A behavioural & Technical View on
Rain Man on the Screen
Adapted to the Pages
Edigley Pereira Fraga
(MSc Candidate in Computer Science - UFCG)
Foreign Language Department
TeacherTone
I am going to compose this essay about the differences between the movie Rain Man, by Barry Levinson, and the namesake book, Rain Main, an adaptation from a novel by Leonore Fleischer based on the screenplay of the forementioned movie. For that, I will base my thesis on two main branches: a behavioural and a technical one. Firstly, I will deal with the technical differences I've noticed and afterwards, the behavioural ones.
There are some little technical differences between the two narrative choices, obviously the movie narrative is more elaborated and the interrelation among the characters are most intricated but some choices in the book have impressed me, mainly the part in which Raymond meets Charlie, Susanna and the old Buick. In the book, this passage seems to be much more natural, showing a reluctant Raymond whereas in the movie the revelation of the truth about him happens too fast and in an artificial manner, so that we miss the magical feelings in the pages. On the other hand, because of the help of the images it sounds easy to understand the interrelations between the parts of the story. The way chosen by the book writer in order to compress the story, sometimes not following the movie in its fidelity, turns out the details of the plot much more difficult to fully comprehend.
On the movie, the relationship between Charlie and Raymond before the revelation of the common story about them seems to bring about a much more hard and rude atmosphere than that presented in the book. Charlie, on the movie is incomprehensive about Raymond's life style and about his fears as well as his lack of emotions. The same occurs between Charlie and Susanna, notably on the scene in the road to Palm Springs where Susanna was trying to have a conversation while Charlie remains cold and unable to show his fears and feelings. Three scenes clear out such a relationship: the airport scene, the maple syrup and pancake before the toothpicks experience one, also the scene where Charlie has a quarrel with Raymond because he goes to Charlie's room and sit down on the bed at the very moment Charlie and Susanna are in bed. There is a lot of cruelty and insensibility on those scenes which was not imagined when we read the book.
Although the autistic on the movie was Raymond, Charlie's behaviour shows a lot of autistic traces, first of all with his father, whom Charlie didn't talk to since he was sixteen years old. The same happened with Susanna, whom he had never shared his personal story and feelings about his parents until his father's death. That autistic behaviour is not so pronounced in the book as it is on the movie. That behaviour is very surprising, considering that he seems to be a very eloquent person. Obviously, this may come from complicated relationship with his father. In addition to that, we can see Susanna herself saying that Charlie was trying to exclude her from what is happening to him on the scene at the road to Palm Springs. Furthermore, on the scene of Walnut hills memories.
From the middle to the end of the plot, there are no substantial differences, except for the denouement, which is extremely silly in the book but it is showed in a touching and full of emotion way in the movie. Considering all that, it is not surprising the 4 oscars achieved by the movie, including the best actor for the performance of Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbit.
References
1 - RAIN MAN. Dir. Barry Levinson. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise. MGM Studios, 1988.
2 - RAIN MAN copyright© 1989 United Artists Pictures Inc. A novel by Leonore Fleischer based on a Screenplay by Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow and a Story by Barry Morrow. First published by Penguin Books 1989. The adaptation used by this essay published by Penguin Books 1994.
Rain Man on the Screen
Adapted to the Pages
Edigley Pereira Fraga
(MSc Candidate in Computer Science - UFCG)
Foreign Language Department
TeacherTone
I am going to compose this essay about the differences between the movie Rain Man, by Barry Levinson, and the namesake book, Rain Main, an adaptation from a novel by Leonore Fleischer based on the screenplay of the forementioned movie. For that, I will base my thesis on two main branches: a behavioural and a technical one. Firstly, I will deal with the technical differences I've noticed and afterwards, the behavioural ones.
There are some little technical differences between the two narrative choices, obviously the movie narrative is more elaborated and the interrelation among the characters are most intricated but some choices in the book have impressed me, mainly the part in which Raymond meets Charlie, Susanna and the old Buick. In the book, this passage seems to be much more natural, showing a reluctant Raymond whereas in the movie the revelation of the truth about him happens too fast and in an artificial manner, so that we miss the magical feelings in the pages. On the other hand, because of the help of the images it sounds easy to understand the interrelations between the parts of the story. The way chosen by the book writer in order to compress the story, sometimes not following the movie in its fidelity, turns out the details of the plot much more difficult to fully comprehend.
On the movie, the relationship between Charlie and Raymond before the revelation of the common story about them seems to bring about a much more hard and rude atmosphere than that presented in the book. Charlie, on the movie is incomprehensive about Raymond's life style and about his fears as well as his lack of emotions. The same occurs between Charlie and Susanna, notably on the scene in the road to Palm Springs where Susanna was trying to have a conversation while Charlie remains cold and unable to show his fears and feelings. Three scenes clear out such a relationship: the airport scene, the maple syrup and pancake before the toothpicks experience one, also the scene where Charlie has a quarrel with Raymond because he goes to Charlie's room and sit down on the bed at the very moment Charlie and Susanna are in bed. There is a lot of cruelty and insensibility on those scenes which was not imagined when we read the book.
Although the autistic on the movie was Raymond, Charlie's behaviour shows a lot of autistic traces, first of all with his father, whom Charlie didn't talk to since he was sixteen years old. The same happened with Susanna, whom he had never shared his personal story and feelings about his parents until his father's death. That autistic behaviour is not so pronounced in the book as it is on the movie. That behaviour is very surprising, considering that he seems to be a very eloquent person. Obviously, this may come from complicated relationship with his father. In addition to that, we can see Susanna herself saying that Charlie was trying to exclude her from what is happening to him on the scene at the road to Palm Springs. Furthermore, on the scene of Walnut hills memories.
From the middle to the end of the plot, there are no substantial differences, except for the denouement, which is extremely silly in the book but it is showed in a touching and full of emotion way in the movie. Considering all that, it is not surprising the 4 oscars achieved by the movie, including the best actor for the performance of Dustin Hoffman as Raymond Babbit.
References
1 - RAIN MAN. Dir. Barry Levinson. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise. MGM Studios, 1988.
2 - RAIN MAN copyright© 1989 United Artists Pictures Inc. A novel by Leonore Fleischer based on a Screenplay by Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow and a Story by Barry Morrow. First published by Penguin Books 1989. The adaptation used by this essay published by Penguin Books 1994.
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