Rain Man-Media Event
...shadowing several autistics prior to making the film. The change of setting allows the viewers to see and understand the autistic behaviors of Raymond. One of the first scenes showing Raymond’s autistic behaviors is when they stopped at a diner for lunch. The night before, Raymond was given a phone book to read at the hotel to pass some time. The next day at the diner, Raymond notices the waitress’ name on her nametag and recites her phone number. By this, the viewer can see that Raymond has an incredible memory. During this scene, Charlie roughly squeezes the back of Raymond’s neck. Raymond then pulls out his injury notebook and logs the date and injury of “squeezing the neck”. This shows the odd behavior of Raymond. A box of toothpicks was dropped and Raymond could immediately tell there were 246 toothpicks on the floor. This demonstrates the mathematical abilities Raymond possesses. The next scene that clearly shows the autistic mannerisms of Raymond is when Charlie takes him to a shrink (doctor) to see how Charlie can deal with Raymond. The doctor pulls out a calculator and starts asking Raymond some small equations. Raymond answers them with simplicity. The doctor then moves to more complex equations, such as the square root of a nine-digit number, to find that Raymond can answer the harder ones just as easy as the simple ones. This again shows the brilliant mind of an autistic savant. When they finally get back on the road, Raymond realizes that an episode of People’s Court is coming on in a few minutes and he is very persistent about watching it. Charlie has to forge an identity of a salesman to try to get Raymond into someone’s house to watch his show. The homeowner discovered Charlie’s true identity, but because of Raymond’s tantrum outside, they let him come in and watch his show. I feel this shows the cyclical conduct of an autistic person. Another stop at a different diner delivered to the viewers more of Raymond’s unbelievable memory. Raymond and Charlie were sitting at a booth and Raymond was flipping through the mini jukebox on the table. When any particular song came on Raymond would tell Charlie that is J5 or B2 (the song numbers from the juke box). After leaving the diner, Charlie lays a partial deck of cards on the hood of his car. Raymond was able to tell him exactly what cards were left in Charlie’s hand, giving Charlie the idea to take Raymond to the casino where they profited eighty six thousand dollars at the black jack table. This exhibits how Raymond’s mind can calculate given information and come to an instant conclusion through the process of elimination. When the two brothers finally got back to Charlie’s apartment, Charlie had to leave for a short period. During this time, Raymond puts an entire box of frozen pancakes (including the cardboard outer box) into the oven causing it to smoke furiously. Charlie came home just in time to get it out of the oven before there was a blaze. This relays to the viewer the fact that Raymond, as brilliant as he is, cannot perform everyday simple tasks. Through the change in settings as described above, the viewer is able to observe and perceive the autistic mannerisms of the savant, Raymond. The character, Raymond, is realistic because the portrayal of autism was thoroughly researched by Hoffman studying autism and shadowing several autistics prior to making the film. In preparation to the making of the film Rain Man, Dustin Hoffman viewed savants in tapes and movies. Hoffman analyzed various scientific papers and manuscripts, discussed autism with a variety of specialists in the related field, and observed autistics in mental institutions. To actually understand the connection between autistics and their families, Hoffman interacted with them together on a personal level. Hoffman profoundly studied and shadowed three particular savants. Kim Peek was the first savant Hoffman studied, and the inspiration for the movie. Hoffman met with Peek for the first time in February 1987. During this visit, Peek’s information bank of a memory was shared with Mr. Hoffman including facts about the Bible, baseball, the space program, times, places, dates, composers and literature. The second amazing savant Hoffman thoroughly studied was Joseph Sullivan. Hoffman studied two documentaries about Sullivan that were previously filmed, including 16 extensive hours spent examining outtakes of the latest documentary. One of Sullivan’s fanatical actions Hoffman used in the movie was the infatuation of eating cheese balls with a toothpick. Sullivan once freaked out over a fire in a wastebasket. This encouraged the scene of Raymond’s outburst when a smoke ...