An autistic woman finally watches Rain Man

As an autistic advocate who's always pushing for better representations of autistic people, I've been asked for my opinion on several films about autism. Based on the few that I have seen, I can already tell you that Come Play is one of the better films on the subject and that Music can be found at the bottom of the barrel. The one film that I'm often asked my opinion on is Rain Man. Originally, I had refused to watch it for a couple of reasons. For one, I predicted that I'd be miserable submitting myself to the outdated depiction of autism. Another reason why I initially avoided watching it was that plenty of neurotypicals have asked me if I was anything like the titular character. There is absolutely no reason why I should waste two hours of my time with this movie, but just like with my painful experience of sitting through Music, I feel like it's my job as an advocate to explain what does and doesn't work with Rain Man. In this little review, I shall go over what I already know about the film prior to viewing it, what I expected from it, and what I actually got from it. Without further ado, let's dive right in.

What I Already Know About Rain Man

Thanks to my special interest in movies and the Oscars, I was already aware that this movie took home four of the eight awards that it was nominated for. This included Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Picture. It is also the only film to win the Oscar for Best Picture and the Golden Berlin Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. As for the plot, I know that Tom Cruise's character Charlie finds out that he has an autistic brother named Raymond, or "Rain Man" or "Ray" as he's called. They go on a road trip that includes a stop in Vegas, and Charlie has to deal with his brother's behavior. That's basically all I know. I also know that there’s a scene in which Ray talks about airline crash records. All of the airlines mentioned made an edited version of the scene when the movie was added to their lineup except for Qantas Airways because Ray said that “they never crashed”. This is still true today. The only other thing I was already aware of prior to my viewing was that the Rain Man character was based on two real-like people named Kim Peek and Bill Sackter. I was also aware that Dustin Hoffman spent time with autistic people to prepare for the role. However, I wasn't aware that he had once said, "Deep inside, Rain Man is about how autistic we all are." Yeah, no. In short, saying that "everyone is a little autistic" erases all the struggles that people on the spectrum go through daily. Either you're autistic or you're not. Anyway, that's all I knew about the film beforehand.

What I Expected From Rain Man

Since this is a movie about autism made and released in the twentieth century, I expected everything to be a burning bucket of crap if not a complete dumpster fire. I figured that it'd be dated, and I'm not talking about the 1980s flare; I'm referring to how autism is portrayed. To be fair, this was one of the first mainstream movies about autism, and it relied on the little-known information on the subject that existed at the time. I can let that slide. Given how nearly every autism movie released since then has borrowed heavily from Rain Man, I expected to see Ray be heavily infantilized. This fully-grown man would surely be treated like a child because that's exactly what happens to autistic adults like myself. I also predicted that Charlie would be a terrible person who mistreats his brother until Ray finally has a "miracle moment" and stands up for himself for once. What would follow would be the cliché moment where the neurotypical character learns the lesson that the prop-I mean autistic character- was meant to teach him. I've seen it countless times.

What I Got From Watching Rain Man

When I asked on Facebook if I should watch and write a review for Rain Man, I got a mixed response. Unsurprisingly, most of the people who said I'd like it were neurotypicals. My autistic peers told me that while there was a good deal of accuracy regarding autism, it was also dated and could trigger me. Now that I've finally watched it, I can be blunt and say that I was bored. Nothing's really going on plot-wise, and the majority of the jokes are about how out-of-touch Ray is with neurotypicals. Unless drugs and alcohol are involved, I seriously don't know how anyone would enjoy this today, let alone back in 1988. This is a Tom Cruise movie, so there should be an explosion or something. That would've made the movie more enjoyable. As for the depiction of autism, it isn't too bad for the time. Ray has been locked up in an institution for most of his life, so it's believable that he'd come across as a child who's out of touch with the rest of the world. The meltdown scenes are also realistic, although I am tired of seeing autistic characters scream whenever they are touched. Seeing Ray be afraid of accidents ranging from plane crashes to burning bathwater reminds me of myself. I was scared of nearly everything when I was a child, and I normally expected the worst. I was scared of many things from home invaders to fire to car accidents. I'm not as fearful as I was before, but I still "overreact" whenever I think something bad is going to happen. After all, it's hard to not "overreact" when you've already been in two car accidents and nearly swerved off the road after losing control of your car. We learn that the reason why Ray panics over everything is that he saved his baby brother from an accident involving burning bathwater. Their father assumed that Ray tried to hurt Charlie and had him sent away, which is why Charlie never got to properly meet Ray until after their father's passing. What I like about it is that it shows that Ray isn't as emotionless as everyone thinks he is. In fact, he's probably scared to show emotion after what happened. This is what convinces Charlie to stop being a jerk for once and actually care about his brother. Yes, he does use him to win some money in Vegas later on, but he also turns down the chance for more money in order to fight for custody of Ray. Unlike what I predicted, Ray isn't able to make a decision for himself when asked if he'd prefer to stay with Charlie or at the institution. I get that some autistic people can be indecisive, but it was disappointing for the neurotypicals to make the decision for him. Although he isn't as infantilized as much as I thought he'd be, it's still pretty bad. I wasn't surprised by the multiple times they used the r word, either. Can't have an autism movie made by neurotypicals without at least five uses of the r word, you know?

Conclusion

To everyone who has asked for my opinion on Rain Man, I'm sorry to disappoint you with my honesty. The accuracy is decent, but the story was so boring. It's just Tom Cruise complaining and learning to grow a heart while driving across the country in a Buick while Dustin Hoffman reminds everyone that he's a method actor. I can't rank it lower than Music since it actually remembered to humanize the autistic character, and yet I can't consider it as one of the best, either. While I will give it credit for bringing autism to the mainstream, I must also take some points away for creating the stereotypical image of autism that autistic people like myself are often compared to. This isn't a film that I'll be recommending to others in the future, but it still helps to view it in your own time in order to form your own opinion.

Ranking: 3/5