Recently, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the current national Health and Human Services Secretary, put forth the claim that there is a link between Tylenol and autism.  My goal here is not to argue the validity of this assertion.  Instead, I bring it up to contextualize my viewing of Rain Man (1988).  Its release arguably sparked a change in attitude towards people with special needs.  It is not fair, and frankly wrong, to refer to those with such a condition as “retarded,” which was the prevailing term.  It denigrates that group, allows them to be pushed to the margins, and it is dehumanizing.  I added that last descriptor because it has always been the stance of the Catholic Church that everyone, regardless of their abilities, is a child of God and deserving of dignity.  When seen through a modern lens, we can parse the depiction of autism in the film.  What should be emphasized instead is how spending time with such people can open hearts.

At the beginning of Rain Man, the only thing Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) is concerned about opening is his clients’ checkbooks.  He deals in expensive, imported cars, but his business has shades of illegitimacy.  He operates out of a warehouse, and his only employees are his friend, Lenny (Ralph Seymour), and his girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino).  Despite problems with the import process and inspections, not to mention the buyers threatening to renege on their deals, he departs for Palm Springs and a vacation with Susanna as promised.  He is pensive along the way, which is annoying for her, who wants him to share his thoughts.  Before he can do so, he is interrupted by a call on his car phone (this is 1988, after all) telling him that his father died.  Though they had been alienated for years, he immediately turns around and heads home to Cincinnati for the funeral.  Charlie might not have been on speaking terms with dad, but he expected a sizeable inheritance from his rich parent.  Instead, he is told that he gets a vintage car he once coveted and a set of rose bushes.  The $3 million windfall is to go into a trust.  After some digging, the angered Charlie discovers that the manager of the trusteeship is Dr. Gerald Bruner (Jerry Molen), the director of the Wallbrook Institute, a mental health facility.  Dr. Bruner is not a stranger to Charlie, the mental health professional having been his father friend for decades.  What is a surprise is the revelation that Charlie has an autistic older brother, Raymond Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman).  Charlie refuses to believe it until Raymond recites a number of facts about his younger brother and their father that only a sibling can know.  The fact that Raymond is what is described as an autistic savant means little to Charlie.  All Charlie feels is cheated out of what he believes to be rightfully his.  Suggesting that they take a walk, Charlie has Susanna take the car down the driveway, and he and Raymond walk out to it and drive away.  Technically, Charlie is engaging in kidnapping, but he later explains to his lawyer and anyone else who will listen that he intends to fight for custody of Raymond in court.  His initial motivation is, of course, the money, which he desperately needs to pay off what he owes in his business dealings.  That night, Charlie, Raymond, and Susanna check into a hotel room, and it is the first time Charlie has had to deal with Raymond’s idiosyncrasies.  There are too many to enumerate, but there is a reason why they are referred to as “special needs.”  To Susanna, not only is Charlie not patient enough with Raymond, it is also clear that he is using his older brother.  After Raymond walks in on them as they are making love, leading to another angry outburst from Charlie, she leaves.  Though Charlie is angry, he carries on, attempting to board a plane to make it to Los Angeles in time to deal with his financial problems.  Unfortunately for him, Raymond has the first of his fits as they are about to board the plane, and it quickly becomes apparent that they are going to have to drive to California.  Once more, Raymond is frightened when they get stuck in traffic on the interstate behind an accident involving fatalities.  Hence, they are forced to take all backroads between Ohio and their destination.  Along the way, while Charlie continues to try to salvage his financial situation, he learns to deal with Raymond’s needs.  The breakthrough comes when Charlie turns on the hot water in the bathtub while Raymond is finishing brushing his teeth.  The sight of the bath triggers a memory within Raymond of how he had accidentally hurt Charlie in the tub, which had been what led to the older brother’s institutionalization.  It also occurs to Charlie that Raymond had been the imaginary friend he thought he had lost as a toddler, and their bond is cemented.  While the newfound sibling appreciation is nice, Charlie is also now broke.  However, he realizes he can use Raymond’s mathematical genius to count cards in Las Vegas.  Thus, they head to the Entertainment Capital of the World and to the blackjack tables.  There Charlie and Raymond make almost $100,000, more than covering Charlie’s needs, until Raymond is distracted by another game.  While sitting at the bar for a celebratory orange soda, Raymond is then distracted by Iris (Lucinda Jenney), a female escort.  Raymond takes her advances as serious, but any hope for a “date” is ruined by his talking.  Nonetheless, he thinks it is still happening.  Instead, she is replaced by Susanna, who has come to Las Vegas to forgive Charlie.  As Charlie deals with casino security, who asks him and his brother to leave, she dances with Raymond as he hoped to with Iris.  From there, it is on to Los Angeles and the eventual hearing with another mental health professional and Dr. Bruner.  The night before, Dr. Bruner offers Charlie $250,000 to let Raymond return to Wallbrook with no questions asked.  Charlie refuses until it becomes apparent that Raymond cannot truly decide what he wants, staying with his brother or going back to Wallbrook, agreeing to both propositions.  Thus, with real sadness, Charlie takes Raymond to the train station where the older brother will be riding back to Cincinnati with Dr. Bruner.  Their heartfelt goodbye is the final scene.

Heartfelt is a good word on which to end a synopsis of Rain Man, though it is hard to see it throughout most of the film.  Charlie treats Raymond in the exact opposite way the Church would have someone called upon to be a caretaker.  Of particular note is how Charlie refuses to accept there is anything wrong with Raymond, trying to convince himself that there is a “normal” person inside his big brother.  What does the word “normal” mean?  I believe it is safe to say that how we might define the term is different than how God sees it.  I will not pretend to know God’s mind on such matters, only to mark the likelihood of it varying from our own.  When Charlie is demanding that Raymond behave normally, what Charlie is saying is that he wants Raymond to be more like the younger brother.  In other words, “normal” might seem self-evident, but depends greatly on our point of view.  As such, because we do not see the world through God’s eyes, it is impossible for us to give an exact definition of what “normal” means.  This is why everyone is equal before God, and worthy of being treated with dignity.  There again, though, is another nebulous term: “dignity.”  After all, Raymond is a person with “special needs.”  Does one person’s “dignity” not match with another?  What I would suggest is that most of society sees someone like Raymond as Charlie does.  Charlie wants Raymond to be a certain way.  What Charlie is not doing is affording Raymond any kind of respect as to how Raymond wants to be treated, even if it is not clear at the end.  Raymond is saying that he wants both outcomes because he has come to love his brother, but also desires the structure that is Wallbrook.  Respect is what is meant by dignity, and that is something God asks of all of us.

And I would ask that you give Rain Man a try.  My viewing of it was actually the first time I had seen it, and I went into expecting many outdated ways of looking at autism.  While I do not enjoy anyone being referred to as “retarded,” which happens a couple of times, the film has value in helping to learn to see people as human.  That is worth your time.