The Rain Man stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise

Rain Man

The Rain Man stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.  The movie was made in 1988.  The movie is about an autistic man  named Raymon, who is a idiot savant played by Dustin Hoffman and his fast, talking self absorbed, egocentric brother  Charlie Babbitt, who is played by Tom Cruise.  A egocentric person is a person with the simple recognition that every living thing views the world from a unique, self-oriented perspective(LIFE: Inherently Egocentric written by James Craig Green  http://pw2.netcom.com/~zeno7/ego.html).

Charlie is a car salesman whose business is going down hill.  Charlie and his girlfriend are on their way to Palm Springs when Charlie gets a call from his friend and co-worker. He tells him that his fathers’ lawyer has been trying to reach him, because his father was dead and the funeral was the next day. Charlie who never had a good relationship with his father decided to go out there to pay his respects and to go get his share of his fathers estate.  When the lawyer read the will, Charlie finds out all he received was his fathers’ 1949 Buick and his prized rose bushes.  The lawyer says the rest of the estate is going to a beneficiary. Charlie is mad at what his father did. He tries to find out who get everything else, because it is worth about three million dollars. Charlie finds out the name and location of the beneficiary, but does not know anything else.  So Charlie goes to Wallbrook  institution to find out who this guy is.  While he is inside a man comes up to Charlies’ car and hops in.  He says he drove it just last week. After Charlie asks him a couple of questions he finds out that they are brothers.  Charlie’s first impression of Raymon is that he is retarded. Charlie decides in order to get his cut of his fathers’ money, he will abduct his brother and wait for them to hand him his one and a half million dollars as a ransom because he thinks he deserves it. Charlie takes Raymon from Wallbrook and heads out on the road back to Los Angeles. Charlie tells him if they make it back soon they can go and see a Dodgers game. Charlie’s girl friend objects to what Charlie is doing to Raymon and decides to leave him.

The next morning Charlie and Raymon go out for breakfast and Raymon starts to throw a fit when the maple syrup is not on the table before they order.  He also wants toothpicks to eat with, not the knife and fork provided. Charlie goes and calls the doctor to tell him he has Raymon and won’t give him up until he gets his 1.5 million dollars.  In the mean time Raymon gets up and starts wandering. After Charlie gets Raymon back to his seat he decides to give in and  tells the waitress to get them some toothpicks so Raymon can eat. She accidentally drops them when she and Raymon run into each other.  He quickly counts how many have fallen to the ground.  First he mumbles 82 then he mumbles quietly for some time and says there are 246 toothpicks on the ground, as they’re walking away Charlie asks the waitress how many toothpicks there are in the box.  She says 250, then says there are 4 left in the box. This is where you first realize that Raymond isn’t just mentally disabled but  is a idiot savant.  This is a rare condition where people with severe mental handicaps have a spectacular ability in one skill or area.

Half way through the trip Charlie decides to take Raymon to a doctor to actually find out what is really up with him.  When Charlie is done filling out the forms he hands them to the nurse and she reads it and says, “is he artistic”, Charlie says ,“no he is Autistic”. Autism  is the developmental disorder, usually appearing before age three, characterized by impaired non-verbal and verbal communication, including abnormal speech patterns or loss of speech; lack of eye contact; a restricted range of interests; resistance to change of any kind; obsessive repetitive body movements, such as hand flapping or spinning; a lack of awareness of the existence or feelings of others; social isolation; and no comfort seeking in times of distress. (www.encyclopedia.com/autism/1999).  Anyway when they finally got into the doctors office  the doctor discovered that Raymon was an idiot savant after asking him some questions in which Raymond had answered all the answers quickly and correctly.

As they are making their way to LA they pass through Las Vegas.  After they pass through Charlie calls his business to find out what has happened since the last time, he finds out that he is in financial trouble.  They need to come up with about $80,000 in a couple of days.  Charlie figures out he can use Raymon for betting since Raymon is an idiot savant, he can remember and figure out the odds of different combinations, including cards.  Charlie decides to turn back and go to Las.............