Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise.
Rating/Volume: 8.0 (250,000)
My rating: WATCH
Source: Netflix
Finally, my highly anticipated review of the 1988 classic Rain Man (#236)! I apologise for the lateness of this essay but unfortunately I have been bogged down with friends birthdays and shopping trips (it's a hard life) and I felt it was important to get that Star Trek into Darkness (#189) review before it left the cinemas (I hope you read and enjoyed it). But don't worry, I'm still very committed to the cause and will be working hard to get my YouTube channel up and running with content flowing by next week. That done, here we go!
I'm glad I've managed to do this review relatively soon in the project because I love this film! I hope that none of you are starting to think I'm not a very good critic; this is my 6th film review and so far I love them all! This may be the hazard of trying to review the 250 best films. Will I find any of them bad? I will try and present them as I see them and I will hopefully be able to criticise some films. If not, I can at least leave you with an idea of whether you will like it or not. Because my main objective is to educate I guess that, in a way, is more important.
A quick intro for those who haven't seen it, Rain man is a drama that before winning 4 academy awards (including best picture, director, screenplay and lead actor) became the highest grossing film of 1988. It follows Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) a car salesman who is in financial difficulty. After he finds out his father died, who he never got along with, and only left him a car he goes off to find the beneficiary of his $3m estate. Enter Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman). This high functioning autistic man turns out to be the secret brother that inherited the entire fortune, made more painful by the fact he has no concept of money! A little peeved off, Charlie decides to kidnap his brother and take him on a road trip with an angle of claiming his half of his father's vast estate.
I first watched this film, I think it was, sometime last year on ITV4. But since I discovered the amazing font of all films, well, most films called Netflix i've watched it twice since then. Once right now. I'm also a fan of Family Guy. When Rain Man (#236) got referenced so much in Family Guy and other projects, such as The Hangover, it depresses me as a self-confessed pop culture aficionado to not know what on Earth they are all talking about! Not only is it a very iconic film but it is also a film full of heart and it's a story with a sweet ending. As far as the story goes, well, there isn't really much of a storyline; it's really just a road trip movie with a few nice brotherly occurrences along the way. But, the journey is one of enlightenment for Charlie and (i'd like to think) one of change for Raymond. I could attempt to write an entire book on the complexities of Raymond's character let alone sum him up in less than a paragraph. He is a very high functioning autistic savant (noun; a learned person) who is capable of huge feats of memory and mathematical capability. He is based on the real life Kim Peek who lived in Utah (see below for his wikipedia link) and was similar in his abilities to that of Raymond. In the film he is shown to be capable of calculating four digit multiplication and counting a dropped box of toothpicks on the floor in seconds! This actually contributes to a key plot point that involves card counting in Vegas, but I wouldn't want to give the whole film away. Yet, what makes his character so complex is that, despite his genius level intellect he struggles with the most basic social skills such as "hello" and "goodbye". He is also bound by his own routines and rituals such as making sure he watches his shows at the correct times every day and what he has for dinner on every day of the week. We can all get a bit OCD, but this is crazy! I think it's tragic that even as Charlie learns to love his brother towards the end of the film that Raymond still is incapable of expressing his emotions towards Charlie. This is why I hope deep down that this journey was part of a change for Raymond. I'd like to think that (even though he's technically incapable of it) he might have formed a relationship with his brother. Anyway, I'm getting too deep. Dustin Hoffman deserved every Oscar, Bafta and Globe he got for his role. It must have been so difficult to play. In every scene he is perfectly accurate and complex and it is a real testament to his skills. It really was a role of a lifetime; and to think he almost quit. I bet he didn't regret that choice! Even Tom Cruise played a good part. His yuppie-cocky-ish-ness (yeah, really!) came through superbly and he was very convincing. I loved it when he lost his patience with Raymond because, well, he just did so well. I think it's a shame that Tom Cruise was so overshadowed in this film. He didn't even get a mention in Hoffman's Oscar acceptance speech. Nevertheless, they both did great.
I always like to read the trivia section before I watch a film to give me a bit of insight and background. You can really learn a lot. For instance, did you know that it was one of Princess Diana's favourite film?! But one fact struck me. This was Hans Zimmer's first score he ever wrote for a movie. It also said that he was instructed not to use string instruments to make it sound less sentimental. The reason I want to mention this is because Hans Zimmer is simply amazing (his IMDb profile is linked below). He has pretty much worked on every film made ever, most recently Man of Steel. I also really liked the stuff he did on The Dark Knight trilogy. In also really like the score in the film. Even if it is typically eighties, it's still good.
Overall, this is film I will definitely recommend you see before you die. But don't even leave it that long; go and watch it on Netflix tonight! It's an all time classic that helped cement Tom Cruise's career as a mainstream movie star and proved that Dustin Hoffman is a confirmed legend. This film has a warm message that you can't afford to miss
Now, I'm going to ask you to go and watch it yourself. you can buy it anywhere on DVD and Blu Ray from £3 and it is readily available on Netflix. Feel free to send me a message at reviewthe250@gmail.com with any comments and your own views and opinions.
Be sure to hit the Share button down below! Follow me on Twitter @reviewthe250 !
Thanks for reading!
William
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/?ref_=sr_1
Next: Shutter Island (#232)
No comments:
Post a Comment