brain disorders movie reviews

Rain Man

4/23/2013

An egotistic man embarks on a cross country trip with his autistic savant brother.

Charlie Babbitt is a successful car dealer in Los Angeles. When his father leaves most of his inheritance to his long-lost autistic brother Raymond, Charlie is determined to find him and claim what he believes is his. Charlie liberates Raymond from his care facility and sees an opportunity to exploit his brother’s extraordinary savant memory and make a fortune in Las Vegas. But, Raymond's lack of social awareness and rigid routine irritate his brother on the trip. Throughout their trip, Charlie learns more about his brother, autism, and savant syndrome, and what true brotherhood is.

8 Comments

YI SONG

1/30/2014 12:17:24 pm

I saw the film named "RAIN MAN". I thought it was a impressive and moving film, which described a typical autistic savant's life. At the beginning of the film, Charilie Bubbitt could not completely understand and difficultly accept his brother, Raymond, and finally they became closely brotherhood. And Charilie Bubbit took full use of Raymond's abnormal intelligence in mathematics and numbers memory to make a great fortune in Las Vagas. From my view, Raymon had one of Autism spectrum disorder called Asperger syndrome,which is charcterized by exceptional skill or talent in a pecific area, but lack social and communication skill.Therefore, Raymond showed his remarkable intelligence in math and numbers memory and he would not like to communicate with others and would prefer to stay by himself. Raymond always seemed like focusing on his own things but paying no attention to the other things surrounding him. And he looked like very strange to follow his life rutine so strict in order and would not like to change for a new one. The kind of abnormal behaviors caused a lots of trouble in Raymond's life-no friends, no job, no family number. So he kept himself away for the reality world. So I think if Charilie did not found Raymond's intelligence and Raymond would be nothing and live lonely to die.

12/8/2016 06:56:38 am

The person the film was based did not have autism (not Aspergers). He was missing part of the corpus collosum. Apparently his brain compensated in some ways.

Aida Kupa

11/22/2015 05:59:24 pm

Like Yi Song, who commented above me, I also watched this movie and believe that Raymond has autism spectrum disorder. Although, I would also say that he has Asperger's, or what would now be known as autism spectrum disorder without language or intellectual impairment. He can make full sentences and not just phrases, so he definitely does not have language impairment. Also, although he does not have social skills or social intelligence, he is very intelligent in othe areas like math and generally memory. This also qualifies him for the autism spectrum disorder without language or intellectual impairment.

I personally liked this movie because raymond is based on a real person, Kim Peek. I watched a documentary about Kim Peek, who was a savant with autism spectrum disorder. They showed that after the movie came out, Peek was able to change and started to become more open to the world. He himself says that he was finally able to look at someone straight in the eye for the first time. It's nice that the movie was able to both inform people about autism and contribute to the comfort of a person with autism.

Andrew Wells

1/12/2016 01:55:16 pm

Like Aida, I enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it to those who haven’t watched it. I also largely agree with Aida’s description of Raymond, but I think she oversimplifies the situation. Raymond definitely falls somewhere in the autism spectrum, and Asperger’s syndrome seems to be an accurate choice. Aida asserts that because Raymond does not have speech difficulties, he must fall into this category. However, Aida does not note other behaviors which suggest he has Asperger’s syndrome. He has difficulty with social situations, and has a restricted set of interests; additionally, he sticks to a rigid, repetitive schedule. These, according to Autism Speaks (https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/asperger-syndrome) are consistent with Asperger’s syndrome. In fact, many of the described behaviors on the above website are exhibited by Raymond.

I did not know that the movie was based on a real person until I read Aida’s review, and I was glad I could look into this. Kim Peek, who the movie is loosely based on, differs from Raymond. Peek actually did not have Asperger’s syndrome, but was born with several brain abnormalities. One such abnormality was agenesis of the corpus callosum. As we are learning in Psch 101, this is the connecting portion of the brain which allows the brain hemispheres to communicate with each other. This, among other things, led to his uniqueness. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201212/kim-peek-the-real-rain-man)

