Rain Man (1988)

"Charlie and Raymond. They are strangers. They are brothers. They have just met." In this episode, we discuss the Oscar winning drama 'Rain Man.' The movie stars Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise and Valeria Golino. Directed by Barry Levinson.

Rain Man - IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095953/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_6_nm_2_in_0_q_rain
Rain Man- Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rain_man

Bill's Letterboxd Ratings: https://letterboxd.com/bill_b/list/bills-all-80s-movies-podcast-ratings/
Jason's Letterboxd Ratings: https://letterboxd.com/jasonmasek/list/jasons-all-80s-movies-podcast-ratings/
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hello, and welcome to the All Eighties Movies Podcast, the
podcast where we talk about the blockbusters, love flops, and
everything between from one of the frenchiest decades from movies,
the nineteen eighties. I'm your host, Pill Banton long be
on this journey revisiting eighties movies.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Is my co host Jason Massek. Hello, Jason Bill, I'm
an excellent driver.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
That's right, listeners, we're discussing with sports the Plenty. The
nineteen eighty eight drama rain Man was produced by United
Artists in the Goober Peters Company and distributed by MGMUA Communications.
The movie stars Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, and Valeria Golino.
Directed by Barry Levinson, This movie is rated R with

(00:59):
the time of two hours and thirteen minutes. The movie
was nominated for eight Oscars, winning four nominees were for
Best Cinematography, Best Set Direction, Art Direction, Best Film Editing,
and Best Music Original Score. Wins included Best Writing Screenplay
Written Directly for the screen for Ron Bass and Barry Morrow,

(01:20):
Best Director Barry Levinson, Best Actor in the leading role
Dustin Hoffman, and Best Picture. So what is this movie about?
What's on the box? If you grew up in the
nineteen eighties and what's to your local video store to
rent this movie? You would find this description on the
back of the VHS box. It is what's on the box,
Take it away.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Jason winner of four Academy Awards Best Picture, Best Director,
Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. Barry Levinson's rain Man
is a modern cinematic classic, boasting quote dazzling tour de
force performances by Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Rex read
at the Movies. This heartwarming story of the healing power

(01:59):
of love is quote fascinating, touching, and full of smart surprises.
Newsweek quote my father has stuck it to me all
my life, complains Charlie Babbitt Tom Cruise, a callous, self
centered young hustler who's shocked to discover his lack of
an inheritance. Left only with his late father's prized rose
bushes and a vintage forty nine Buick. Charlie soon uncovers

(02:22):
yet another surprise, an autistic, savant brother Raymond Dustin Hoffmann.
He never knew he had determined to extort his fair
share of the family fortune. Charlie abducts his older sibling
from Walbrook, the institution that has been his home. But
what begins as an act of selfishness soon evolves into
a mystical odyssey of camaraderie and self revelation that expands

(02:45):
the confines of Raymond's narrow world and enables Charlie to
grow beyond the limits of his hardened heart.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Rainman, Rainman, I guess I didn't have to read that
stuff because you were just going to reread it again
from the back of the box. About the usc wins.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, we just really really wanted to nail it down
so that the listeners really understand exactly what oscars this
film one, and in my opinion, deservedly so. But we
can talk about that all right. So, Jason, do you
remember the first time you saw Rainman. My memories is
just not as sharp as yours, Bill Bant, but I

(03:21):
believe I saw this in the theater with my family
back in nineteen eighty eight, and ever since that first watch,
I've enjoyed watching it every time after that. I mean,
so many scenes are memorable, and outside of the Dustin
Hoffman performance, I recall what really impacted me as a
kid was Tom Cruise. I still feel to that to
this day. I mean that it's his best acting. I

(03:43):
know I'm giving some stuff away already, but besides that,
you know, I remember when I saw Rainman. I just
saw a journey between two brothers, self discovery coming about
and a great soundtrack that I used to play on
cassette all the time. I definitely owned this film score.
And this was near or around my introduction to composer

(04:04):
Hans zimmer Oh. I am a fan of to this day,
and I do remember Bill Band. After more awareness was
brought to autism over the years, I recalled that this
film caught a little criticism for sensationalizing or over dramatizing it.
But I always really liked this film as a kid
and watched it repeatedly. So I hadn't seen it in

(04:25):
a long time, and I was curious as to how
it would affect me today. So do you remember exactly
when you saw it Bill Band?

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I did not see in the theater, but I just remember.
I mean, it was all over the place when it
first came out and being a number one movie, and
everyone was talking about it because I think it was
around the holidays, and then I led it right into
the Oscars and then it won the Oscars. I didn't
catch it until it came out on video cassette and
rented it. But I think it took me a while

(04:53):
to watch it because at the time I was not
a fan of Tom Cruise. But because I had so
many awards and so many accolades and had been one
of the biggest movies of the year, I had to.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Check it out. Sure, well, there you have it. I
think that's interesting actually to think about that. You. I
don't know if I ever knew that about you. Have we?
I mean, we've discussed mister Cruse in other films on
this podcast. What have we done? Well, we did risky business,
of course, But I don't know if you had revealed like, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
The movie that turned me to Tom Cruise, of all
movies was Days of Thunder. Oh wow, because I always
felt like he played exactly who this character is in
this film. That's no character that drove me up the
wall about him. I always felt like, this is who
he played.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
You thought that this character in Rainman was the one
he played the most often. That's who he always just
seemed like to me. Fascinating. Wow, we have a really
different take. Then, well, maybe I can. I can see that.
I can see the cockyness aspect for sure. I mean,
you think about Pete Mitchell, Maverick, Tom Gun cocky, very

(05:59):
sure of himself. Yeah, okay, well let's talk about it.
Let's talk about our impressions. Then, all right, what do
we think of Rainman? Now? Well, why don't we just
if you don't mind, let's start with the cast. To me,
when I think of this movie, I immediately go to
Hoffman and Cruz, of course. And Hoffman wins Best Actor
for his portrayal of Raymond Babbitt autistic savant. You know,

(06:20):
we talked about him and our Family Business episode. This
was the film he did just before that. And I
think he's excellent in this. And I know about the
reaction to his portrayal and his take on this and
how it was written, et cetera. But I feel like
I have a little bit of better hold of exactly
what the spectrum is and what autism is. I think

(06:43):
he's wonderful in this. I don't think he really has
any false moments outside of maybe playing up a couple
of moments for the comedy. He was still Dustin Hoffman, right,
I mean, it's Marathon Man, all the President's Men, Kramer
versus Kramer TOUTSI up to this point, and I recall
always just revering him as one of the best actors
of our generation, and so this was another example of

(07:05):
that to me. Did you have any particular take on
his performance watching this as an adult now today.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
I think he's great in this, And I know there's
been backlash over the years, but watching him in this,
anytime he's on screen, and just that look that he
gives where he just almost looks like he's looking through
the TV, looking through your living room, or looking through
the theater every time, every time, He's so consistent on
everything he does in this movie. I even looked up

(07:31):
to see who he was against in the Oscar Race.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
I did the same. I wrote down the list. Yeah,
oh did you? Of course I forgot how it was.
But even though a little backlashed about the character and
the Oscar they started calling Oscar bating, he deserved it.
He really did. Yeah, I totally agree, and I think
some of that backlash has died down now that there's
been a lot more research on exactly what And let's

(07:57):
make it clear just right off the bat, here is
an autistic savant, which is a rarity, correct, So that
is a different type of autism and it's a different
It takes it to a different level and has different
aspects attached to it. So you know we're talking about
the oscars. I mean, he was up against some heavy

(08:19):
hitters Hackman for Mississippi Burning, he got Tom Hanks for
Big Max Fonsida or Pel the Conqueror, Edward James almost
for Stand and deliver some really really solid performances in
great films, but I think he kills it in this
no false moments and when you talk about his reactions
like he's seeing he's just staring through television's walls people,

