Awards, it's hard to imagine anyone thinking that Rain Man wouldn't be a hit. But before, during, and right after filming, that was anything but a certainty.

For starters, Rain Man had been in limbo for years when it was finally ready to shoot. And when Barry Levinson came on board, he had only eight weeks to prepare for filming, including turning the script around. Added to that particular pressure, there was a writers' strike on the horizon. Ronald Bass wrote as much as he could before it started, but the script wasn't finished when the company town's writers downed their tools. This also meant there couldn't be any rewrites during production.

On the bright side, no possibility of rewrites meant no studio executives lingering around and interfering. So Levinson and his cast and crew hit the road and made the rest up as they went. They also mostly shot chronologically , which allowed Levinson to add details and scenes that reflected the developing relationship between the characters.

As a result, the team working on the project was sold. Producer Mark Johnson said that crew members throughout were telling him that Rain Man was going to win Oscars. Still, Johnson wasn't convinced, even after he'd watched early cuts. "I'm just hoping it goes through the gate," he told Grantland of that tricky time.

Rain Man was adapted for the stage

Forget imitation. The sincerest form of flattery in the world of movies is a stage adaptation. And in 2008, Rain Man was given a theatrical reworking by playwright Dan Gordon, opening in London's West End that September.

Josh Hartnett of Pearl Harbor fame played Charlie, and British actor Adam Godley starred as Ray. Godley was an established stage actor, but his most recognizable screen roles to that point were as a teacher in Love Actually and Elliott Schwartz in Breaking Bad . More recently, he played a nefarious spiritual adviser in The Great , and he voices Pogo in The Umbrella Academy .

As for the play itself, it received mixed reviews, but it did well enough to earn a touring run with a new cast in summer 2018 , which was extended into 2019 .

Autism advocates have mixed feelings about Rain Man

One thing autism advocates tend to agree on is that before Rain Man , the vast majority of non-autistic people had no idea what autism was and didn't care. The movie addresses this by showing people's confusion when meeting Ray. Rain Man 's success not only made moviegoers aware of autism, it also led to an increase in funding for medical research. Ray helped audiences put a face to a vague medical term in a way that often needs to happen for people to take an interest in something they have no personal experience with.

However, Rain Man 's popularity became a double-edged sword. As Professor Katherine Loveland wrote on ABC , "It's very important to recognize that people with autism are not all alike. In fact, they can vary widely across a spectrum of disorder." Only approximately one in ten people with autism has savant-style skills like Ray, but the success of the movie means that many non-autistic people immediately assume that anyone they meet who's autistic must also be a genius . In addition, as The A.V. Club pointed out , Charlie only warms to Ray when he realizes he has these superior mathematical talents that he can use to his advantage. Rain Man helped raise awareness of a very narrow version of autism, but there are so many other stories to tell.

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Review/Film; Brotherly Love, of Sorts

By Vincent Canby

Dec. 16, 1988

When Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), a fast-talking automobile salesman in Los Angeles, returns to Cincinnati for his father's funeral, he finds that he has inherited a pocket watch and a 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible. The pocket watch and Roadmaster are in mint condition, and Charlie had been estranged from his father for years, but still he is disappointed.

The disappointment turns to fury when Charlie learns that his father's $3 million fortune has been left to Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), Charlie's autistic older brother of whose existence he has been completely ignorant. To get his hands on the money, Charlie kidnaps the helpless Raymond, who has been confined to an institution, and sets off for Los Angeles, aiming to have himself declared Raymond's legal guardian.

''Rain Man,'' directed by Barry Levinson from the screenplay by Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow, is both a road movie and the oddest of this year's brother-movies in which one brother, a sophisticated hustler, and the other, an innocent abroad, realize they are good for each other.

The difference, however, is that Mr. Hoffman's innocent exists in a never-ending mental twilight, lit by occasional flashes of lightning. Raymond is not only autistic, which doctors say is the result of metabolic and neurological disorders, he is also an autistic savant.

Though he goes through life preoccupied by self, obsessed by routine and hedged in by inexplicable anxieties, he is also capable of feats beyond the powers of genius. He can't make emotional contact with the people around him but, given a few hours, he memorizes the Cincinnati telephone book, ''A'' through ''G.'' He glances at a pile of matches and correctly calculates their total number.

