Rain Man

Title: Rain Man
Year: 1988
Director: Barry Levinson
Writers: Ronald Bass & Barry Morrow
Starring: Dustin Hoffman, Tom Cruise, Valeria Golino, Gerald R. Molen
Music: Hans Zimmer
Distinctions: Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay & Best Actor (Hoffman); Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography, Best Score, Best Art Direction/Set Decoration and Best Editing
Synopsis: a money-obsessed jackass takes his autistic brother on a roadtrip
How I saw it: on video, yesterday (rented on VHS from the library) as well as a few times when I was ~10
Subjective Rating: 7/10 (Good).
Objective Rating: 8/10 (points off for pacing and music) c. 3.1/4 (Very good).

It feels a lot longer than it is, but even as an overly-long movie it's never quite boring. And the music is terrible. But otherwise, it's a great movie, the sort that can really effect you. I kept thinking about it for a while after watching it.

One thing that struck me re-watching this that I didn't notice as a kid is occasional shots that give you a sort of alien sense of the world, especially the snap-shots that run over the credits. They somehow twist ordinary and easily-identifiable images to look like abstract shapes. Also, I don't think my 10-year-old-self had any idea that this was such a sad movie.