Thoughts on Rain Man

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Okay so when I first saw this film, Rain Man I really wanted to hate it I really did but I couldn't. It portrayed Autistic people as being idiot savants unable to comprehend emotion and oblivious to the world around them. However after seeing part of it my thoughts changed. You can say Raymond's portrayal was offensive however the film never intended for that and gave him a human role quite rare for autistic people to be given of his time for that I appreciate it. I find that the film got the bigger picture for autism wrong however there is also a part of the film I can identify with that being some of Raymond's quirks and struggles which demonstrated a humorous side. I particularly liked the film for the way Raymond wasn't actually the butt of the film's jokes but rather his brother's frustration something I feel again I can relate to.

Anyways those are just my thoughts how about yours. I personally enjoyed the film.

I haven't seen it. I think it helped awareness of autism at the time, but it does lead to stereotyping of autistics and thinking we're all like Rain Man.

I haven't seen it either, nor do I wish to. Dustin Hoffman totally puts me off watching it. I know that many people think that he's a really good actor but for me every time that I've seen him in a movie I've always been continually aware that he was acting. I can never accept him as whatever character he'd playing because to me he's always Dustin Hoffman very obviously acting a role. I always felt the same way about Laurence Olivier.

It is also based on a real person... Tom Cruise stayed with and studied Kim Peek. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLpCfHH1OVU

The portrait was very advanced for it's time. It was the first time most of the general populace had seen a non severe autistic charactor and a adult autistic character. Prior to the movie there might have been at most a few newspaper stories about autism. But the movies message was not just awareness. Rain Man's brother came to love and accept him.

Unfortunately a lot of the general population has not moved beyound Rain Man in thier understanding of Autism. This has lead to people infintilizing Autistics because they expect us to to be like him or denying our Autism because we are not like him. This has lead to resentment and dismissing what the movie was about. A reason Rain Man is often invalidated is because Kim Peek the main person the charactor was based on was not Autistic. But Peek had numourous Autistic traits. Also the the Rain Man charactor was a composit of 3 people, 2 of them are autistic.

The character would likely be diagnosed with ASD today.

For awhile I resented the characterization, but now I embrace my inner Rain Man.

Yes... the two diagnoses are not exclusive...

So far as I can see from the debate about this, and arguments either way, it has never been conclusively demonstrated whether Kim Peek did or didn't have autism. My own view tends toward the dual diagnosis conclusion (that is, I think he did).

they pulled me out of school when i was 14 to go see that movie.i was called to the main building and thought i was in trouble.
but it was the social worker and we drove to worcester,mass to see rain main in 1989

Both good and bad. It spread the belief that autistics can be adults too. But it also spread the stereotype that autistics are of the idiot-savant type, which I understand is rare regardless of autism being involved or not.

The only film my old school made us go to in the 1950s was the USA film "The Living Desert". This early exposure to the wonderful beauty of environments considered to be "wastelands with intrinsic no worth nor beauty" left a lifelong influence on me.

Today I can see the film as a kind of metaphor for my support for neurodiverse acceptance; I refute completely the ignorant claim that AS people are a "waste of space" as curebies often claim. Beauty can bloom in the most unexpected of places. And does.

The film won an Oscar. I have since visited that desert country in the USA and other deserts there. Loved seeing a road runner, amongst other wonderful experiences:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Living_Desert