(08:42):
and the head movements, the physicality, the way he walks,
the way he carries himself for slouches, or the moments
when he throws tantrums and things like that. It's scary,
it's unpredictable. Sometimes it's very sad, and sometimes it's very funny,
and he just nails all the levels. So yeah, I

(09:02):
think he deserved the Oscar without question. Every time I
watch this, I do have a new appreciation for him,
and I'm more curious to look at his filmography and
look at the holes and my watching of his films
like going, I need to see that. I really should
watch this just for to remind myself how great he is,
because I just don't see him as much anymore on
the big screen. Yeah. I agree, he's a great actor

(09:24):
and so many great performances. This is certainly right up there.
And what just makes the character great, It's just so humanized.
You never laugh at the character, You never make fun
of the character. You just along with this character on
this journey with his brother, hoping his brother gets his
act together and understands the significance of all this. Yeah,

(09:47):
one thousand percent. The movie is about the brother. That's
why I wanted to start with the actors and just
start with the two brothers here, and let's talk about
the Tom Cruise piece of this. He of course, portrays
Charlie Babbitt this wheeler dealer. It was interesting because I
was trying to recall exactly what his occupation was in
this film, and then I watched it and I'm like, wait,
what is exactly that he does. He's buying imported luxury

(10:08):
sports cars and then he's reselling them, and he gets
into a little financial trouble We don't need to discuss
all the details of it, but I figured it out.
And obviously then finds out that his father's passed away
and he doesn't get the inheritance. So this sends him
on this whole journey to the discovery he has a brother,
and then goes on the further journey with his brother

(10:29):
Raymond Babbitt. And I'm gonna stick to my guns on this.
This is still my favorite performance by Tom Cruise. He's
coming off Cocktail after this right into Born on the
fourth of July. Cruz is a very unlikable character in this.
I was just trying to come up with all the descriptors.
He's rude, dismissive, he's very short with everybody. He's a
narcissistic jerk. He's a shady businessman. He's abusive physically and emotionally.

(10:54):
I do not like him at all in this. Which
makes me feel as a big fan of him is
from the beginning that he's doing a hell of a
job in this role, because this was not how I
perceived him previous to this film at all. I thought
this was against his type and he was the anti hero,
you know, like he's just not likable at all, and

(11:16):
it's how is he going to transform throughout? And I
enjoy watching his journey through this, and I have some
thoughts about that specifically for sure, but I felt like
this was a maturation for him as an actor, like
a real stepping stone. He had some real It seemed
as though he took it very seriously, and he had
some character quirks and ticks, like when he's clapping when

(11:37):
he's frustrated and he's trying to keep things going all
the time, keeping the pace up and trying to keep
be on the move and make deals all the time.
I think he looks fantastic in this, maybe the best
he's ever looked. Still quite young obviously at this time.
But yeah, maybe I'm biased because I'm a fan as
a movie star and an actor, But that was my take,
so I think enough. Obviously, what's in interesting about watching

(12:01):
this as an adult because you first think of Hoffman
when you think of Rainman, He's the face of it.
But now watching it, you're going, wait, a minute, whose
movie is it? Is this Hoffman's or is this Cruises?
Because I feel at this point watching it, this is
Tom Cruise's movie, meaning it's really about him. It's about
what he's going. Don't get me wrong, it's about both

(12:23):
of the brothers. But you're watching Tom Cruise go through
the emotional journey, so they didn't know. So I'm very curious. Now,
what's your take on his performance.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
I don't have an issue with the performance. I think
it's the way that it was written. I mean, he's
an asshole in this there's no denying it whatsoever, and
drove me up the wall of that he was an
asshole and some of the circumstances. I understood why he
was so upset and why he was so mad, but
I kept saying to myself, you just discovered you had

(12:57):
a brother and you're treating him like shit, and it
was driving me crazy. And then his brother would show
glimmers of something and he'd be intrigued and then treating
like shit again. Yeah, I'm like, come on, man, try
no patience with him whatsoever. So that stuff was driving
me nuts, and all of a sudden everything kind of

(13:20):
dawned on him. So I just think the road was
very rocky for him to get to where he was.
And I think it is his movie in a sense,
because he is the one that goes through a journey
from being a self centered asshole to a loving brother
who really does care for Raymond in the end, but
he in a way puts Raymond through hell in the process,

(13:44):
and I did not like that. And there was a
couple of times I felt like I wanted to kill him. Oh,
without question, couldn't agree more. I wrote this down, Bill
ban so you'll see I'm in total agreement with you.
I wrote this down an hour and nine minutes in.
And we learn so much about Raymond's excentricity and all
of his quirks, dealing with the autism and being a savant.

(14:04):
And then we have Charlie Tom Cruise just his continuous
struggles adapting to all of Ray's needs. But Charlie just
doesn't show much growth in the way of empathy or
connection with Raymond. And for whatever reason, I still find
myself very engaged as to where the story will lead.
But you are absolutely right. You don't really see Cruz

(14:26):
make that turn until the end when he starts to
when he really starts feeling something and becomes an actual
empathetic human being. He's just this narcissistic prick throughout that
is completely self centered and selfish, only worried about his
own needs.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
He has a singular goal of making the money in
order to pay back the creditors, the buyers that he
owes money to. So it's fascinating that, Yeah, there's these
little moments of discovery where he's learning things about his brother,
and those are fascinating, but then he goes right back
to being a prick until the end, and that's when
he finally finds love with him himself, that he's actually

(15:05):
capable of love. And I think that's interesting because we
do know specifically what you know. We do know why
he is the way he is because he lost his
mother when he was two years old, and then he
left the family. He left his dad when he was sixteen,
and his dad was a very cold man towards him
and they hadn't spoken to so he had no relationship
to his parents and obviously developed a very cold heart

(15:27):
as a result, and stayed that way for a long time.
And it takes this whole movie for him to have
any warmth at all. So that made sense to me,
But it is true. I mean, he is. He's a
jerk for three quarters of the movie.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
When he tells Susannah the story of why he left
and the story about the car.

Speaker 2 (15:46):
Right.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
I was like with Susannah, Okay, you stole the car.
Why did you think he deserved the car? No, because
you've got decent grades. Yeah, even if you got straight
a's doesn't mean you get to drive the car unless
your dad told you if you guts straight a's, i'll
did you drive the car? If that was part of
the story and he said I got straight a's in
the b plus, my dad wouldn't let me drive the car, Okay,

(16:07):
I mean still what you did was wrong, It's true. Yeah,
but the whole reason why you separated it from your
dad was over a car that wasn't yours and you
felt entitled to drive it. That's not working for me, right,
that's a great dad stories.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
Yeah. If there was more evidence to the fact that
his dad was like this cruel man that was intimidating
or overbearing and a perfection demanded perfectionism at all turns,
and was brutal in different ways, but it sounds like
he was just more of a disciplinarian that Bruce says
as much. He says, you know, it was anything I
did was never it was never good enough. For him,

(16:45):
And obviously when he took the car for a joy ride,
his dad reported it stolen and he ended up in jail,
and his dad left him in jail for two days.
So that was supposed to be this whole dramatic thing.
But you're right, it's not quite enough evidence. You would
think for him to either run away or leave permanently
and never talk to his dad ever again. Right, So

(17:07):
I can understand that probably could have used a little
bit more.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
I just think I want it more of a like
a gradual understanding of Raymond instead of of this seems interesting, Raymond,
drive me crazy, this seems interesting. He would just get
violent with Raymond or yell at Raymond instead of being
mad at the whole situation. There's a situation I know
you'll talk about later when he gets out of the

(17:31):
car and he's just mad. He's just mad. I get
that you're frustrated. Your business might be going bankrupt and
you're stuck driving across country. The situation is terrible. Be
mad at the situation. Don't be mad at your brother.
Don't take it out of your brother, who you just
met that you didn't just me, but who you've just reconnected.
With after twenty some years, correct, right, that's the stuff

(17:54):
that was driving me nuts.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, he's very abusive towards Raymond. Yes, and he's brought
all this up on himself. He doesn't have any patients whatsoever,
and doesn't seem to really develop any patients except for
in some small moments and then when they finally get
to Vegas towards the end, so great points. You're actually
kind of making me see this a little bit more clearly,
because that was in the back of my mind upon

(18:16):
this rewatch, where it was like, hmm, is this a
little bit one note one or two notes but the
same notes for about an hour and a half or
so of a two hour and thirteen minute movie. But
the thing is, I still just going to admit, and
maybe it's my bias or my nostalgic attachment to it
or whatever it might be, that I still find it engaging.

