The way they portray autism in this is as some awful disease that makes you have an IQ worse than forest gump. And apparently people with autism need help performing daily tasks.
What horse *beep* I'm autistic and I'm nothing like this jackass. I'm actually the same but just lack basic social skills which makes it hard to talk to others. That's it. I go downtown by myself/cook/read/ and hang out with friends
Goddam stereotypes
I don't know what she knows, and I cry everyday. I can't help her. Think about that before you comment about my post.
shareYou know what? You're right. You lack basic social skills. Next time try not to be such an *beep* making everything about you.
shareThe same could be said about you after having been so rude to a stranger who is honestly expressing their opinion online.
I would really like to know in what way the OP thinks that Raymond is a "jackass". But I don't think that he will return to this thread to answer me, since he stopped replying to it twentytwo months ago...
Intelligence and purity.
FYI, the Raymond character was based on a real-life savant, whose name I don't recall, but he was part of a piece on "60 Minutes." At one point, they asked him something like "On April 5th of the year 985,124, what day of the week will it be? Without hesitation, he gave the correct day.
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I'm sorry. Excuse my ignorance if I'm entirely off base, but just like any other disability (for lack of a better word) aren't there varying degrees of autism? I assumed there were those who are high-functioning and then those like Raymond who are much more dependent on others for supervision. So I guess my question is why is it wrong for Raymond's character to be portrayed in such a manner? Are there not those in the world similar to him? If there are, then I see nothing wrong with it; his character is representing one end of the spectrum. If this is the case, it's not exactly a misrepresentation. If he were "mildly" autistic (again for lack of a better word), this film wouldn't be what it is.
shareAlso I believe Dustin Hoffman spent weeks observing and studying real life autistic savants in order to prepare for his role. So his portrayal has to got to represent at least some small portion of the autistic community.
shareI agree. I was diagnosed with autism when I was 6. And this was the 1980's when people were still learning.
shareThere were a few autistic kids in my school and they were all on different levels of functioning some of them were a lot worse than Ray. One kid would only talk about pro wrestling. He was obsessed with it and was constantly saying things like "4 horsemen, nWo, Hulk Hugan is gonna get it, The Macho Man, Ooooh yeahhh!". That's all he ever said. No actual conversation at all. Another was a Haitian kid who never said anything meaningful himself. He would laugh at basically nothing and his teacher told him "no laughing" so often that he started repeating "no laughing" at random times. Then there were a few kids who were mildly autistic or had Asperger's syndrome. They seemed normal for the most part, even extremely knowladgable about a lot of things, one or two seemed like they were on near genius levels but a little bit nerdy or geeky. The only really weird things about them was that they would have conversations with people and not give the person a chance to talk. Also some couldn't recognize when someone wasn't interested in the topic they were talking about even if it was obvious and would keep speaking enthusiastically about the subject even if the other person looked like they were about to fall asleep.
shareMetsivelli, telling a very interesting true encounter, said:
"Then there were a few kids who were mildly autistic or had Asperger's syndrome. They seemed normal for the most part, even extremely knowladgable about a lot of things, one or two seemed like they were on near genius levels but a little bit nerdy or geeky. The only really weird things about them was that they would have conversations with people and not give the person a chance to talk. Also some couldn't recognize when someone wasn't interested in the topic they were talking about even if it was obvious and would keep speaking enthusiastically about the subject even if the other person looked like they were about to fall asleep."
Wow!
That describes me pefectly...
"And that's SHOWBIZ--kid".-Roxie Hart
PROFILE PICTURE: Courtney Thorne-Smith,1992.
Well, in the 1980s austistic people were EVERYWHERE in entertainment more than we knew! making crappy Saturday morning cartoons, then Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids and Michael Jackson blew their clean images (though New Kids came almost before the 1990s)...I always thought, by the way, PRINCE was austistic just based on his fugly singing style (I admit, way worse than the 1970s, the entertainment industry in trhe 1980s was the low point and yes, retarded, sorry.)
For what it is worse, I am very high functioning Asperger meself.
"And that's SHOWBIZ--kid".-Roxie Hart
PROFILE PICTURE: Courtney Thorne-Smith,1992.
Don't be offended, it wasn't meant to offend. This was an old world view, autistic kids were treated like outcasts,they were misunderstood, misrepresented and misjudged.
But I believe this is an introduction to understanding autism and for a movie that is over 27years old, it does a good job. It is a poignant portrayal as well as a respectable (in the long run)representation. In the end both characters are in tune with each others worlds'.
I believe it was meant to be an insightful look as well as honest.
So "once again, don't be offended" it was meant in good faith.
RomeoInDespair, I recently watched the movie again for the first time in a few years and yes Raymond is portrayed as being Autistic but probably also was low functioning Autistic and not high functioning at all, there are varying degrees of this illness and he had the lower level spectrum, i also believe that Raymond was severely mentally retarded and bipolar in addition to being autistic but because this was released in the 1980s and he had been living in the care of the institution for years they did not know all of his problems because his autism made him hard to diagnose.
His mental retardation and mood swings suggest that he was bipolar but not diagnosed as such, they clearly overlooked his condition and misdiagnosed him as being only a low functioning autistic savant, if he was tested professionally today he would be diagnosed as being Low Functioning Autistic Savant, Mentally Retarded and Bipolar, along with obsessive compulsive disorders.
Raymond basically had issues that the limited medical and mental health professionals of the 1980s were to stupid to detect, today they would have better training and would know him for what he is.
High-func Kanner at the time....
You do know there are different forms of autism, right? He was a sevant. Some people have it worse than others...
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