Line #6 YMMV/Rainman


1	* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail:
2	** During filming, Creator/DustinHoffman was unsure of the film's potential and his own performance. Three weeks into the project, Hoffman wanted out, telling Barry Levinson, "Get Creator/RichardDreyfuss, get somebody, Barry, because this is the worst work of my life." Hoffman would nab his second Best Actor Academy Award for his work.
3	** Lee Rich, the head of MGM at the time, told the ''New York Times'' that he predicted that ''Rain Man'' would not make money, but "would help [him] with exhibitors."
4	%%* {{Anvilicious}}: Decades after it was new, the [[AnAesop Aesop]] that neurodivergent people are as human as everybody else is this.
5	* BrokenBase: The film's portrayal of autism, especially to modern audiences; some consider it a positive and sympathetic portrayal that does a good job capturing the ups and downs of the condition, especially compared to earlier portrayals, while others, especially autistic viewers, feel that it still carries an uncomfortably ableist undercurrent and deride it for perpetuating and popularizing the "autistic savant" stereotype, and obscuring the fact that not all savants have [=ASDs=] and not all autistic people are savants.
6	* DesignatedVillain: Dr. Bruner might come across as this. Although Charlie [[TookALevelInKindness does show that he truly cares for his long-lost brother, for good and bad]], let's not forget that he at first took Raymond from Wallbrook and offered to return him for half of their father's fortune. Dr. Bruner, meanwhile, has known Ray for more than two decades, and [[StrawmanHasAPoint even tells Charlie that his brother won't be able to make decisions and live a life of his own]]. To top it off, Wallbrook has a good track record in caring for people like Ray; if it didn't, his father wouldn't have sent him there for most of his life. About the worst thing Dr. Bruner does is to offer Charlie $250,000 for his trouble if he sends Ray back and forgets the whole thing.
7	* FairForItsDay: The movie is criticized nowadays for introducing the stereotype that all autistic people have savant skills, and for giving out a strict criterion for autism portrayals when the condition is, in reality, loosely defined and highly variable from person to person beyond base commonalities (Hence why the full name for the mental disability is "autism ''spectrum'' disorder"). However, mainstream awareness of autism owes much to this film, and it [[GenreTurningPoint opened the floodgates for introducing sympathetic portrayals of mentally challenged characters in media.]] According to the book ''Literature/NeuroTribes'', the movie also helped the general population become much more sympathetic towards autistic people, as the movie gave them a basic understanding of the condition.
8	* {{Glurge}}: Despite the general [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments positive]] [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel reception]] of the movie and Creator/DustinHoffman's great Oscar-winning performance, for many autistic people, the movie's much more {{glurge}}-y than anything else. The simplistic portrayal of autism in the movie and the way it's used as a plot device to teach the neurotypical protagonist not to be a {{Jerkass}} make it guaranteed Flame Bait on many autistic support forums. That this film [[FollowTheLeader created a trend in Hollywood]] for self-consciously sympathetic and tearful films about InspirationallyDisadvantaged, which turned into one of the most negative examples of OscarBait before too long, exacerbates this fact.
9	* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: This was an anomaly in Creator/TomCruise's career up to this point where his fast talking, hyper aggressive character type slams head first into a situation that forces him to be more compassionate and introspective. This helped show that Cruise does have the chops for more grounded dramas, and he credits Hoffman with helping him reinvent his discipline as an actor through this film.
10	* NightmareFuel: Charlie tries to force Raymond to go on a plane, even after he insists that there's a real risk that it'll crash. But just before they board it, Ray screams bloody murder and hits himself on the head repeatedly, and it's absolutely ''terrifying'', which forces Charlie not to take the plane. There is some TruthInTelevision to this; compulsive, stereotyped motions known as "stimming" are common among autistic individuals as a means of venting stress, and while most cases of it are fairly benign (if odd-looking to a neurotypical person), in some rarer and more extreme cases it can indeed include self-harming behaviors such as striking oneself on the head.
11	%%** Raymond's meltdowns with the hot bathtub and the smoke detector. Context?
12	* OnceOriginalNowOverdone: When it was made, the film was revolutionary with just the sole idea of even recognising such thing as autism or using it as a plot device. Ever since, it has become synonymous with opening the floodgate for the overbearing, (and overbearingly) sappy HollywoodAutism copycats. While the film still is carried by Hoffman's and Cruise's performances, it's just hard to be impressed with what quickly became a cheap cliche.
13	* ParodyDisplacement: To many people who grew up in the '90s, Raymond's [[VerbalTic Verbal Tics]] are mainly familiar as [[WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} Runt the dog]]'s way of speaking.
14	* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/BonnieHunt plays the waitress who drops the toothpicks. (Which is also HilariousInHindsight, as Hunt would go on to co-star with Creator/TomCruise in ''Film/JerryMaguire'' nearly a decade later, and Cruise didn't remember who Hunt was).
15	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: Compare [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HdQbU0TPHM "Las Vegas"]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RVJyNpfDk "This Corrosion"]] by Music/TheSistersOfMercy (which some may know as the end credits theme to ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'').
16	* TearJerker:
17	** Raymond revealing to Charlie why he got sent to the institution- he saved Charlie from being burned by hot bathwater when he was just a child, but his father mistakenly thought that Raymond had tried to burn him on purpose. Raymond was unable to speak up for himself due to his condition, and his father never found out the truth as a result. Even worse, it's implied that had this event not occurred, Raymond could have had an easier time coping with neurotypical society.
18	** The letter from Charlie's father to his son. He sounds worn out and lonely, knowing that his son's lousy relationship and personality is unchangeable and probably his own doing, and that all there is left between them is the inheritance and some best wishes.
19	* ValuesDissonance:
20	** When the doctor in charge of Raymond tells Charlie about Raymond's diagnosis, Charlie asks if Raymond is mentally retarded and later in the movie, Charlie yells at Raymond for his autistic behaviors and tells him to "stop acting like a fucking retard!". When the movie was released in the 1980's, the word was considered fair game to use, and while Charlie isn't supposed to be sympathetic when he says it, the word itself is not portrayed as wrong. Nowadays however, the term is considered much more offensive, especially in the United States (to the point where the term "mental retardation" has been replaced in the scientific vernacular with terms like "mental impairment," "mentally disabled," and "Intellectually Challenged/Disabled").
21	** Furthermore, Creator/DustinHoffman plays an autistic character despite not being autistic himself, which has led some to criticize the film for having a non-autistic actor cast as Raymond Babbitt instead of an autistic actor (although in fairness, Leslie Lemke [[CastTheRunnerUp initially was in mind to play Raymond.]])

Context YMMV / Rainman