(18:39):
It didn't bother me to the point where I was
frustrated with the movie.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
It's really not until Raymond gets him the money that
he's able to relax and see the situation and then realize, oh,
I have a brother, right, And up to that point.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
He's just an asshole. It's all I can say. Yeah,
he's an ass driving his own problems. Yeah, you know
what I was thinking. I was trying to come up
with a little more insight into this movie before we
got on to record, and I was thinking about and
not just spoiler alert. I'm you know, the Vegas sequence.
I've always loved, and I was thinking even during that part.
I'm always entertained, but I always love watching it. It's

(19:17):
fun to watch, but it really is still so self
serving for Charlie. Yeah, the only reason he's doing it
is to literally manipulating and using his brother to get
the money in order to pay back the people he
needs to pay back. I mean, that's it. He's not
doing these things for Raymond, getting dressed up and teach
you just out of love. I mean, I think we

(19:37):
starts to sense it, but I mean the impetus behind
it is all self serving for Charlie.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
Yeah, he doesn't relax and see Raymond as a person
until he knows his debts are paid off and he's
gonna be okay.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, yep, let's if you don't mind, let's move on.
I just we got to talk about Valeria Galino for
a moment. Man I just wanted to bring it up
because I had a huge crush on it. Let's just
say that as the kid, the eyes, the curly hair,
the accent Italian, I mean, my goodness, she is adorable.
She's beautiful. She plays the role of Susannah, Charlie's employee

(20:11):
slash secretary I guess at this sales company enterprise that
he's running. And in eighty eight she was in Big
Top Peewee. Then this then pops up in the Hot
Shots movies and a few other notables like Leaving Las Vegas,
Four Rooms, Escape from La Just recently, she popped up
in the Morning Show for eight episodes in twenty twenty one.

(20:31):
She's done a lot of Italian cinema over the years.
But Bill Bann, should she have been a bigger deal?

Speaker 1 (20:37):
I'm gonna go with no.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
It was just we didn't. Just kind of a small
sample size maybe, and that was fine. I don't know.
I think she had a good run. I did love
listening to her argue with Charlie all the time. Yeah,
she just has a great voice for arguing. I did
enjoy her in it, though. All right, simple enough, Well,
I'll just jump to one of my complaints then, But
because this kind of ties in, I think to what

(20:59):
was saying we're going is she's gorgeous. She is communicative
and sensitive and emotionally available and all these she seems
to have all these wonderful qualities. My question is, why
the hell is she with Charlie Babbitt.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
That is a good question. She's the one that understands
the whole situation, it seems like, and she just can't
get it through Charlie's thick skull. And I mean that's
why she leaves them for a start of the movie.
Makes sense for sure.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, he's singular minded and she has the full perspective
on what's happening.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
I felt like she was me in a way, just
constantly yelling and Charlie like, you got a brother, come
on right, Yeah, not being an asshole to him.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Kidnapping him and holding him ransom and hostage is not
the way to go. No, that's a straight up kidnapping. Yeah,
for sure, doctor was pretty calm about not sending the
police after ran. Well, that's the thing is, I had
a big question about that. I understand that it is
explained halfway through the movie that Raymond Babbitt is at

(22:02):
Walbrook voluntarily, but still there's formalities like if you're taking
him out of the facility, you'd have to sign you
have signed something, some paperwork. You can't just literally walk
out with him and then not come back. I would
just surprise. There's no law enforcement involved at all. Nobody's
coming calling the cops or anything. It just seems a
little odd to me.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
How can he be there voluntarily if he can't make
decisions like who would volunteering question two?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Right?

Speaker 1 (22:27):
Yeah, Like he couldn't go to the doctor and say
all right, I'm done, I went out. I want my
own place. He can't do that.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, yeah, I was a little confused as to some
of those logistics in the legality of all that. For sure.
I wanted to give a quick shout out to the
DP director of photography, John Seal, shooting this film. I
think this movie looks great. But it's interesting because I
guess I wasn't paying attention before because I gave him
a shout out on our the Hitcher pod what And

(22:54):
I don't know if I mentioned it on that pod,
but you know, he was the cinematographer for Witness the
Hitcher Dead Poet Society the Firm, The English Patient, one
of the Harry Potter movies, Mad Max, Fury Road Only
to name a few. John Seal is a stud I
don't know why I wasn't studying his filmography when we
did The Hitcher, and I was just like, this guy
knows how to shoot a movie. But here we have

(23:15):
another road trip movie that looks gorgeous and just makes
me want to move back to the Midwest immediately because
he makes the countryside look so peaceful and serene and
I just want to go on a road trip. I
love the way he shot this. Definitely knows how to
shoot those country landscapes, so giving him a shout out again.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Definitely knows how to shoot them. Definitely knows how to shit.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah. And the iconic shots from this movie are so memorable,
with Raymond and Charlie walking down that drive in the
middle of the trees at the Wallbrook facility. It's on
the poster, it's on the VHS bock. It's a wonderful shot.
Any of those shots of the brothers.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
In the opening when the Ferraris are coming in and
they reflector oh yeah, and the Ico iico is playing,
It was like, oh, yep, that was a Mendela effect
I thought, for I Go played during the Vegas scene,
not the opening.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
Oh there you go. Well that's great because it's a
perfect segue into the next thing I want to talk about,
and that's Hans Zimmer with the soundtrack and the lyrical
music as well, including Icoiico, But let's just talk about that.
Icoico also featured during the opening credit sub mission Impossible
to the John wu film when you have Cruise doing
the rock climbing at the very opening the cold open

(24:27):
another Cruise movie, same song. But yeah, this is when
I start to learn about Hans Zimmer, when I really
get turned on to him. It's a really interesting soundtrack.
I love it. It feels like it little has like
a little bit of an Asian influence, and you can
really hear some commonality with this score in the Black
Rain score that comes shortly after this, which I'm also
a big fan of. But I guess director Barry Levinson

(24:50):
specifically instructed Zimmer to avoid strings in his score, as
he felt it would make the film too sentimental. Stepping
on some trivia already, But dude, I used to listen
this all the time. I cassette Koiico. My one of
my favorite tracks is dry Bones. Man. I love that song.
That's a fun one in all the Bones. So yeah,

(25:10):
I really enjoyed the score and the soundtrack for this. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
I think I was kind of surprised to see his
name in the credit because I didn't really remember the
music that much. So I'm really sure I paid attention
to it, because yeah, all I remember it was like Oiko,
but not in the right spot of course. And yeah,
I really did enjoy it. I liked it a lot.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
Cool cool, Yeah, I was just going to talk about
the I actually thought the writing was outside of these
complaints we may have revealed already, I did like the
fact these characters are so specific. I enjoyed There's so
many great lines, some quotable. I mean, it's a quotable film. Clearly.
There's something I caught in the beginning of the film.
I don't know if you caught this as well, but

