Let me just say that Dustin Hoffman’s performance is 1000% accurate. The “I’m an excellent driver” line that reoccurs in the most random places of conversation always makes me tear up, coz it’s exactly what my younger brother is like. I love this movie, one of the reasons being coz it’s like watching me and my brother
He did the research too. Dustin hoffman to prepare for the role, lived with many autistic people. I will say the people are just different. Maybe many don't understand that, but god made them different and that is good. A Little difference matters in the world, even if people don't understand that.
I miss watching Siskel and Ebert. Their banter back and forth was just plain fun to watch. Rain Man is easily in my top 10 favorite movies of all time.
I was saddened when I heard Gene died in 1999. I liked Roger better at this time with these glasses and how his voice sounded and face looked before the cancer.
Personally for me I thought Hoffman was very good but cruise was even better.i think he didn't get enough praise at the time for this.he was brilliant and it was through his performance that Hoffman came across with a better performance. Cruise should at least been nominated for an Oscar in my opinion.
Eddie Campion Yeah, at the time Cruise wasn't taken seriously as an actor yet. The next year, he got a nod for Born on the Fourth of July and you see that he could move on beyond the pretty boy look.
The reason Cruise didn't get nominated is probably because they didn't want to nominate two people in the same category from the same movie. But he certainly deserved it.
amanda davis Well, that could be true. Another Dustin Hoffman movie, Midnight Cowboy, had 2 actors up for Best Actor. The real difference here is that Cruise wasn’t getting any respect from the Academy at the time. Hoffman was “the actor” and Cruise was “the movie star.” The truth is that both deserved a nomination because there wasn’t a female lead: They were the “co-stars.” Another movie that had the same problem was Ordinary People, but in that case, they submitted Donald Sutherland under the Best Actor category, and Timothy Hutton under the Best Supporting Actor category even though Timothy Hutton was clearly the “star” of the movie.
These guys were spot on. Excellent commentary on ‘one character who can’t change, and the other who doesn’t want to change’. Wish these guys were still alive doing this sort of show.
3:13 Oh, 1988. 😄 Siskel is so adorable thinking Hoffmans role was thankless, and only a few high caliber actors would do it. Then he won the Oscar, and every actor pushed to the front of the line for mental disability roles. It went from groundbreaking to cliche in 5 years.
@@andrewcutler1380 In a scene in the Score, Edward Norton revealed how easy it is for a competent actor to play disability. Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe because the Other Sister, Nell, and other unwatchable performances turned it into an embarrassing cliche, but both I Am Sam and Radio came out after all that, and the codgers on academy didn't fall for it so easily anymore. By then, the awards switched to awarding noteworthy actors who played gay.
@@andrewcutler1380 Daniel Day Lewis in “my left foot” as well Pacino did Scent of a Woman of course but I think he’s in Hoffman’s class and would’ve done it anyway...
I love this film. I'm entirely in with Cruise's slow development into a human being. Tiny insights are only part of the enjoyment of the picture. Hoffman as Raymond is a once both frightening and funny - and only funny in that the character is both predictable and unpredictable. This is both entertainment and education, and full of heart for the three main characters as well as Raymond's doctor.
I think the movie makes it pretty clear how unknown the disease was, and I think it would have been a challenge to tackle such a complex disease that people hardly know anything about, and I think like you said that was considered high functioning at the time. It was done well in my opinion and avoided being over-the-top, and I liked how they didn't make the original man in custody a villain. It usually comes down to something petty like that, but the movie thankfully avoided that.
The interesting thing about Charlie is his behaviour. Some are adapted and some are instinctual. Raymond constantly fiddles with his pinkie finger when he's anxious. At the Casino, Charlie is seen fiddling with his pinkie. At the end, Charlie is eating cheese balls with Raymond like it's the most natural thing in the world. A precursor of who Raymond is, is at the reading of the will, well before Raymond is introduced in the story. Charlie exhibits the exact speech pattern of repetition as Raymond--with Charlie saying, _"I got the rose bushes. I got the rose bushes. I definitely got the rose bushes."_
Autism was poorly understood at this time. Raymond was by no means a high functioning autistic. High functioning autistics can live independently, and sometimes get high paying jobs. Some of the have families. And yet, they are still different. Raymond is not at the bottom of the spetcrum, but he is certainly not at the top of it.
It is a movie. It's about acceptance. It's about family. It's about sacrifice and guilt. It is not about cars, counting cards, or autism. They are just props.
I miss Gene Siskel. His analysis is spot on: I certainly felt Cruise's frustration watching this, and wanted to "grab hold of" Hoffman because he was like a big baby. Living with someone like that must be impossible. One thing bothered me: If RainMan is so smart, why on earth did he want to hit on 18?
sha11235 But it did bust him. He'd need an Ace, 2 or 3 to not bust. He knew what cards were out, he just didn't understand the object or rules of the game.
"He's a hard driving, high living fly by nighter, who's never paused to care much about other people." in other words, It's just your typical Tom Cruise character.
@@EmileJoulbert A protagnist who has to overcome obstacles and also has a love interest. This trope has been used in stories for hundreds of years. It has nothing to do with Tom Cruise.
I’ve been watching a lot of Sisley and Ebert. They are great because it is clear they “care” about film, and are excited to talk about it. They are also open to other people’s opinions. They never fight, even though they clearly disagree. Miss these guys.
