viernes, 7 de noviembre de 2008

Comments about the film "Rain Man"

This post is dedicated to comment about the film that we saw in class: Rain Man.
It is a 1988 dramatic film directed by Barry Levinson and It tells the story of a selfish yuppie, Charlie Babbitt, who discovers that his father has left all of his multimillion-dollar estate to his brother, Raymond, of whose existence he knew nothing and who is an autistic savant.

The movie stars Tom Cruise as Charlie Babbit and Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbit. The film won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards (1989), including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a leading role for Hoffman.

The official trailer of the film is shown below

4 comentarios:

Sergio dijo...

Rain Man is a moving, emotional and funny story about two brothers: Charlie Babbitt who is a selfish yuppie at war with his own life that cares only about the importance of money and Raymond Babbitt an autistic savant.
Charlie didn’t know about the existence of Raymond until the day that he learned the last will of his father: The inheritance of $3 million dollars goes to Raymond and for him only a convertible car. I considered that the last action that Mr. Babbitt made is the greatest gift that he could make to his sons, because it teaches Charlie to be patient, how to take care about others and specially it gives him a brother, besides Charlie learned that money isn’t everything for being happy, but is better to have someone who supports you and gives you all the love that you need. And this action left to Raymond some experiences, like driving a car, kissing a woman or dancing, I can’t say that Raymond learned how to live out of the routine because that isn’t true, this comment is supported by the last scene of the movie, when Raymond is in the train and he is seeing one of his favorite TV programs.

During the course of the movie, Charlie learns about Raymond’s condition, which he initially believes is curable. This thought of Charlie is persisting in our days, because some people are believing that autism is a condition rather than a disorder and these people are looking for a cure. I think that the best way of helping a person with autism is teaching them how to behave in different situations of life, in that way they will gain social and communications skills and they will learn how to take care of them; like Raymond shows us in the movie.

This movie teaches us not to discriminate people just because they look or they behave different, just as Charlie did at the beginning with his brother Raymond, everybody have specials talents that someday will be helpful in order to complete an activity. For example, Charlie used the Raymond’s ability of counting fast for earning money in a casino from Las Vegas.
Discrimination in Mexico is a widespread problem that involves cultural, economic, legal and political factors; it reproduces across the territory, aggravates inequality and hinders the full development of individuals, communities and societies. The sectors most affected are towards people with some disabilities, indigenous people, homosexuals, elderly, religious minorities and people with different political ideas. Discrimination will be eradicated from our country until the day we make aware that the strength of our country lies precisely in our diversity. If we work together, as one, we will create a great machine that will lead to improve our future.

As a conclusion I would like to say that it was a very moving story with great performances. It show us that the best part of being alive is meeting different persons that in one way or another can change our lives.

Norma García dijo...

The film was great, I really liked it. It was very interested and very moving; I like a lot the character of Raymond and Tom Cruise’s performance, which was very good indeed. The film besides being very moving it was also funny and, in a way, something unexpected.

I have to confess that at the beginning of the film I was a little bit sceptical about it because I believe that it was going to be like some films that the only thing they do, is moving us superficially by showing the same story with always has a happy ending, but then I realised that “Ray Man” is quite good and is different from that type of films.

What I most liked about the film is the way that it deals with autism and, even when it includes some myths about it, the idea that it transmits to us is very good and complete. I agree with Sergio on what he said and I also think that the film’s goal is to shows us the importance of people and relationships above money, and about autistics that they are real persons and even when their brain disorder is not well known and most of the times it is consider as an illness, they can be productive and they don’t have to be discriminated, and also I think it is difficult to deal with this issue without falling into commonplaces and the film achieved its desired effect about it.

Something I don’t like about the film was the drastic change of attitude of Cruise’s character, because I think it was very fast and therefore a little bit unbelievable, but despite that, I think the movie was good.

To finish, I want to say that I hadn’t heard of “Rain Man” before and I liked a lot to have seen it in class because it was something I did not expect to see and I liked it very much; it was jut great, I really enjoyed it :).

Greetings,
Norma

MABT dijo...

Although I knew a little about this movie, I never had the chance to see it, so now that I did, I think it was a good experience.

I'm not a big fan of drama films, but I think Rain Man is a perfect mix of drama and comedy, keeping the seriousness it deserves.

Since the beginning, the movie sets up the context of the plot, by giving enough information for a quick start in the main theme.

The film shows the ups and downs of the Babbit brothers getting to know each other, and how Charlie, who was unaware of the existence of his older brother, starts caring about him, discovering the truly essence of family, which he never had.

Rain Man shows how the society causes the fragmentation of the human relationships, by giving a top status to power over searching for the meaning of life.

Sadly, it takes passing through hard times to understand what are the mistakes we've been doing, so we can start to take part in the situation.

But, in the end, this is what makes life so intriguing and emphasizes the desire to have a time machine in some cases.

Anyway, about the film itself, I think it has a lot of good spots, specially those in which Raymond makes a joke, or says something out of context. By this, you get involved with the character and the whole situation. The tenderness of Raymond softens Charlie's temperament and the viewer itself, so by the end of the movie, Charlie really starts to worry about Raymond's future as his brother, a reaction that maybe he would never have had if not for his brother.

Finally, I really liked Rain Man, it showcases many aspects of the human nature and how it changes over time and its consequences.

Miguel Ángel Benítez Torreblanca

Verónica Poujol dijo...

Great comments!

I believe the screenplay of the story is really original and interesting, let alone the acting. It was probably the best acting roles ever for both, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
Another good point, i think,it is to show the life of authistic people, a world we could never have imagined otherways.

Congratulations guys!

Mark:10