(25:51):
Charlie in the beginning when he was with the lawyer
and they read the will and trust, and he clearly
is not getting the three million dollars or the money
that he feels he deserves and that it's being given
to a beneficiary. Instead, he learns he's just getting the
buick and he's getting the rose bushes, and he's being
very sarcastic and talking to the lawyer and saying, well,

(26:14):
I definitely got the rose bushes. I definitely got the
rose bushes, which is exactly how Raymond speaks later on,
said I'm definitely not wearing any underwear, you know, Like,
so I hadn't caught that before. I thought that was smart.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
I didn't catch it on the first viewing. I think
I caught it on the second or third. I literally
replayed this movie almost all day one day, okay, cool,
just trying to catch bits and pieces here and there
throughout the day. I would kind of be doing work
around the house and then I would walk in the
living room and catch a scene and really break it down.
And it was one of those times, Yeah, the lawyer's

(26:50):
reading the letter and I chuckled. I'm like, oh, yeah, definitely, yeah,
definitely definitely doing that. Definitely definitely doing that.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Yep. I thought that was great. So I did have
an appreciation for the writing. Obviously it did win the Oscar.
But I'm just going to say, kind of in wrapping
up my impressions here. As an adult watching this, I
still love going on the journey with the characters. I
did find Cruz's portrayal of Charlie Babbitt to be even
more jarring but more believable. Feels like that he was

(27:19):
living it, and it definitely feels like it's his movie.
His arc hits all the dramatic levels, and I feel
well directed by Levinson. This is our third film by him.
Bill Bant, we did Diner and we did Good Morning Vietnam.
Obviously an important director. He's a little hit or missed
for me once he gets into the two thousands. But
I didn't know if you had any opinion on the direction.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Parry Levin said at one time, if I just saw
his name as a part of the movie, I gotta
see this. Yeah, I just saw it. Everything he touched
was gold. Even though I didn't give Good Morning Vietnam
the greatest reviews when we discussed it, but everything else
from the eighties, I really enjoyed his work. But yeah,
he fell off a cliff. That was tough. He's one

(28:02):
of those directors all of a sudden, just nothing was
working for him. Yeah, and I'm one of those few
and I'd love to bring it up anytime I can. Toys.
I love toys, I really do. Okay, it's not a
good that third act sucks, but it's one of those movies.
The music and the visuals just really work for me,
and I.

Speaker 2 (28:20):
Just enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
And it's just so weird. It's just such a weird movie,
and he took a chance with it and I really
appreciated that, and it's just so something out of his wheelhouse.
But yeah, I mean, this one, in a sense is
pretty straightforward. You know, it's a road trip. You're getting
from point A to point B. I mean for the characters,
for the journey and everything. But you're engaged, and that's

(28:42):
what you want. You want to be engaged in the audience,
and this is what that movie does. It engages you
and you want to see what happens at the end
because you don't really know where it's going to go, right, Like,
we know they're trying to get the Los Angeles, But
how is Cruz going to solve these problems? Does he
really think he's going to be able to use his
brother there is pawn to get money and what's his

(29:03):
brother going through in this whole trip? Here he is
every day doing something that's different from the last. What
he's saying he was a Wilbruck from fifteen twenty years
Oh right, yeah, yeah, at least yep having to change
his routine and what does that really do to him?
Does he even realize what's going on?

Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah? Very interesting there. I mean, Raymond goes through some
very traumatic moments. Yes, extremely brutal for him. So I
don't know what kind of long term effects that would have,
but he gets put through it by Charlie and you
were talking about, you know, this being a straightforward road
trip movie, and Wikipedia calls it a road comedy drama film.

(29:44):
I recall watching this as younger and laughing out loud
at so many moments and thinking it was very lighthearted
in moments and funny, and that the comedy really was substantial,
not so much watching it as an adult. I was
going to ask you that do you feel that this
should be even be called a comedy at all? I
feel like it's road trip drama. I think it has

(30:04):
levity in moments, but it just didn't feel as comical.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
I guess because at the time we didn't really know
that much about autism and what right, we thought so.
I think it was more of the situations how he
looked at things, and we just found it funny, like, oh,
that's someone looking at something different. But I think now
because we know, well, there's still a long way to
go when it comes to autism and the spectrum.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
And all that. But I think it was more just
laughing because you were uncomfortable. Absolutely, and I as a kid,
I was just ignorant, so ignorant, and just everybody was naive.
And yeah, in a way.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
This movie helped bring autism to the public. Did I
know anybody with autism before I saw this movie?

Speaker 2 (30:48):
No?

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Have I met so many people with autism since. Yes,
And I'm sure when that's listened to it too, is
know someone that's autistic. It's something we didn't know. We
didn't know back then in the eighties. I think we
could all be the spectrum to a certain extent. Who knows,
it's possible, still learning, still learning about it. Did you
have anything else regarding impressions today watching rain Man? No,

(31:09):
I think that's it. I think we can move into
favorite scenes or moments, so let's talk about that. What
are some of our favorite scenes of moments from a
rain Man take some what he got.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
I think you mentioned Bill Bant. There's a scene in
particular where Tom Cruise just has to pull the buick
over and get out and do some yelling, and that's
one of my first favorite scenes. This is where I
actually found it funny, his yelling, his exasperation, his frustration
with Charlie in the entire situation, because he's just had
it up. I mean, he's gone through ivan, he's trying everything,

(31:39):
and it's nothing's been working. And Charlie clearly has a
lot of needs, and whether it's the fact that he
can't fly, or he can't drive on the freeway because
it's too dangerous and he needs to watch Judge Wepmer
and People's Court at six pm in Night's Out by eleven,
all these things, it's just making travel very difficult for Charlie.

(31:59):
So at this one point we are on the road
in the middle of the country, and yet this is
the classic line where you have Raymond just look down
and say, of course, I'm not wearing any underwear, and
it's really funny. It's just funny because I hope I
said that right. Raymond's the one saying that, and Charlie's like,
what are you talking about? It gave you a fresh

(32:20):
parent of my own underwear to put on today. It's like, no,
I can't can't wear those. I need to wear boxer shorts.
I have my own boxer shorts. They're from Kmart. My
name is on them. Those are the only of course
Charlie has does not understand. But it's another one of
those famous lines from this when Raymond keeps repeating, no,
I'm definitely not wearing any underwear, and finally Charlie pulls

(32:42):
the car over. So I love that moment when he
gets out, because you just have Raymond who wouldn't let
he can't. He just keeps repeating himself, saying, I have
to get go to Kmart. We got a cod to
Kmart's in Cincinnati, and he keeps saying the address over again,
but of course Charlie keeps saying, we're not there. We'll
get boxer shorts. It's our boxer shorts wherever you buy
them in Cincinnati or wherever. And my favorite thing is

(33:05):
you probably know Bill Bant as well. We know this
is one of our friends, Marwana Jersey. One of his
favorite things is when Tom Cruise gets upset, he goes
to a higher register. His voice goes so high. That's
when you know he's really mad. But when he yells that,
and his voice just keeps going higher and higher wherever
you buy them in Cincinnati or wherever, then you just

(33:28):
hear Raymond go Kmart. It's just I laughed out loud
at that. So I always i'd love that scene, and
it made me laugh again watching it today.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
So, yeah, Charlie can't win even if they pull it
up to another kmart. Oh yeah, something with oh yeah, right,
that's what he's dealing with. And that scene of frustration
doesn't bother me as much because he does bring into
the hole. We shouldn't even be in this car driving.
You should be on a plane. Yeah, you should be
get there. It's more, it's more of the situation. It's

