The film “Rain Man” is a classic work directed by Barry Levinson and released in 1988, starring the famous actors Dustin Hoffman and Tom Crewe.
The movie “Rain Man” tells a touching emotional story. Charlie’s father dies, but most of his inheritance goes to his brother Raymond, who suffers from autism. So Charlie tricks Raymond out of the nursing home, pretending to please and trying to cheat it out of its fortune. However, during their repeated day and night together as brothers, Charlie’s conscience shines out anew, so that he finally eschews his desire for money because of his brotherly feelings.
This film, which reflects the emotions of brothers, takes a sociological perspective and uses a comparative approach, which awakens us to the crisis of humanity in modern civilization. The film reflects not only the attitudes and psychology of life in the evolving American society of the 1980s, but also the living conditions of modern civilization as a whole.
Charlie’s views on money, desire and life are similar to those of modern people. The more advanced civilization and the more advanced science and technology become, the more people’s desires will expand and the more human beings will let life be neglected. Whether we can dominate ourselves in civilization, pay attention to the ups and downs of human nature and maintain our most original self is an important question the director tries to make people think about.
Secondly, in terms of the film’s tone and style, as a light comedy style road movie, it not only has a high degree of lifelike restoration and natural and smooth scene portrayal, but also the director’s use of color is very clever and closely related to the film’s plot in its use to better go ahead with the characters’ development. The way the film is shot is very attractive and the film is mostly in soft warm colors, making the film nicely pave the way for a bright ending, through rendering. The director uses light and shadow in several scenes of the film to accompany the gradual change in mood of the two main characters, gradually building up until the emotional climax occurs.
At the same time, although the film uses a lot of images to depict the changing emotions of Charlie and Raymond, important father-son clues are hidden behind the brotherly affection. Charlie’s behavior seems to be reflected in the differences in his father’s love and arrangement for their brother. Although the father figure hardly appears in the film, his father’s tolerance and education for Charlie and their respective love for their brother flow in the development of the plot, and this subtle emotional imprint of his father almost guides Charlie’s changing emotions toward Raymond and himself, making the film show more emotional overtones.
The whole “Rain Man” shows us the human and realistic side of western society in the last century with its delicate and realistic camera portrayal and clean and lifelike descriptions. The director not only cleverly uses the first and last closed loops to make the film narratively smooth and delicate, but also shows the profound social values behind the rich images, making the film excellent in terms of both artistic value and humanistic concern.
The director’s touching message of affection through the film is unforgettable, and furthermore, the conflict between human desires and modern civilization that the film tries to explore behind the story is even more worthy of our deep thoughts. It can be said that the film can play its due universal value for people of every country, and there is no doubt that this is a film classic with deep meaning and connotation among director Barry Levinson’s many works.