Yuxin Xing

3/3/2016 09:28:08 am

I think “Rain Man” is an excellent film when I have seen and enjoyed it. Brotherhood and Autistic’s life are really well displayed in the film. Psychology research found that the essence of autism damage is cognitive impairment, performance in the early days of the share of attention and play behavior. I found the happy of Raymond was never fully experienced until he lived in his own world. Autism disorders involve problems with social and communication skills and repeated behaviors. Even if Raymond has a photographic memory, he is very busy every day because there are a lot of things to do. He really is a rain man. In psychiatry generally, the term autism refers to apparent withdrawal from the outside world, self absorption, and lack of communication with others, just as Raymond. Since Autism, a spectrum of developmental disorders, is the most common developmental disorder in the Unite States and Global. Researchers have developed various treatments to control Autism, but no cure has been found. Actually, “Rain Man” reminded us to attention on autism patients and devotion for family. (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/autism/)

Elise Masters

3/5/2016 09:58:00 am

As Andrew and the others said above me, this is a very enjoyable movie, and an all-time classic. Also like Andrew and Aida, it was clear as I watched this movie that Raymond is definitely on the autism spectrum, and if you paid attention to details you would be able to narrow it down to Asperger’s syndrome. Raymond always had to follow a strict routine, including going to sleep at 11:00 and watching “Wapner” (The People’s Court) on TV everyday. His limited interests, social behaviors, and routine tell us that there is no language impairment, as Aida said, which leads us to believe he has Asperger’s.

I knew that this movie was based off of a real savant, Kim Peek, and wanted to look further into what a savant is and what causes it. Throughout the movie we can see that Raymond is a “human calculator”, winning a game of blackjack by counting cards, recalling events on specific dates, counting multiple things at once, and solving complicated equations that no human could do. There are multiple theories I found as to what causes Savant Syndrome, but the one that made the most sense to me and connected to what we discussed in class was a left-brain impairment/injury and a right brain compensation. Because most of the skills the savant lacks are associated with the left brain function, the right brain over-compensates for this resulting in the various skills the savant expresses. Rain Man not only taught us about a Savant’s life, but the importance of understanding autism spectrum disorders as well as the importance of family.

(https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/professional/savant-syndrome/faqs/)

Elif Yargic

3/6/2016 04:15:30 pm

The movie ‘’Rain Man’’ is about the relationship between the main character, Charlie Babbit and his long lost autistic brother Raymond. After the loss of their father, Charlie learns that his father inherited all of his money to Raymond. His first reaction is mixed with anger and shock because he didn’t know that he had a brother. He finds out that his brother has savant syndrome, which is a subtype of autism. In his article, Dr. Treffert (1) says that people with savant syndrome can have “such remarkable abilities with varying degrees.” In the movie, Charlie uses Raymond to make a fortune by using his extraordinary math skills as counting cards at Las Vegas. I think the best part is when Charlie realizes that the Rain Man was actually Raymond during his childhood. The important message of the movie is that no matter what, family comes first.

[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677584/

Jin Li

6/9/2017 09:45:35 am

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder, is a neurodevelopmental disorder that refers to a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences. A person with autism experiences severe impairments in social relatedness and language development, and the presentation of unusual, repetitive, and/or stereotypic patterns of behavior. The recent study speculates that spectral coherence data may prove useful in exploration of similarities and differences within a broader population of autistic children and adults (Duffy & Als, 2012). The reduced short-distance coherences may indicate poor local network function. Additionally, the increased long-distance coherences may represent compensatory processes or reduced neural pruning. Lastly, the author mentioned that the wide average spectral range of factor loadings may suggest over-damped neural networks.

I found it interesting that the movie was inspired by the real Rain Man Kim Peek who had extreme memory abilities. He was able to remember almost everything he read and retain the information well. Although most people with savant syndrome suffer from autism, Kim Peek did not suffer from autism. MRI of his brain suggests that there is an absence of the corpus callosum, the anterior commissure and the hippocampal commissure. Unfortunately, these are the three main parts that transfer information across right and left hemispheres in the neurological system. That is probably the reason why Peek can read both pages of an open book.

Duffy, F., & Als, H. (2012). A stable pattern of EEG spectral coherence distinguishes children with autism from neuro-typical controls - a large case control study. Bmc Medicine, 10(1), 64-64. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-10-64

Rain Man

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