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Rain Man is a 1988 dramatic film written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and directed by Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive, selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his father has left all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his brother, Raymond, an autistic savant, of whose existence he was unaware.
The movie stars Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbit, Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbit, and Valeria Golino as Charlie's girlfriend, Susanna.
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Encyclopedia
Rain Man is a 1988 dramatic film written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass and directed by Barry Levinson. It tells the story of an abrasive, selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his father has left all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his brother, Raymond, an autistic savant, of whose existence he was unaware.
The movie stars Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbit, Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbit, and Valeria Golino 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.
The film won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards (1988), including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a leading role for Hoffman. Its crew received an additional four nominations.
Plot
Charlie Babbitt (Cruise), a Los Angeles car dealer in his mid-twenties, is in the middle of importing four grey market Lamborghinis. The deal is being threatened by the EPA, and if Charlie cannot meet its requirements he will lose a significant amount of money. After some quick subterfuge with an employee, Charlie leaves for a weekend trip to Palm Springs with his girlfriend, Susanna.
Charlie's trip is cancelled by news that his estranged father, Sanford Babbitt, has died. Charlie travels to Cincinnati, Ohio, to settle the estate, where he learns an undisclosed trustee is inheriting $3 million on behalf of an unnamed beneficiary, while he is to receive a classic Buick Roadmaster convertible and several prize rose bushes. Eventually he learns the money is being directed to a mental institution, and he discovers that it is the home of his autistic brother, Raymond (Hoffman).
Raymond is an autistic savant, with superb recall but little understanding of subject matter. He is frightened by change and adheres to strict routines (for example, his continual repetition of the "Who's on First?" sketch). Except when he is in distress, he shows little emotional expression and avoids eye contact.
Numbed by learning that he has a brother and determined to get what he believes is his fair share of the Babbitt estate, Charlie takes Raymond on what becomes a cross-country trip back to Los Angeles to meet with his attorneys. He intends to start a custody battle in order to get Raymond's doctor, Dr. Bruner (Molen), to settle out of court for half of Sanford Babbitt's estate so that they can maintain custody of Raymond.
During the course of the journey, Charlie learns about Raymond's condition, which he initially believes is curable — resulting in frustration with his brother. He also learns about how his brother came to be separated from his family, as a result of an accident when he was left alone with Charlie when Charlie was a baby. Sometimes shallow and exploitative, as when he learns that Raymond has an excellent memory and takes him to Las Vegas to win money at blackjack counting cards, Charlie nonetheless finds himself becoming protective over Raymond.
Charlie finally meets with his attorney to try to get his share of his inheritance, but then considers taking custody of Raymond. However, Raymond is unable to decide exactly what he wants. Eventually, the attorney presses Raymond for a decisive answer, upsetting him and leading Charlie to tell the attorney to back off.
Eventually, Raymond is allowed to go back home to Cincinnati. Charlie, who has gained a new brother and mellowed considerably, tells him he'll visit.
Production
in Cogar, Oklahoma was used in a scene from the film.]]
Roger Birnbaum was the first studio executive to give the film a greenlight; he did so immediately after Barry Morrow pitched the story. Birnbaum received "special thanks" in the film's credits.
Agents at CAA sent the script to Hoffman and Bill Murray, envisioning Murray in the title role and Hoffman in the role eventually portrayed by Cruise. Martin Brest, Steven Spielberg, and Sydney Pollack were directors also involved in the film.
Principal photography included nine weeks of filming on location, including some scenes at Jualita, a 1907 mansion located in Hollywood.
Almost all of the principal photography occurred during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike; one key scene that was affected by the lack of writers was the film's final scene. Bass delivered his last rough cut of the script only hours before the strike started and spent no time on the set.
Reception
Reviews
Rain Man was overall positively received by critics, with a 89% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with an average score of 7.7/10. Vincent Canby of The New York Times called Rain Man a "becomingly modest, decently thought-out, sometimes funny film"; Hoffman's performance was a "display of sustained virtuosity . . . [which] makes no lasting connections with the emotions. Its end effect depends largely on one's susceptibility to the sight of an actor acting nonstop and extremely well, but to no particularly urgent dramatic purpose." Canby considered the
"film's true central character" to be "the confused, economically and emotionally desperate Charlie, beautifully played by Mr. Cruise."
Amy Dawes of Variety wrote that "one of the year's most intriguing film premises . . . is given uneven, slightly off-target treatment"; she calls the road scenes "hastily, loosely written, with much extraneous screen time," but admired the last third of the film, calling it a depiction of "two very isolated beings" who "discover a common history and deep attachment."
One of the film's harshest reviews came from New Yorker magazine critic Pauline Kael: "Everything in this movie is fudged ever so humanistically, in a perfunctory, low-pressure way. And the picture has its effectiveness: people are crying at it. Of course they're crying at it — it's a piece of wet kitsch."
Box office
Rain Man debuted on December 16, 1988, and was the second on the weekend's box office (behind Twins), with $7 million. It reached the first spot on the December 30–January 2 weekend, finishing 1988 with $42 million. The film would end up becoming the highest-grossing film of 1988 with $172 million (though most of its gross was garnered in 1989, unlike second place Who Framed Roger Rabbit).
Awards
Rain Man won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Dustin Hoffman), Best Director, and Best Writing, Original Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Cinematography (John Seale), Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Score.
The film also won a People's Choice Award as the "Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture."
The film also won the Golden Bear at the 1989 Berlin International Film Festival. To date, Rain Man is the only film to have won both the Golden Bear and the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Cut for airline viewing
The dialogue related to Raymond's fear of flying was cut for the airline viewing version by all airlines except for Qantas. In response to the statement "All airlines have crashed at one time or another. That doesn't mean that they are not safe.", Raymond replies "Qantas never crashed".
This is true in the sense that a Qantas jet airliner has never been lost in a crash; however, there have been several incidents involving Qantas, and 66 fatalities resulting from crashes of non-jet aircraft between 1927 and 1951, mostly during the Second World War when QANTAS served with the Allied Military Forces. The last record fatal crash by QANTAS was in 1951, prior to the Jet Age. Since the introduction to jet aircraft, it still remains that QANTAS has never crashed.
Popular culture references
References to Rain Man, in particular Dustin Hoffman's performance, have become a popular shorthand for autism and savant syndrome. For instance, in an episode of The Simpsons, "$pringfield", Homer works as a blackjack dealer; one scene features characters resembling Raymond and Charlie Babbit; Raymond was voiced by Dan Castellaneta, while Charlie didn't speak. In City Slickers 2, a discussion of a character's ability to count the letters in a sentence on first hearing it ends in an impersonation of Raymond Babbitt. Also, in one episode of Heroes, the characters Ando and Hiro reenact the escalator scene.
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