The strange story behind the movie Rain Man

rain man It is an unforgettable film filmed in 1988 and which was awarded 4 Oscars, including one for Dustin Hoffman for best actor and another for best screenplay.

The plot revolves around the figure of Charles Babbitt, played by Tom Cruise. This is a successful, but very selfish, young man who works at a car dealership. When his father dies he discovers that in his will he has left practically all of his assets to a brother whom he did not even know existed.

His older brother is Raymond, a man with an autism problem. which was masterfully played by Dustin Hoffman. To claim his share of the inheritance, Charles kidnaps his brother and they begin a journey across the United States.

Coexistence at first will be complicated for him. However, little by little he begins to understand his brother, accepting him and loving him. Until she even considers that she live with him.

The origin of rain man

The film is based on a real character named Kim Peek

Own Hoffman says that he met with Peak many times to copy some of his gestures and the personality traits that best characterized him. On the other hand, Morrow, the screenwriter of the film, decided to give his Oscar to Peek, who made countless galas with his father proudly showing his statuette.

Kim’s father even stated that all this helped his son a lot to increase his self-esteem and lose his shyness. Peek, this boy diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, died in 2009 for a heart attack.

But was it really Asperger’s syndrome that Kim Peek had?

Asperger syndrome is a variant of autism spectrum disorder. It is manifested by a lack of social skill and clumsiness of movement, counterbalanced by an incredible capacity for one or more skills.

People who suffer from it can have amazing ability in things like arithmetic calculation or exact drawing. They may also have an impressive memory, remembering lists or details of a specific topic that fascinates the person with Asperger’s and that the rest of the individuals around them consider “strange” or “strange.”

This syndrome was discovered by the Viennese doctor Hans Asperger. in her doctoral thesis in 1944. However, when she died her studies were forgotten and it was not until 1981 when Lorna Wing used the term “Asperger syndrome” for the first time.

What was the protagonist really suffering from? rain man?

To our surprise, now everything seems to have changed. If until now we had all identified with Asperger’s syndrome that tender and naive character who knew all the statistics of the baseball leagues or recited pages from the telephone directory and who was played by Hoffman to perfection, voices appear that believe otherwise.

Since 2008 it is commented that What Kim Peek could really suffer from was Opitz Kaveggia syndrome, a syndrome linked to the X chromosome and which owes its name to the surnames of two sisters who had 5 children with FG. They themselves described the syndrome for the first time in 1974.

It is characterized by mental retardation and a peculiar physical appearance: drooping head and open mouth, very thin upper lip and very large lower lip, in addition to an extroverted personality and hyperactive behavior combined with low muscle tone.

So it is that Behind a wonderful film, such as Rain Man, there is a great story. Both because of the relationship of the real character with the film, and because of the possible confusion of diagnosis of the real character and the fictional one.