not autism

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Actually you are both somewhat right. Some autistic individuals never learn to speak others eventually develop speech after years of work. The problem with individuals prospectives is that autism is not one particular thing but rather a composite of symptoms that make up a continuum of symptoms or characteristics. Millie does make the comment that Eric never talked which gives more credence to the diagnosis of autism, of course losing parents could cause PTSD as well. Individuals with sever autism often do not relate well to people and self-stimulate, like Eric making planes or pretending to fly. Like all movies this one takes elements of the truth and blends it with fiction (none of us really believe Eric could no natter how cool it would be if he did.) The important part of the movie in my opinion as the mother of a son who has autism if that individuals with disabilities need friendship just like everyone else.

Regarding the comments made saying that Jay Underwood was not autistic (a term more preferred than autism by some people who have the condition), this movie was made in 1986 and the knowledge doctors and the general public had about autism back then was not what it now. It was still widely believed at that time that autism is caused by the neglect of a parent or a traumatic event in one's childhood. While these things can cause social withdrawal, they do not cause autism, which is something much more complex. If other things in the portrayal of autism were inaccurate, keep in mind that that description was only used once in the film (when Fred Savage mentioned it at the dinner table). This film was made before "Rain Man" and before there were stories all over the news of people with autism, so they did not "advertise" this film at its time as being about an autistic as much as being about a mute youth with a unique ability. Anyways, I thought this was a very good and uplifting movie.

Silvery, I know what you mean. The funny thing is, when a woman choses to abort a baby that they know will be mentally challenged or autistic or even deformed, they say "that isnt a quality of life" or "the child will only suffer thru life". They never admit they are the ones who do not want to deal with the hardships that come with raising a child like that. Its a social thing, a comfort thing..something they tell themselves to believe.

For Pete's sake, it was 1986, not 1886. Yes, there have been great strides in medical understanding of autism in the last 23 years (I have a friend who was diagnosed as autistic as a child around that time, and the diagnosis was later changed to Asperger's syndrome once that became a separate category, so I am aware of the significant changes), but I do not know of any case of a child born in the 80's being abandoned because he or she was "retarded." I have also not heard anyone say, even in my childhood, that "having a "retarded" baby was wrong and that the mothers that had given birth to them had done something wrong to cause God to hate them so much." Seriously, just because you weren't born yet doesn't mean it was the dark ages.

To this day some people still don't get what they did wrong to "deserve a "retarded" baby" and choose to abort them rather than give them life.

I was about 15 years old when I first saw The Boy Who Could Fly. I didn't see it till the following year on the Disney Channel in 1987. And I remember I had no idea what autism was at all. In fact, don't think I had even heard the word. Back then I thought with him loosing his parents at such a young age, he was suffering with very deep depression.

But now I'm an adult so I understand autism a bit more.

If you have the DVD of this movie, they talk about autism in the commentary quite a bit. It's all very interesting on what they have to say. They talk about how they had Milly say in that one scene "He MAY be autistic" instead of actually saying that he did in fact have it. They said it was something about they didn't think people would understand about a boy with autism having the ability to fly and that it would confuse people so that's why they had Milly say that line..and that that was the only time in the movie autism was actually mentioned. (I don't remember their exact words in the commentary since I haven't watched it in a while but that's the gist of it.)

Also they talked about in the commentary how people with autism can be focused only on one thing and are also good at only one thing..and Eric was that way with flying.

Jay Underwood also talked about going to a school that had children with autism and how he sat down with one child who was playing Pac-Man. Jay tried to talk to the child but the child didn't even know he was there. Jay then said, "I was talking to Eric."

The commentary is very interesting..I recommend any fans of this movie who hasn't listened to it to do so because it does explain some things.

Anyway...with me, I always thought Eric might have had a mild case of autism. But then I was thinking that with how his parents died when was just 5 years old, and here he lived with his Uncle who drank all the time. An Uncle like that couldn't raise a child properly. And then Eric grew up alone all the time, no one wanted to be around him, no one would be a friend to him and there was no one to love him. So a child growing up like that I could for sure see and understand how the child would withdraw from the world, and build walls up around himself and want to be closed up in his own world. So to me, I saw Eric mostly going through severe depression and trauma from his parents death to the way he was living and how he grew up. (And how he was put into an institution and almost died) That's why when Milly finally was the first person to really reach out to him, he started to respond and started to be a friend and wanted to love her back.

Of course even today I don't quite understand everything about autism since I've never studied it or anything. But I think this movie did OK with it in my opinion. I didn't see anything wrong with having Eric's character as autistic.

But that's just how I see it.