For Mr. Hoffman, ''Rain Man'' is a star's dream of a role.

From the moment Raymond comes onto the screen, a slight, small buttoned-up figure, avoiding eye contact, speaking in tight little sentences that match the steps he takes, Mr. Hoffman demands that attention be paid to his intelligence, invention and research as an actor.

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Movie review -- 'Rain Man'

'Rain Man' is a far more complicated and black comedy than director Barry Levinson has tried in his previous hits: 'Good Morning, Vietnam,' 'The Natural,' 'Tin Men,' and 'Diner.'

But it takes risks with intimacy and realism and relationships that spring it far beyond Levinson's past films. The risks get mixed results. 'Rain Man,' starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, is sometimes incredibly tender, at other moments, brutally cruel, often, langorous, other times, choppy and frenetic. Advertisement

Still, the mish-mash makes up a collage that's haunting and memorable. Cruise and Hoffman are quite surprising together, generating appeal and interest in these off-the-beaten-track characters.

Charlie Babbitt, played by Cruise, is a slick hustler with a heart turned stone by a childhood he feels cheated by. His mother died young, his strict father rarely showed affection to him -- and never told him about an older brother, Raymond, played by Hoffman. When the brothers' father dies, he leaves his considerable wealth to Raymond, prompting Charlie's discovery of his brother, an autistic savant, in an institution. Charlie then proceeds to use his brother as a bargaining chip to grab what he feels is his share of the inheritance. Advertisement

While taking Raymond on a cross-country ride, however, Charlie learns more about himself and his past than he has bargained for.

There is undeniable humor in the pairing of these two, one a con man and the other someone who can calculate and record numbers with incredible precision, but can't distinguish between a dollar bill and $100. The possibilities of mischief are countless, and Levinson explores them with cool wit. Almost as numerous are the heart-wrenching scenes of cruelty between this heartless brother and his utterly dependent brother.

The conflicts raised and solved give rise to Cruise's best acting turn to date. For Hoffman, the near-perfect performance as Raymond is astounding, so totally convincing is he in all the rigorous and complicated routines of the so-called idiot savant.

The story may be too black for many looking for a light comedy, or entertainment-escape. But it's a film that's haunting in the way it unravels the love at the core of two brothers who discover each other. That nugget of love is at center of all Levinson's films, the nugget that pulls his films into your heart while making you laugh.

To that tradition, no matter what risks he takes -- and fails at or wins -- Levinson is true again in 'Rain Man.' Advertisement

This film is rated R. Movie contains some sexual content.

