K.M.Kaung - my mini review of movie Rain Man

Saw the movie Rain Man again - maybe for third time - This is nothing unusual for me - as I have to study screenwriting etc on my own - and so much is "free". --I saw the play about AIDS - Angels in America 9 times while sitting and standing in the aisles when I worked at Annenberg Center in Philadelphia as a house manager & usher immediately after I got my Ph.D. So many TV scripts are on line, like There Will Be Blood.

Anyway, Rain Man is so excellent - Alan Patton, author of Cry the Beloved Country about South Africa wrote in his forward to the nth edition that "It can never be written again, as it can't be felt again".

Rain Man is the same way - Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise were at exactly the right ages (maybe there should be a sequel now) - and the casting is so good they even look the same - same noses and chins, and the acting of course is superb.

That is they don't "act" a la the Burmese movies in a pretentious, pose-striking artificial manner, with extremely stilted dialog.

Instead, Cruise's hyper testosteroned bouncy gait, and anger, and Hoffman's passive head held to the side, his "I don't know"s and "Ah Oh's and his reliance on routine - "The maple syrup needs to be on the table" are so real, you forget this a movie with a director, a scriptwriter and actors etc.

That is how it should be.

If you haven't seen it, see it.

Note: I don't believe only new movies and books should be reviewed - There is so much to learn from the old classics.

Now I have to go find the script and read it -

Kyi May Kaung