The Boy Who Could Fly

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I watched "The Boy Who Could Fly" with my seven year old niece. Without watching it first to see what it was about. Kind of a hard movie to explain. Blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Yes, autism is real, no, people don't really fly. Not only that but there were some other things going on as well: alcoholism, cancer, suicide.

Also read "All Cats Have Asperger's Syndrome".

It made for an interesting afternoon.

I saw it several times and it's just reinforced sterotypes but better than Rainman. I think the main character of Titan A.E. is a better protrail of AS.

I've seen The Boy Who Could Fly, three times, and I like it better, than the movie, Rain Man. It seems that the main characters in this movie seem to have more empathy towards the main character, than Charlie has towards his brother, Raymond.

All in all I think it is a movie to be proud of. It actually predated Rain Man by two years. It had an all-star cast. It used the same technology as "Superman". The boy is non-verbal but all in all pretty high functioning. The film came out in 1986...that's the same year that Temple Grandin published "Emergence Labeled Autistic", which, in my mind put HFA on the map.

I saw it once in high school and he was obsessed with flying and the movie explained where he got that obsession from. He learns to smile, catch a ball and of course say a few words and sentences.