(33:59):
not so much Raymond. But yes, Raymond is frustrating him
because you can't give him an inch and you can't
figure out how to get that inch out of him.
I think he does the right thing by just pulling
over and just venting. Just vent right, get back in
the car and move on. Nothing you can do for
a certain place.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
With that great shot of them the car driving off,
and from behind you see Charlie just throw his underwear
up in the air out of the car. Because the
great thing is Raymond never put on the pair of
Vender where he had it in his jacket pocket the
whole time. It's great, I think for us, we say
the same.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Next favorite scene and that's when we find out why
the name of the movie is titled rain Man. Yeah,
it's probably one of the first times that Charlie has
the time to actually pay attention to Raymond and try
to have some kind of bond with him. They're talking,
I think they're talking. Then it was that Charlie goes

(34:58):
to put on the tub and Raymond has the freak out.
Of course, it scares the crap out of Charlie and
turns the water off. And that's when ray Band says
rain Man. And that's when Charlie's like, oh, that's what
I used to say because I couldn't say Raymond. And
then he asked about the song that I used to
sing to him, and then that's when Charlie realizes it
is like, oh, wow, I did not necessarily know my brother,

(35:20):
but my brother was around at one point and I
was the reason why he was sent away for the
wrong reason, because the father thought he was trying to
burn Charlie as a baby in the hot water, when actually,
in actuality, he was trying to get Charlie out of
the tub from getting burned.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
This scene is loaded. It's a great call. This has
to be, especially after what we were just talking about
where this movie surprisingly had me feeling a lot more
tension in me, Like as I was watching it, I
was getting tense and I found it anxiety inducing because
Charlie is just so full of frustration, rage, just always

(35:57):
trying to like he's an angry person. He's an angry,
angry young man, and Charlie's not going to change and
they're just going to be button heads the entire time.
So when this happens in the movie, it's a nice break.
It's like a breath of fresher because it gets very quiet,
and I noted in the scene it's very silent. There's
no score in the background, and they're in the bathroom.

(36:19):
And I love all the moments you named, and I'm
just going to reiterate them. When you have Raymond with
his wallet, I believe Charlie finds the photo he sees
a photo of Raymond with him. I thought the photoshop
actually looked pretty good in that too, because Raymond is
significantly older. Then Charlie puts two and two together. He's like, oh,

(36:41):
you're the rain Man, was it? Because I was misspoke
and said you're name wrong? And Raymond keeps saying yeah, yeah,
and he sings the Lullaby, which is actually the song
I Saw You Standing There, which is a great song.
And it's just such a bittersweet moment and it's finally
this connection. But this look of calm and realization that
comes over Cruz's face in that moment, I absolutely love.

(37:03):
And yeah, when it turns on that hot water, Wow,
I'll never forget it. That scene still bothers me today.
It still jolts me, even though I know it's coming.
When Hoffman starts screaming hot water, burn baby, hot water
burn baby, another quote heard from the film. Then when
he calms down and figures out, oh, that's why you
were sent away because they thought you were going to
hurt me. It's very tender. It's a very tender scene.

(37:26):
And this is where the love story really kind of begins,
I think for me. And there's a really quiet kind
of period on the scene where you hear Raymond saying, Hey,
it won't hurt Charlie. I wouldn't hurt Charlie. Wouldn't hurt Charlie,
or something to that effect. I would never hurt Yeah,
Charlie Babbitt, Charliebbitt, I wouldn't hurt Charlie Bbbitt. And Charlie

(37:48):
is like, what are you saying? And he hears him
say that, and it's almost it's almost heartbreaking in the
moment because it's all coming together here. It's an important scene.
It's necessary at that point in the movie to kind
of relieve all that tension and stress your feeling going
on this trip with these two trying to get through
it all. So it's a wonderful scene. Yeah, well acted

(38:09):
by both of them. They have a great chemistry. I
think they work well off of one another. Yeah, I
agree with that for sure. And lastly, favorite scenes Vegas.
There's so many things point out with your highlights from
Vegas that you'd like from Yeah, well, let's just start
with the montage. Let's get all dressed up and go gambling,

(38:29):
and when they're getting fitted for the suits and you know,
the iconic shot is coming, and it's the shot of
the Babbitt brothers coming down the escalator in their silver suits,
dressed to the nines, looking sharp as hell. And they
clean up good and they hit the tables and I
you know when they start playing blackjack, and what is it?
One is for good, two is for bad? Is it?

(38:50):
Do I have it backwards? They have their communication as
far as counting cards, and they're going to make a
lot of money doing so. But there's one little moment
here where they start playing cards and you see obviously
they're winning and winning and winning, and then the crowd
gathers around the table and everybody's cheering for them, and
it's awesome. We always love this, right Bill bandon any
gambling movie, when they're on a hot streak and they're winning,

(39:10):
that people gather on the table. It's like if it's
a craps table, blackchipe, dat doesn't matter. But they wracking
it up and the dealer at one point says, you're
doing well, I'm happy for you. And it's such a
dry delivery. I laugh out loud every time he says that,
because everybody's so heightened and excited. And then you're doing well.

(39:31):
I'm happy for you. It's just so quiet. I'm going
to get fired. Tip me well before you leave, right
the house is losing its ass right now. Yeah, so
that's the first first part is of course, including that
shot of them ConA on the escalator. I love, I
love that excitement. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
I think my two highlights are when Raymond gets up
from the table for the wheel, and of course Charlie's
upset because they're in a hot streak. But then when
Raymond starts saying, yeah, twenty, definitely bet on twenty, and
Charlie thinks, oh, he can somehow read the wheel too,
and puts down three thousand dollars and you even think
as an audience matter of the first time, it's like,

(40:08):
oh my god, he's gonna hit on the wheel, and
right the twenty passes and it hits I think one
or whatever, and he's like, oh, oh, I find that funny.
But I think at that point you just believe almost
Raymond has magic powers that he can just beat Vegas.
And then my second favorite moment from that is Raymond

(40:29):
having the dance with Susanna and the elevator. I love
that scene, very tender moment because Susan always just kneels
for him, and the fact that she gives him that
dance that he really thought he was going to get
with the call girl Iris.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Yeah, Iris, you have to meet Iris ten o'clock. Ten o'clock. Yeah,
couldn't agree more, my friend. I'm going to take it
a step back and go to the dancing sequence between
ray and Charlie. It's a beautiful thing. Ray gets the
big fancy Sweet. Well, Charlie treats him to the big
fancy sweet, puts the bed by the way, and Raymond
wants to learn how to dance because he's going to

(41:03):
have this hot date with the prostitute Iris at ten
and they put on the classic song at Last Atta James,
and Charlie teaches Raymond how to dance. It's very simple.
It's a beautiful love scene between brothers which ends in
a very jarring moment because Charlie just wants to give
him a hug and Raymond is just not used to that.

