AUTISM AND THE MOVIE RAIN MAN

Autism and the movie Rain Man

Autism and the movie Rain Man

Rain Man, The Movie / Rain Man, Real Life Darold A. Treffert, MD Raymond Babbitt, the main character in the movie RAIN MAN, has become the world's best known savant due to Dustin Hoffman's remarkably accurate and sensitive portrayal of Savant Syndrome in that film. That 1988 movie, in its first 101 days, accomplished more toward bringing Savant Syndrome to public awareness than all the efforts combined of all those interested in this condition the past 101 years following Dr. Down's 1887 description of this disorder. It is a memorable movie about a memorable savant. It won four academy awards, including Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman and Best Picture for 1988. I was pleased to have been a consultant to that film. Because that film has served as the introduction for so many persons to savants, it is worth looking at some of the effort and activity that led to its creation, its authenticity and its success.

The movie is the story of two brothers, Charlie Babbitt and his brother, Raymond Babbitt, an autistic savant. Their father has died leaving 3 million dollars in a trust fund for Raymond's care in the institution where Raymond has spent almost all of his adult life. Charlie wants the money. Charlie traces Raymond to the institution where he lives, discovering once again a brother he did not even remember since he was so young (age 2) when Raymond, then age 18, was placed into long-term care. So young was Charlie at that time that he, in typical childlike manner, called his brother RAIN MAN because that's the way the name Raymond sounded to him. After this for-the-wrong-reasons reunion at the hospital, a six-day cross-country tour ensues from Cincinnati to Los Angeles in a '49 Buick with a variety of adventures wherein some of Raymond's autistic rituals and savant skills are an asset, and some an impediment.

By the end of the movie Charlie has changed from referring to his brother as "weird" or a "retard" to viewing him as only different and in many ways very special. There is no six-day cure of autism (and realistically there ought not to be). Raymond returns to the institution at the end of the movie. But it is clear both Raymond and Charlie have changed. Raymond is a bit more self-sufficient and tolerates some affection; Charlie is trying less to stamp out his brother's odd behavior learning more to accommodate to it. Charlie, like Raymond, also has learned something more about feelings and affection. Just as Raymond's wall of autism has yielded a bit, so has Charlie's wall of callousness yielded as well. They were just different kinds of walls.

The first version of RAIN MAN was written by Barry Morrow who had earlier written the original story for the award-winning TV movie BILL, in which Mickey Rooney played a mentally retarded person. The RAIN MAN script was inspired by another mentally handicapped young man ...