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Rain Man movie review & film summary (1988)
This is not a movie like " Charly " in which there is a miracle cure. "Rain Man" works so well within Raymond's limitations because it is a movie about limitations, particularly Charlie's own limited ability to love those in his life, or to see things from their point of view. As the film opens, we see Charlie frantically trying to ...
Rain Man
Sep 13, 2023. Rain Man is a delightful and sentimental film about two brothers reconnecting and reconciling. Jun 27, 2023. Page 1 of 4, 7 total items. A wonderful, moving movie about friendship ...
Rain Man Movie Review
Our review: Parents say (14 ): Kids say (41 ): This understated film rewards patient viewers with a memorable experience. Many movies with disabled characters exploit them for quick-fix audience sympathy, but Rain Man never indulges in this. Instead, we follow the ups and downs of Raymond's relationship with Charlie and with the world at large.
Rain Man (1988)
Rain Man: Directed by Barry Levinson. With Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen. After a selfish L.A. yuppie learns his estranged father left a fortune to an autistic-savant brother in Ohio that he didn't know existed, he absconds with his brother and sets out across the country, hoping to gain a larger inheritance.
Rain Man Review
He makes the leap from film star to actor in this movie. Barely off screen for a moment, he has to go from being a nasty piece of work to someone that the audience can empathise with, while his co ...
Rain Man
Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass.It tells the story of abrasive, selfish, young wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt (), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed virtually all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant of whose ...
Rain Man (1988)
Rain Man is a completely moving, emotional, funny, and unforgettable movie. Dustin Hoffman is one of my favorite actors and plays his most memorable role as well as Tom Cruise, who gives a great performance that helped a lot in launching most of his career.
Rain Man
Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 4, 2022. Lou Lumenick Bergen Record (New Jersey) Rain Man really belongs to Hoffman, whose precisely limned Raymond is in a class with his other amazing ...
Rain Man
Rain Man is beautifully crafted; funny, moving and startling, sometimes all at once. The cinematography and scenery is beautiful, and the music is effective. The story never loses steam or feels boring, and the script is excellent while Brian Levinson directs absolutely beautifully. The performances from the two leads are brilliant.
Review: Rain Man
February 16, 2004. There's a great Jonathan Demme movie waiting to bust out of Rain Man, as it shares more than a few obvious parallels to Something Wild. But the gap separating Demme and Rain Man director Barry Levinson is a chasm between artistic insight and pander-ism. Rain Man 's cross-country odyssey—as shared by Charlie Babbitt (Tom ...
Film Review: RAIN MAN (directed by Barry Levinson)
Happy, sad, funny, and serious, emotions run high from start to finish, and the film has a powerful message that the audience will never forget: family is more important than anything. Though harsher critics of Rain Man have claimed that the movie was guilty of exploiting a genuine illness and using a highly exaggerated stereotype of autism to ...
Rain Man (1988)
Rain Man ranks among the most popular films of the late 1980s, owing to a fine screenplay by Ron Bass and a spectacular performance by Dustin Hoffman in the title role. The film combines two of Hollywood's most successful formulas -- the "fish-out-of-water" story and the "unlikely buddies" picture, and there's even a touch of the old "rotten ...
Review and Analysis: Rain Man
while Tom Cruise steals show. Few observe that "Rain Man," a staggering feel-good success of brotherhood, flirts with one of the riskiest Catch-22 sequences of movie history. Disabilities are stressful. So are financial problems. To combine them in one film is an ambitious project. "Rain Man" remarkably gives cynics much to ponder.
Rain Man
A movie review by James Berardinelli. Rain Man is an oddball buddy/road movie that nearly drowns in a tsunami of sentimentality and predictability. An unabashed crowd-pleaser, the 1989 Best Picture Oscar winner has aged poorly, its marginal likability fading like an old Polaroid snapshot as the passage of years have shown how remarkably ...
MOVIE REVIEW : 'Rain Man'--Not the Ordinary Buddy Film
Dec. 16, 1988 12 AM PT. Times Film Critic. Although it roams across expanses of America, "Rain Man" (citywide) is a small, mostly interior journey: the awakening of two walled-off souls ...
A look back at the movie Rain Man and how our views of autism have
A look at a classic film's depiction of autism and that developmental disability's subsequent treatment three decades later . By Nils Skudra. I first watched Rain Man, a 1988 cult classic film starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, when I was much younger and in the early stages of finding out more about the nature of autism after having learned that I was diagnosed with Asperger's ...
Parent reviews for Rain Man
Great road movie. This is a classic road movie with two great actors. Hoffman's character is based on the savant, Kim Meek, who was autistic but had remarkable powers of the mind. Hoffman won an Oscar for his portrayal but Cruise is just as good as the angry young man who finds a brother he never knew. This is not a film for kids and there is ...
The Untold Truth Of Rain Man
Morrow also partly based Ray on Kim Peek, a man he'd met in 1984 who was a mega-savant with skills similar to Ray, as well as similar disabilities. Unlike Ray, Peek — who died in 2009, aged 58 ...
Review/Film; Brotherly Love, of Sorts
Review/Film; Brotherly Love, of Sorts ... ''Rain Man,'' directed by Barry Levinson from the screenplay by Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow, is both a road movie and the oddest of this year's brother ...
Movie review -- 'Rain Man'
Movie review -- 'Rain Man' By CATHY BURKE, United Press International 'Rain Man' is a far more complicated and black comedy than director Barry Levinson has tried in his previous hits: 'Good ...
Rain Man (1988)
Rain Man is ultimately just a nice hang-out buddy movie, one that I think doesn't work for a number of reasons. 133 minutes is indecently long for such a thing, to begin with, and Hoffman's performance too shrill. It also has an insane, almost unimaginably ill-judged score by Hans Zimmer, who has for some reason decided that this story about ...

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