Nov 21, 2005 09:19 AM
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(Updated Nov 21, 2005 12:32 PM)
No, It is not Dustin Hoffman who has brilliantly etched the character of Raymond, the Rain Man. It is neither Tom Cruise who has done wonderful support as his brother nor Screen Writer Barry Morrow
He is an autistic savant who has read more than 7600 books and can recall every detail of that. He can read two sides of paperback simultaneously in just 12 seconds and tell you back details word by word. He has mastered the calendar to such an extent that he can tell you the day of the week when you turn 70 based on your date of birth. He is an ocean of knowledge which includes 15 subjects and can tell zip codes of every American place. He remembers history of every country and every ruler.
He is Kim Peek who has inspired Barry Morrow to make a legend of a movie. When I picked up all the reviews on Rain Man on MS, I was surprised not to see any mention of Kim’s name and felt it very important to write about Kim, the Real Rain Man as enough has been written on Rain man.
Who is an Autistic Savant?
Autism is spectrum disorder of the Brain which occurs within the first three years of birth and severely incapacitating life long developments which could be mere motor sensory functions, social behaviour or speech disorders which results in them not to be able to do things normally like others like bathing, brushing teeth or walking. They need life long support from someone.
Autistic Savantrefers to Individuals with autism that have extraordinary skills not seen in ordinary mortals like us. Earlier they were called as Idiot Savants, thanks to Dr Bernard Rimland who changed it to Autistic Savant as it is because of the anatomy and physiology of their brain that you get both sides of super-nature in one person.
Kim Peek, the Brainman
Kim Peek was born in 1951 with an enlarged head and encepheloceleand the corpus callosum missing. .At the age of 16-20 months, he could memorise books read to him by his father. The peculiar thing about Kim was that he put the books that he had finished reading upside down so that they were not read again. He was brilliant in Arithmetic and calculations at the age of four and could add several six digit numbers in a jiffy.
Why I picked up Kim Peek for Rain Man Review on MS?
I had taken my kid for performing keyboard orchestra in a Cultural programme last month where he was also to collect Prize. There was a Kuchipudi Dance show organized for a girl of 12 years age. She was Autistic which we did not know. She was supported by some people to the dais and then we saw a breathtaking performance by her which instantly reminded me of Rain Man and Peek. She had the savant skills and perceives her studies thanks to her Dr Mother who has taken special care to grow her up like other children yet shining in her own way.
Role of Rain Man in Kim’s life
Barry Morrow sent the script of Rain Man to Dr Traffert which helped the movie to get its final beautiful shape of a savant syndrome from the originally scripted mentally handicapped Raymond Babbitt. Dustin Hoffman was asked to play the role of Charlie his brother which is incidentally played by Tom Cruise while Hoffman got the role of his life-an Autistic Savant. Tom Cruise changes his attitude of treating his brother as RETARDED to someone SPECIAL.
Rain Man brings two very trivial aspects to treating Savant syndrome
Kim’s father has done what Charlie has to Raymond. He has transformed Kim Peek’s life for the public cause. The result is that Kim Peak’s heart has become bigger than his brain. Kimputer has been transformed from real Rainman to Brainman while Kim has indirectly helped Rainman with four Oscars and raining cash revenues. Kim Peek has given several lectures to students in US in the last ten years accompanied by his father with the ocean of knowledge that he possesses.
It helps you to not only treat Autistic Savants (Not all autistic people have savant abilities) kindly but also help them to come up in the society and shine as gems for their and public cause. This is what Hoffman had to say to Peek after receiving Oscars,”I may be the star, but you are the heavens. My special thanks to Kim Peek for making Rain Man a reality.''
Dustin Hoffman and his team have done a great honour to Autistic society by brilliantly etching them on the silver screen. Let us show them kindness and understand that they have heart and a Brain unmatched by anyone of us. For this they should not be locked indoors and slowly allowed to mingle in Public life in which Kim Peek is a great example.
For readers, the other Rain Men notable to know about are Joseph Sullivan from West Virginia (Mathemagical Savant) and Daniel Tammet from Kent.UK.
Special Thanks to Dr Traffet’s articles on Kim Peek which has helped me to write this review.
Kim’s quote,”Recognizing and respecting differences in others, and treating everyone like you want them to treat you, will help make our world a better place for everyone. Care...be your best.
You don't have to be handicapped to be different. Everyone is different!''