(41:25):
It's interesting when you brought up. When they're down at
the tables and such, and they gambling and they go
over to the wheel. It starts with, of course Raymond
being distracted. He sees the wheel. But we as an
audience know this. We're learning along the way. We know
he's autistic, and we know he's a savant, and we
know that there are certain things that are going to
catch his eye most likely. The frustrating thing is it
seems like Charlie's not learning at all. So then they

(41:48):
go over to the wheel and they lose three thousand
dollars And I hate Charlie so much in this moment
because he gets really pissed at Raymond for, you know,
dropping three grand on that wheel, and I'm like, dude,
he just won you like eighty six thousand dollars. He's
being really selfish, but it seems as though he just
hasn't learned anything as to why he even went to
the wheel in the first place. He should be understanding

(42:10):
of that anyway. The dance sequence in the elevator between
Susanne and Raymond is beautiful, and then it ends with
them allowing Raymond to drive the buick around the fountain
and circles and run drive it up on the curb.
That was fun. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
I have the note though with the hug scene, Charlie
came in too fast. That was the problems. Yeah, he
was giving him that bro hug, that tough like he
just goes in hard. Yeah, I agree, He's just slowed
down a little bit on that one. It's like, no,
wonder why I freaked out. I think I would have
freaked out someone trying to hug me that fast. And
that's what I'm saying. He doesn't seem to learn, Like
I was thinking to myself, Oh, well, okay, you went

(42:49):
in too hard.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
You made a mistake. Raymond freaked out then slowed down,
be like, hey man, can I give you a hug.
I'm just going to bring you in softly and give
you a hug and be tender, and that would have
been nice. But he just kind of walks away going
feeling dejected, right of all, like Charlie's feeling dejected, I know.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
Treating like dirt for five days straight.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
No. That entire Vegas portion of the film, though, is great. Yeah,
all right. Trying to move on to Swiss Cheese and
complaint department, and why do we call it Swiss cheese?
Because although this movie is delicious, it does have toothpick.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Holes, yes, and it doesn't have those toothpick holes. We
just file complaint with the complaint department. So, Jason, what
do you have for Swiss cheese or complaints?

Speaker 2 (43:33):
I think we've covered most of mine. We talked about
the kidnapping. That's pretty tough. You're taking a patient out
of a mental facility, voluntary or not, there would be
somebody would be called in. You have to believe Tom
Cruise smoking in this movie or not smoking. I think
we see him take one puff, maybe two puffs off

(43:53):
a cigarette throughout this. I'm not sure why they even
had him smoking. It's just kind of weird seeing him
smoke or not smoke. The first scene you see him
with a lit cigarette hanging in an ashtray. He never
takes a pop off it. It's literally just smoking in
his face and Raymond's. So those are just a couple
of things. What do you have for Swiss cheese and
or complaints?

Speaker 1 (44:14):
I have two things. The first thing is okay, So
we find out that Charlie inherits the car and the
rose bushes and he needs money correct sell the car.
There's some money for you, obviously. Obviously day I didn't
even think of it.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Originally wasn't taking it to Las Vegas because he was
gonna fly. So what was he gonna do with the
car anyway.

Speaker 1 (44:35):
I don't think you get anything for the roses, but
I'm sure you can get something for the car to
kind of get you over for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
I don't know how much that's great, but I never
even never even crossed my mind. It's a great call.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
The second thing this really weird at me out.

Speaker 2 (44:48):
I don't know why.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
So the scene when they're on the highway and Raymond
freaks out, so they decide, Okay, you're going to walk
in front of the car and we're gonna get off
the ramp and then we'll take.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
The side roads.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
So there's an overhead shot of them coming off the
off ramp with Raymond in the front, and I swear,
the way the lines are drawn that car should drive
head on into oncoming traffic.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Gets me every time. Okay, you saw it too, hilarious.
It's hilarious that you point that up. It's one of
those weird nitpicky things that bothers me every time I
see the movie. The way those street lines are painted
on there, it's as if it's a merging lane not
going into its own lane. Did they shoot reverse because
they're really supposed to be going onto the ramp, and

(45:35):
just for the film, they just shot it backwards, so
they're coming off the ramp because the way the line's drawn,
it's drawn to go into that car that's coming the
other way. Right. Yeah, it's making me edgy. Okay, I'm
glad we saw it too. That's amazing. I'm glad we
both picked up on that. That's funny. Yeah. I get
anxious every time I see that. I'm like, are they
going into oncoming traffic? What's happening? I was sick in

(45:55):
the same thing. I was wondering.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
I was like, did he do that just to get
off the road?

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Such a weird little thing. Okay, I'm glad we bossed
all that time. Move on to Hey, it's that actor?
All right?

Speaker 1 (46:08):
So in this segment we spotlight a character actor you
have seen in many other films, an actor in making
their big screen debut, or an actor that makes an
uncredited cameo. It's Hey, it's that actor. Who do we
choose this week?

Speaker 2 (46:19):
This week we chose for our Hey, it's that actor
Beth Grant, who plays mother at Farmhouse. Beth is an
American character actress from Alabama. Her trademarks are her southern accent.
She almost always plays someone who is arrogant, conservative, a
stickler to rules, or even downright evil. Her eighties is
very brief. She didn't really start working regularly until the

(46:41):
mid to late eighties. She did some single episodes of TV,
then rain Man here in eighty eight, and that's all
she wrote until she starts working more prolifically in the nineties.
She does flat Liners in nineteen ninety, Child's Play two,
also in ninety the Dark Half in ninety three, seventeen
episodes of the show Delta with Delta, Birk City Slickers too,
the Legend of Curly's Gold in ninety four. Then the

(47:02):
movie that I recognize her from immediately would be Speed
in nineteen ninety four. She portrays Helen. She's the woman
that jumps the gun, tries to get off the bus
too soon, steps down and it explodes and she's dragged
underneath the bus. And that's brutal. That's an awful scene.
But every time that comes up in that movie, I'm like, lady, stop, dude,

(47:24):
what are you doing. Don't get off? Then we know
what happens. Into the two thousands. Other notables she has
our Donnie Darko, Pearl Harbor, Rockstar, The Rookie, ten episodes
of the show Jericho. She's the voice of Bonnie and Rango.
She does seventy nine episodes of The Mini Project as Beverly.
She was in Goliath with a Billy Bob, eighteen episodes
of Dollface A Little Trivia. She's appeared in four films

(47:45):
that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, We
Know This rain Man obviously, Little Miss Sunshine in two
thousand and six, No Country for Old Men in two
thousand and seven, and The Artist in twenty eleven. With
the exception of Little Miss Sunshine, all of those films
in that category. This is kind of fun because she
can portray her looks a little bit older. She's only
four and a half years older than Dennis Quaid, who

(48:07):
plays her son in The Rookie, and then later on
she's only nine years older than Kevin Bacon playing his
mother in the twenty twenty five show The Bondsman. Wow. Yeah,
Beth Grant, she was definitely one of those I know,
I've seen her in something else and I couldn't think
of it, and I'm like, all right, Jason Raddley's off
let's see what it is, and yeah, it was speed

(48:27):
and let him miss Sunshine. I do remember in that
one too. There you go.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Okay, time to move on to facts and trivia. What
are some facts and trivia we have about Rainman.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
For in flight viewing? Several airlines deleted the sequence in
which Raymond Babbitts reels off statistics on airline accidents, except Quantis.
They even promoted one of the movie's writers to first
class once he traveled on their airline. What Raymond babbitt
says about Quantus was and still is true from nineteen
twenty one to twenty twenty five. Quantis has never lost

(48:58):
any jet airliners, and there is a distinction there by
the way. The distinction is jet airliners. Quantus did lose
some propeller planes earlier in their histories, but specifically jet airliners,
they have never lost any.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
All right, only because you mentioned this character earlier that
I have this fun fact about him. So the blackjack
dealer at Caesar's Palace is named Nick Mizzola, and he
was also the war dealer in the movie Vegas Vacation,
as well as a dealer in the movie Casino. In
real life, Nick was a blackjack dealer at Caesar's Palace

(49:32):
in the seventies and eighties.