Rain Man is a great movie. Dustin Hoffman was perfect in this movie. Cruise is also good. And Siskel and Ebert are the best movie critics of all time. I miss the both together. RIP Siskel. Good bless you Ebert, i pray for you full health back.
Rain Man was the best performance I’ve seen from Tom Cruise. It’s unfortunate that the showy role got all the plaudits. Similarly, around five years later, Tom Hanks wowed the critics for looking more and more ill in Philadelphia, yet it was Denzel Washington who really shone in that film.
This is a great movie. I do not know anything about Autism outside of some articles and the movie Temple Grandin. I do not know how accurately Rain Man portrays Autism. The movie still works for me; it is about two brothers who have to learn to love and accept each other in spite of difficulties with communication and radically different perceptions of reality.
Jesus Christ, this movie is thirty years old? I was in high school when this came out. I remember taking a date to see it; feels no more than just a few years ago.
Hey @art deco - re: "Jesus Christ..." 1. Do you often write to Jesus Christ via RU-vid comments?!? 2. Had NO IDEA Jesus Christ was into Hollywood movies!! 3. Certainly not the "R" rated films! 4. Has Jesus Christ ever responded back? 5. Please advise.
It’s funny how Gene at one point refers to someone with autism as being mentally ill. If someone said that on TV nowadays they’d probably have to issue an official apology.
Listen how hard they are on brilliant movies from the 80's and 90's . I wonder what they'll have to say about the shit we are offered today. Pathetic times
Autism really isn't a disease. I'm not mad or anything, after all this was the 80's and most people really had no idea that autism existed, let alone what to classify it as. I have it, but I don't consider myself diseased. Some things are harder, sure, but I get by fine enough. But still, even the people who are more severely hindered by it I don't consider diseased. It's more about just seeing and feeling the world in a different way.
His actual name was Nick Mazzola and he was an actual dealer. I played at his table at Caesars one time. He was a real nice guy, who even allowed me to take a picture with him. I was very sad to learn on my next trip to Vegas that he passed away of a massive heart attack.
You are right that autism isn't a disease, but you have to realize that autism was poorly understood when this review came out. So for some people to say that it was a disease in the 1980's wasn't that far fetched.
Tom cruise really deserved an oscar as well. I know hoffman had a tough role playing an autistic man but w/o cruises reactions & hoffman to playoff of so well theirs no oscar for him. They say the hardest & best part of acting is reacting. I was most touched by cruises reactions bc I know ray doesnt feel emotions like a typical person does. I think the academy doesnt like to reward young actors or something. Theyll reward a young actress everytime but not a man ( see: cruise pacino & brad pitt for 12 monkeys & dicaprio took 20 years )
Good lord, it's really something to see how mystifying autism was portrayed as back then. We now know that autism can mean a huge range of things, from "wow, okay, this person processes things very differently" to "oh huh, I just found out I'm autistic; that explains why I didn't have the same learning style as my classmates."
Siskel and Ebert put reviewing movies on the map. But they can be very hit or miss on their critiques. They do good on this one but they harshly criticize a lot of good movies too
It's funny how Raymond wouldn't fly because he was afraid of crashing but he rode on Amtrak. I always thought Amtrak was actually the Latin word for train derailment.
The strangest thing I've seen yet is the bizarrely passionate hatred Roger Ebert has inspired. I can only assume that most of the detractors in the comments are former filmmakers whose careers were destroyed because of underperforming box office and thumbs down from Ebert.
rain man , to the younger viewer, is just really amusing and interesting to listen to, cause the comedy between cruise and hoffman ,to the younger viewer, is just as amusing as listening to other comedies that have a good warm feeling about the story and has a positive message despite its foul language , if rain man were a feel good odd couple movie on the level of a Rated pg story, much on the same level as a the claire danes tv movie , temple grandin, then the story would be More about thought provoking and more on getting people to laugh at the jokes that these two were doing and less about the foul language
Lovely movie, and educational about autism too, so well before its time. It's not fully representative of autism and what these people genuinely suffer in today's world (they are not all 'gentle math geniuses' and have an over-represntation in random violence) but the movie was the first big one to show autism as part of a spectrum.
that they thought that Rainman was unlikable is amazing....maybe lm autistic but Rainman is one of the most likeable characters in movie history...definitely.
01:37 -- Is that the card dealer from Scorcese's _Casino_ too? When Nicky is at the table and he starts being abusive, says "Look at this beauty now" xD
I disagree with them in the way that they say raymond doesnt change at all i think he does develope some sort of love for charlie, definitely not in the "he's completely normal now" way but i do think he changes... you know what no, i dont think he changes i know he does they are wrong
If they win every hand, it will be all the more obvious that the two are counting cards. If they intentionally miss a few, they won't get pinched sooner.
I'm sure it does, since that's when people were able to easily create multiple accounts. I don't get the old shows thing at all. If you really want to hurt someone's feelings, you should think out your wording enough beforehand that it actually makes sense.
@at1212b He did play a man with special needs. However his character seemed to be able to function more than Dustin's character and his character displayed his motions more. I wouldn't say Pean copied Hoffman.
Since 1910, when it was first medically described and named. Here's the first sentence from the wikipedia article on "disease" : "A disease is an abnormal condition that affects the body of an organism"
No, he made a bunch of troll accounts ( kellygreen5556 is another) and spams these videos because of something Ebert wrote about Ryan Dunn, one of the "Jackass" guys who died in a car wreck. It's pretty pathetic that he's still trolling, since all that happened years ago.