OK – before I get into this month’s blog, I want to give you
a link to a story on CNN with Peter Bell from Autism Speaks. http://current.com/shows/the-war-room/videos/autism-in-america-the-epidemic-no-one-is-talking-about.
If you recall from my August blog “The
War on the Disabled”, I pointed out that people in the Autism community have a
lot at stake in the coming election. Please make sure you vote based on the
issues and not just because someone has a D or R beside their name. It could mean a significant difference for
everyone with Autism.
Now, on to October.
I was checking out my Netflix options recently, and came
across the 1988 movie Rain Man, with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise.
It has been a long time since I saw the movie, and I vaguely
remembered the plot line. What I remembered was that Cruise’s character finds
out he has a brother that has been institutionalized, but it turns out this
brother is a genius with numbers. So much so, that they beat the system in
Vegas, and walk away with tons of money; at the same time building a bond
between the characters.
The main thing I remember, though, was that for months
(years?) after, people would mock Hoffman’s character by rocking back and forth
and monotonously saying “Yeah, Judge Wapner starts at 4:30. Yeah.” I bet if you
do it today, people will know exactly what you’re talking about.
Because of this, I had the impression that the movie would have a
black eye in the Autism community. Raymond is diagnosed as an Autistic Savant,
and obviously has trouble when his brother kidnaps him and significantly
changes the routines that Raymond depends upon.
I was surprised, however, to find that Rain Man has actually
sparked a lot of positive discourse in the Autism community that continues
to this day. There are still people talking about it, and the general consensus
appears to be that Rain Man is a relatively good portrayal of a particular
individual with Autism.
The movie doesn’t represent all forms of Autism because
there are as many forms as there are people with Autism, but Autism scholars believe
that it does a good job of showing the challenges faced by a person on the
Spectrum who is put into a unique situation. His struggles with making a
connection with his brother, the breaking of routine, going into a shell when a
doctor intensely probes him for an answer – all of them representing challenges
and reactions that some people with Autism may display.
I have seen a backlash against Cruise’s character on the
chat rooms, but you have to remember where Autism was in 1988. Very few people
had heard of it, and tolerance for Autism was even lower than it is today. Cruise’s
frustration with the eccentricities displayed by Raymond (example, Raymond wouldn't get on a plane because the airline had a history of fatal crashes and he begins yelling and hitting himself when Cruise pushes the subject) would be a
natural reaction in someone that doesn’t understand how Raymond would react to
the changes in his environment.
So, I encourage everyone to take some time and watch the
film again. Forget about the bad imitations of Raymond and see how you feel about
the movie’s portrayal of the 1988 world of Autism. More importantly, think of how far we’ve come
and think about what else needs to be done to adjust the perspective of Autism
in today’s community.
