Movie Review: Rain Man - A Look into Savant Syndrome

Written by Nicole Yu

25 June 2017

As the highest grossing film of its year, Rain Man (1988) received extremely high praise, which resulted in four Academy Awards wins. Most impressively, these wins were for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Dustin Hoffman). The movie centers around two brothers, portrayed by Hoffman and Cruise, as they journey through life together despite their differences. We first meet the rather arrogant Charlie Babbitt (played by Tom Cruise). When he hears that his estranged father has passed away, Charlie is angered to discover that his father’s $3 million fortune is not going to him. Charlie tracks down where the money is going and it eventually leads him to a mental institution. It is here that he meets a patient, Raymond (played by Dustin Hoffman), and learns that they are actually brothers. It turns out that Raymond has Savant Syndrome, and has spent his entire adult life at the mental institution. According to Treffert (2009), “Savant syndrome is a rare, but extraordinary, condition in which persons with serious mental disabilities, including autistic disorder, have some ‘island of genius’”, and that whatever the savant skill may be, it is “always linked to massive memory”. Raymond is also autistic; hence he is known as an autistic savant. In Raymond’s case, his ‘island of genius’ involves not only perfect memory recall, but the ability to make instant calculations. He is able to count any number of objects – even up to the hundreds – in the blink of an eye. This was brilliantly shown in a scene where a waitress drops a box of toothpicks on the floor and Raymond instantly states there are 246 toothpicks. When Charlie dismisses this as false, the waitress reveals that it was a box of 250 toothpicks, with 4 still left inside the box. After Charlie brings Raymond out of the mental institution and they embark on a road trip, Charlie is still hell-bent on getting money, and quickly. Upon discovering Raymond’s unique ability to count objects, he decides to make use of Raymond and takes them both to Las Vegas. It is there that Charlie makes Raymond count cards at a casino and they end up winning big. Besides Raymond’s Savant abilities, there are many instances in the movie that depict his autistic traits. One notable example is the strict adherence to his daily routine and environment. When Raymond is in a hotel room, he insists on having pizza because “Monday night is Italian night” and tapioca pudding, as this has been his dinner routine during all those years at the institution. He also shifts the hotel furniture around so that they match his room back at the institution. As a whole, the film is full of all the little things that make Raymond who he is. We end up getting to know a fully-fleshed character. The film was done in such a great way that although we get a good idea of what a person with high-functioning autism and Savant Syndrome is like, we are somehow also aware that this is just the case for Raymond. Although a fictitious character, we get to take away the fact that what we have seen is so unique to Raymond, and that every autistic individual will have different quirks. To summarize, Charlie is depicted as selfish and rather ignorant of his brother’s autism at the beginning of the film. He views his brother as someone that is “weird” and only as a means of securing money. Oftentimes, he gets frustrated with Raymond because he does not understand why his brother is the way he is. As the film progresses, we see a gradual positive change in Charlie, as he picks up all of Raymond’s preferences, learns to respect them, and helps him out. By the end of the film, Charlie has grown to love Raymond as a true brother. We see him fighting for custody of Raymond and although he fails (and Raymond has to go back to the mental institution), there is now genuine love and understanding between the two. ​To me, Rain Man is the perfect movie to teach us that those with mental conditions may seem different (as Charlie first viewed Raymond), but it only takes some time and an open mind for us to understand and love them. REFERENCES:

1. Treffert, D. A. (2009). The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 364, 1351-1357.