Rain Man

Rain Man was directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Marrow. Rain Man has an intriguing plot of Charlie and Raymond Babbit traveling across the country. Charlie basically kidnapped ramond after he found out that their father had left his fortune to Raymond, who was a savant. Rain Man also had a great deal of acting to go along with the plot.

I thought that Rain Man had an exciting plot and one that could realistically happen. I found Charlie to be a very selfish and egotistical individual at the beginning of the movie. Charlie had a falling out with his father, while he was still in high school, all over a car. Charlie left home never to return until the day of his fathers funeral. I found this very selfish and self centered of Charlie and it will help predict his future actions throughout most of the movie. Charlie is even more enraged when he finds out that he is not the beneficiary to his fathers fortune. Charlie finds out that he has a brother, Raymond, who is the beneficiary of the fortune. Raymond is a savant and has no real concept of money, but Raymond is very high functioning and he is a genius with numbers. Charlie takes Raymond just for the fact that he wants to get custody so he can have access to the family wealth. Raymond and Charlie eventually get to connect and Charlie then realizes that he wants Raymond as a brother, not just as a meal ticket. I think that this plot gives the viewer a deeper connection to the ones around them. Rain Man connects people on domestic and social issues. According to Klein, Rain Man struck a cord by connecting deeply with the emotional life of its audience. I feel that it was this deep connection and the acting that made Rain Man what it is as a movie.

The Acting in Rain Man was very well done. I feel that Dustin Hoffman did an excellent job in portraying Raymond, who is a savant. Hoffman had to use an impersonating style of acting while playing the part of Raymond. Hoffman has the talent to transform himself in to a savant, which he is not. Raymond was the character that made Rain Man what it was. I think that that viewer really connected to Raymond and truely loved the character. Hoffman has the rare talent of avoiding the typecasting trap. Typecasting, as the chapter concludes, is when an actor or actress do similar roles in movies because they have previously proven their ability to do those roles. Hoffman and a few others have the ability to play several different roles and play them to a high degree of excellence. I know there are some actors or actresses that you just can't see playing certain roles and their are certain actors or actresses that you can only see playing certain roles.

This was the first time that I have ever watched Rain Man but I know a lot of people that have seen the movie before and I think that it is a classic. I feel that the messege the movie gets across to the viewer and society is one that will be around for ages. A movie moves in to the classic zone when it can connect people of different backgrounds and different time periods together. I was born in the same year that this movie came out and there are a lot of movies in this time period that I would not care to watch. Rain Man was a good watch for those in the late eighties, for me, and those to come after me.

Reference:
MATHEW J. KLEIN. (1989, April 16). FILM; Psychiatry Looks At the Appeal Of 'Rain Man'. New York Times, p. 24