资源描述
Rain Man
(Drama) (1988)
©1999 by Raymond Weschler
Major Characters
Charlie Babbitt....................Tom Cruise
A young Los Angeles businessman who sells expensive sports cars.
Raymond Babbitt................Dustin Hoffman
A "high level" autistic man who lives in a home for the mentally
disabled in Ohio (Some words on autism follow the plot summary).
Susanna............................Valeria Golino
Charlie's Italian girlfriend.
Dr. Bruner.........................Jerry Molen
The administrator who is responsible for taking care of Raymond at the Ohio home where he lives.
Plot Summary
Charlie is a young and struggling Los Angeles businessman who sells expensive cars
for a living. One day he receives word that his father, a man with whom he had not spoken in years, had died back in Cincinnati, Ohio. Charlie returns to his childhood
home to take care of his father's property, only to find out that virtually all of his
dad's $3,000,000 estate was left to an unnamed person in a 'trust' (A legal document giving property to another person).
After doing some investigating, Charlie learns that the trust was for a person who lived
in a home for the mentally disabled near his childhood house. While exploring this
institution with his girlfriend, Susanna, Charlie makes a nearly unbelievable
discovery:
The person to whom the trust was given is an autistic man named Raymond Babbitt,
who it
turns out is Charlie's older brother. Charley had never known he had a brother, for his parents had never told him.
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In his confusion, anger and greed, Charlie decides to take Raymond back with him.
Raymond
is probably not prepared to leave the Ohio institution he has lived in his entire life,
but Charlie is determined to get what he thinks is his "fair share" of his father's
estate. Thus, Charlie decides to fight for legal custody (possession) of his new brother, as a way of being able to get to the $3,000,000 that his father had left for Raymond.
In their journey back to Los Angeles, Raymond nearly drives Charlie crazy with the
maddening characteristics that are a function of his autism (see note below). But
eventually, Raymond has a profound influence on Charlie, and thus Charlie eventually growsto love and accept his brother exactly as he is.
A note on autism: People who are autistic are believed to suffer from an abnormal psychological state in which they have a severely limited understanding of reality.
Perhaps
more importantly, it is believed they have little understanding of their own emotions,
or
the emotions of other people. There is a wide range of autism that exists. Some
people are
so autistic they can almost do nothing for themselves, and are completely dependent
on
others for their everyday needs.
There are other autistics who are considered "high functioning," and thus are able to
do
much on their own, although they may still be better off living in institutions that care
for the mentally disabled. Still other autistics are what are called "idiot savants," in that they have the ordinary limitations of most autistics, but they also have special
mental skills that are reflective of pure genius. For example, in the case of Raymond,
he appears to have both the memory and basic math abilities of a computer, not a
person.
Over the last several years (perhaps in part because of this movie), a growing body
of literature on the experience of autism has emerged that you may want to explore. Much of this material is available on the web.
Some Words And Expressions that You may not
Know
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Charlie desperately tries to close a key business
deal, and then learns of the death of his father.
The EPA.
The Environmental Protection Agency (An agency of the federal government).
A NASA Engineer
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (The guys who put the rockets
into space).
Lamborghini.
The type of very expensive Italian sports cars that Charlie buys and sells for a living.
A time frame.
Term used to describe the amount of time that one
has to get something done (In this case, to sell the cars).
I'm into him for $200,000.
Charlie's slangy way of saying that he has already spent much money working with this car salesmen.
I have all my money tied up in these cars.
If money is "tied up" in something, it has already been spent on it. If I don't get my money, I am fucked.
In this case, a crude and not common way to say "in big trouble." I don't give a shit about your problems.
A crude and widely used variation of "I don't care."
I have sharks snapping at my heals, and they could have taken my cars and business
days ago.
Sharks are the vicious big fish that eat everything they can catch, though
this can also refer to "loan sharks," who are people who loan money for high
interest, often associated with organized crime."To snap" is to try and bite down on, and a "heal" is the bottom part of the foot.
Fucking EPA. The whole world is choking on smog and they're
going to solve the problem by keeping my cars off the road.
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