Speaker 2 (49:35):
I'm happy for you. Dustin Hoffman spent a lot of
time with savant Kim Peak, the inspiration for the character
of Raymond Rainman. Writer Barry Morrow first met Peak in
nineteen eighty six, and, on winning an Oscar for the
screenplay for this movie in nineteen eighty nine, gave his
Oscar trophy to Kim Peak. Hoffman made Kim's father the

(49:56):
main caregiver, a promise that he would share Kim with
the world. For nearly twenty years until his death, Kim
Peek went all over the world, impressing people with his
incredible memory and ability to recall minute details from centuries
of history.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
The Amarillo, Texas motel scene was actually filmed at the
Big Eight Motel in al Reno, Oklahoma. The motel maintained
the sign used in the film that read Amarillo's Finest
before the motel closed down. Guests sometimes requested to stay
in the same room where Raymond and Charlie stayed, Room
one point seventeen. The motel has since been demolished.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
Hmmm, this is a fun one. I'll bring up last,
but not least just for the listeners that are familiar
to this film. When I think they're I don't know
what town they're in, but when they're driving cross country,
Charlie brings Raymond to a doctor really trying to figure
out what's going on with his autism. And there's an
old man that just keeps talking in the waiting room,

(50:54):
and I have this too. It's so great. The elderly
man in the waiting room who talks on and on
about the Pony Express is Byron P. Kavnar, an eighty
nine year old local who was in the waiting room
when the crew arrived to film there. He got to
talking on his favorite subject, the Pony Express, and director
Barry Levinson got such a kick out of it that

(51:15):
he let Kavnar keep on talking as the cameras rolled.
All his dialogue was spontaneous and not scripted. I love that. Yeah.
It was like I said, I was watching this all
day long, and I walked in on this and I
just sat down and just listened to him. I didn't
pay attention to anything. I'm like, what is this guy
talking about? Why is he here? What the hell is
going on? It was cracking me up.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
So I was so happy to find that information because like, oh,
I feel so much better.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
It's fantastic. If you know it, you know it. He
doesn't stop talking. He talks over Dustin Hoffman. He just
keeps telling the story, and I'm engrossed by it. Like
if I were there, I'd probably just be let him talk.
And I'm just like he seemed to be in the
know about the Pony Express. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Last thing, this could have been a handsoen actor, but
so Bonnie Hunt plays a waitress who dropped the toothpicks
in two forty six. But I found this nugget funny.
So she ends up co starring with Tom Cruise a
decade later, and Jerry maguire and Cruise forgot that they
had worked on Rainman together.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Oh, he had to have been a little embarrassed by that.
I'm sure this being her, it's her debut. If I'm
not masedy, Yeah, I believe. So I do like Bonnie Hunt,
I do too.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
It was funny because she's so recognizable, but I blanked.
I can't think of anything else that she was in,
and then I was like, holy crap. Jerry McGuire Jesus.
Maybe maybe that makes sense why Tom Cruise couldn't remember either.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, I want to say she had a sitcom or
a show. I don't know. Yeah, I thought she had
a last TV show so long, but she got a
show at some point. That's what I thought, all right.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
Moving on to box office, Rainman hit theaters on December sixteenth,
nineteen eighty eight, opening wide in twelve hundred and forty
eight locations with a budget of twenty five million. The
movie was a box office success, pulling in one hundred
and seventy two point eight million across North America and
another two hundred and thirty nine point nine million internationally.

(53:10):
It opened at number two at the box office, but
climbed to number one in its third week, earning even
more than it did on its debut. It held the
top spot for four additional weeks and remained in the
top ten for another eight weeks. In its sixteenth week
of release, Rainman returned to the number one spot and
stayed in the top ten for eight more weeks after that.

(53:32):
By the end of its run, it became the highest
grossing movie of nineteen eighty eight. Wow, that movie was huge.
So moving on to reviews. When growing up in the eighties,
we would watch at the Movies with Gene Siskel and
Roger Ebert to hear their reviews and watch clips of
upcoming movies. Their review of Rainman was unanimous two big
thumbs up. They were especially impressed by Hoffman's betrayal of

(53:54):
Raymond and autistic savant. Ebert called it deeply convincing without
feeling artificial or showy. They also noted that Cruz delivered
one of his more mature performances, showing real character development.
Rotten Tomatoes gives it a Tomatometer score of eighty eight percent,
with a popcorn Meter score of ninety percent. It also
has an IMDb rating of.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Eight just eight solid.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Yes, not very few IMDb movies have a solid number,
so say a point something.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
I was just surprised to see eight. Yeah, that's great,
all right.

Speaker 1 (54:27):
So this takes us to additional thoughts and questions. What
are some additional thoughts and questions you have about rain Man?

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Well, I covered some of my questions already earlier, so
I'm just going to go into some thoughts. I wanted
to look up autism and just get the textbook definition
and just share a little bit with our listeners if
you don't already know autism or autism spectrum of disorder
ASD is a neuro developmental condition affecting how people perceive

(54:57):
the world and interact with others. It involves different and
social communication, behavior, and sensory processing, with a wide range
of strengths and support needs. Is not a disease, but
rather a lifelong form of neuro divergence. Autism is a spectrum,
meaning it looks different for everyone, from social communication to
behavioral pattern, sensory processing, and developmental differences. I look this

(55:20):
up to educate myself. Mainly, I know a little bit
about it. I just wanted to shine a little more
light on it for myself and maybe others that don't
understand what it is specifically, so I wanted to just
lay that out there. Also in regards to the film itself,
this kind of ties in Rainman is known in particular

(55:41):
for its portrayal of a man with both autism and
savant skills, leading much of its viewing audience to incorrectly
assume the intellectual capabilities of autistic people at large. Characters
like Raymond, whose characterization has been criticized for adhering to
stereotypes are portrayed as having other worldly and intellectual abilities
that rather than or having that intellectual ability that, rather

(56:04):
than disable them from a living a normal life, instead
assists them in a nearly magical way. So there's that
take on that. And then conversely, rain Man has also
been seen as dispelling a number of other misconceptions about
autism and improving public awareness of the failure of many
agencies to accommodate autistic people and make use of the
abilities they do have, regardless of whether they have savant

(56:28):
skills or not. So you can look at this a
couple different ways. I found that interesting, so thanks for listening.
I think of it as a positive.

Speaker 1 (56:36):
It brought to light what autism was, and yes it
was as the rare case of being the savant, but
nobody knew what this was or plenty of people suffering
it and not knowing what they had. So I appreciate
that what it brought to light.

Speaker 2 (56:49):
And it's interesting because you can look at it that
there are people suffering from it. But I've been enlightened
a little bit by listening to and I am going
to give this a very strong shout out. The Telepathy
Tapes podcast, which was created and hosted by Kai Dickens,
which deals with a mainly nonverbal, non speaking autistic children

(57:11):
that have telepathy. So when you talk about other worldly
and magical capabilities, this is my opinion, and my opinion
only right now that I am expressing, But I've listened
to these tapes and i am a believer. I'm a
big fan of this podcast, and if you would like
to know more, you can listen on your own. There's
also a show called Love on the Spectrum. I believe

(57:31):
that's on Netflix and now you can have and you
probably would have very specific opinions on this as to
whether or not the podcast and or show are exploitative
or are we, especially with the show, are we laughing
at are we making fun of? Are we laughing with them?
Are we learning more? You'll have your opinions, but it

(57:52):
brings awareness regardless. So I just wanted to give both
of those pieces of media some attention.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Jason questions. So I'm totally totally shifting gears here.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
No, yeah, sorry, I totally boguarded the pod there. Sorry.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
Man.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Were you a fan of the People's Court? Absolutely? Man,
I watched it when I was a kid. Are you kidding? Yeah?
That that theme is great? Yeah? Did you watch it
a lot?

Speaker 1 (58:20):
I think I caught it. It seemed like every time I
was around my grandparents that seemed to be on. There
might have been a summer where I would watch it
and then go out back out to play.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
So it goes on at like seven o'clock. Yeah, I
mean this is the predecessor to Judge Judy, which, of
course you know yours truly was on. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:39):
I'd looked online to see if I could find an
old episode and they had recent episodes, So it's still on.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
The People's Court is still going.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Yeah, it's a female judge, and I think it has
some ties to the GMZ host. I can't think of
his name, Harry Levin. Yes, yeah, he's part of it too.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
There you go. Here's a question.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
So Spielberg was at one point point attached to this movie.
How much DIVI different do you think the movie would
have been if he had directed it? Wow, it's hard
to answer, but that intrigues me.

Speaker 2 (59:09):
At this time in nineteen eighty eight, it would have
been a lot more bittersweet. I think the journey would
have had different level. I think just like we were
talking about. I believe Charlie babbittom Cruz's character would have
softened earlier and or had probably a couple more levels
in adjusting and learning and adapting and being more open

(59:32):
to maybe adapting or I'm not sure, but it would
have had that kind of saccherin bittersweetness, probably not tenfold,
but at least maybe fivefold than it is in its
current form, because that's Spielberg, and that's what I love
about Spielberg films. So it would have been I'll know,
I'm going to admit this to the audience right now.
I cry at the end of this movie. I do

(59:53):
every time, and if Spielberg had directed it, I'd be
taken a bath in my tears most likely.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
I think that's so I would say Spielberg had directed this,
I'd been crying at the end.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
Yeah. Yeah, now here's I'm going to throw it right
back at you. Martin Brest also was signed on if
I'm not mistaken to direct this, he but then I
forget why he got pulled off or he decided to
going to a different direction, But obviously a different would
be a different take too. Yeah. Wow, because if you
think another midnight classic road trip duo movie. Right, Yeah,

(01:00:25):
I wonder if that's why he turned it down. It's like,
I've already kind of done this the road trip thing.
I don't need to do another one. It would be interesting,
it is kind of yeah, in a way, it would
be in his wheels a big what if. Yep.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Right, here's a confession. This is probably one of my
favorite scenes of this movie, just because I'm like, oh
my god, this is so me. When Cruise finds out
he's basically bankrupt and he goes to the mill of
the field and just screams, son of my badge. I
swear that is me every time I come home at
night and try to find parking in my neighborhood. I
don't know how many times I'm in my car and

(01:01:00):
I just do exactly what Tom Cruise did. When I
saw that, I just started laughing. I'm like, holy shit,
that's me. It's because a long day, all I want
is a parking spot, and I'm just like, son of
a bitch.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
We've all been there. It's so great. Hashtag La living Man. Yeah,
I've been much much more vulgar than that, But I
feel the frustration that's that screaming at the because I'm
sure I go to that high register too every once.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
First it's does anybody in my neighborhood fucking work?

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
And then it's son of a bitch? That's the Isnt
that Fascinating's like, what's going on? There can't be that
many cars? Why are Or you go to any massive
parking lot and it's like seven in the morning and
it's full. This can't It's not even possible. How could
there be so many people here?

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Yeah, that made me feel good to hear him just
scream out in the middle of nowhere. I'm like, oh, yeah,
that'd me. I wish I'd get on my car sometimes.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
And just be like, you should do that because I
think it. The acoustics are perfect in the parking garage
for that. Yes, just to hear the echo, that would
be great. Man. I have one personal attachment to this
film being that in this fiction we have Raymond Babbitt.
When he gets nervous, he keeps reciting the classic comedic

(01:02:16):
sketch who's on first? Yes, And he talks about how
they talk about how he was shown that by their father,
by his dad showed it to him when he was young. Well,
same here. My dad showed it to me when I
was young, and it's always been one of my favorites. And
I just wanted to give a shout out and say,
if you have not, for any reason in your lifetime
watched the Abbott and Costello classic routine. Who's on first?

(01:02:40):
Go look it up on YouTube. Many different versions of it.
I think there's something like it feels like there's an
abridged version and unabridged version, but they're doing it in
different locations or stages and costumes and such. But it's fantastic.
It's one of the all time greats. So look it
up on YouTube as soon as you can watch it again.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
I've seen someone do first time watch and then analyze.
It was kind of funny, Oh yeah, yeah, because usually
it's always people doing songs or comedians and I was like, Oh,
someone's actually doing the Abbott Castello sketch.

Speaker 2 (01:03:12):
It's hilarious.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
So how to watch it just to see what their
reaction was?

Speaker 2 (01:03:16):
It was positive?

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
Good should be I guess it's time for a rating.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Huh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Let's do it all right on a scale of one
to five toothpicks.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
What do you give rain Man? I'm giving it four
strong toothpicks that don't splinter. I'll admit I do have
a nostalgic attachment to it. There's just for me, there's
some overwhelming positives personally. You have the Oscar winning performance
by Hoffman. I think this is Tom Cruise's best acting performance.

(01:03:45):
I think he was snubbed for a Best Supporting Actor
nod at least a nomination. I was looking back at
the competition which was stiff here, but he was up
against Kevin klein Is the winner. Talked about a fish
called Wanda and that was a strange one. Yeah, Alec
Guinness was nominated. You have Martin Landau River Phoenix for

(01:04:07):
Running on Empty and Dean Stockwell, so, I don't know,
maybe instead of I don't know, I think we could
have slid Tom in there somewhere to vote for him. Well.
I still really appreciated him in this film, and I
love the score by Hans so classic road trip film,
really well shot. It's a beautiful film and a tear

(01:04:29):
jerker in the end. For me, I connect to it.
I love when finally we have the softer moments in
that middle scene at the Big Eights Motel, when we
have the reveal of Raymond versus rain Man and some
information that I just love seeing Cruise's reaction in those moments,
and then the entire Vegas sequence. These are just really

(01:04:49):
really memorable, iconic scenes for me. So I think it's
worthy of all the oscars I give it for toothpicks.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
Wow, maeah, I'm kind of stuck right now. I have
three and a half toothpicks. Sure, but man Hoffman's performance alone, I.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Know now that you say that, I feel like maybe
we haven't talked about Hoffman enough and just how good
he is, right, you know, we could break down each
scene and just all the little details like the ticks
and the mannerisms and the physicality as I mentioned earlier. Yeah,
I mean it's you can't keep your eyes off of him. No,
not at all, And just my over all complaint, it's

(01:05:25):
really just Tom Cruise, but not it's not his acting.
It wasn't him.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
But yeah, I was a little biased going in in
the first time, so I don't think I've watched it
anywhere near as many times as you have, But watching
it this time, it was more of a writing issue
with how they progressed the character along. I don't feel
like you should dig into a toothpick and a half
for that, because everything.

Speaker 2 (01:05:48):
I think you swayed me on that point, though, I
think I have to agree with you. From a writing standpoint.
For his character, there weren't a lot of levels until
it gets late into the film. Yeah. Uh yeah, you
know what, I don't have to go four two.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
I think I have to go four tooth picks.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
I'm gonna have to change. Look at that. You swayed
me for once. Oh hey, first time for everything. Yeah,
there we go, So both both fours. So, yes, we
had four four tooth picks left in the box. That's
what we That's what we did. That's very good. All right.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
That wraps up this week's episode. Thank you so much
for hanging out with us. We really appreciate it. If
you enjoy the show, be sure to follow us on
your favorite streaming platform, leave a rating, and drop a review.
The nicer the better. Curious for more we knew you
would be, check out All eightiesmoviespodcast dot com for everything
you need to know about the show.

Speaker 2 (01:06:37):
We'll catch you next time.

Speaker 1 (01:06:39):
As we jump into another unforgettable gem from the greatest
movie decade of all time, the nineteen eighties. Until then,
stay awesome and have an excellent day.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
What you have to understand is four days ago he
was only my brother in the name, and this morning
we had pancakes. Thanks for staying up with us. Good
Night world,