Synopsis of "Lehman" | Appreciation | Afterviewing

1988 color film 133 minutes

Produced by Cooper-Peters Film Company of the United States

Director: Barry Levinson Screenwriter: Ronald Bass Barry Moreau Photography: John Seale Main Cast: Dustin Hoffman (played by Raymond Babbitt/Lehman) Tom ·Cruise (playing Charlie Babbitt) Valeria Golino (playing Susanna)

This film won the 1988 American Film Academy Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor Four Academy Awards for actor and best screenwriter, two Hollywood Foreign Press Association Golden Globe Awards for best feature film and best actor; 1989 West Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Award

Plot synopsis

Charlie Babbitt and his girlfriend Suzanne are driving to Palm Springs. This is not a happy weekend holiday, but a joyful experience. Charlie borrowed US$200,000 from friends and borrowed money from banks to import six luxury cars. Although the cars all had buyers, the four cars have still not been delivered due to the complicated procedures of the environmental protection agency, and the buyers are eager to use the cars. , to recover the advance payment and buy cars from other car companies, and the bank pressed for repayment, Charlie was so anxious that he had to reduce the price of each car by US$5,000 to attract these buyers.

Charlie was full of troubles and drove the car without saying a word. This pissed off Susanna. She complained that Charlie had snubbed her. Charlie retorted irritably, seeing that a quarrel was inevitable. Suddenly Charlie received a call from his assistant Lenny, saying that his father had passed away and the funeral would be held in Cincinnati the next day.

Susanna immediately lost her anger and immediately expressed her intention to accompany Charlie to the funeral. Charlie turned the car around and drove to Cincinnati. Along the way, he told Susanna in detail about the conflict between himself and his father for the first time. When Charlie was two years old, his mother died of a sudden illness, and he couldn't get along with his father. When he was 16 years old, he got straight A's in his exams. He excitedly went home and asked his father to lend him his treasured Buick covered car to go on an outing with his classmates, but his father sternly refused. He later stole the keys himself and drove away. Unexpectedly, the four cars traveling with him were all impounded for driving without a license, and all three classmates were released on bail by their families. Only Charlie was detained for two days because his father deliberately called the police to report that the car was stolen. From then on, Charlie ran away angrily and never saw his father again.

On the day the will was read out, Charlie learned that his father, in order to punish him for his ruthlessness, only left him his Buick car and some high-grade rose trees. An unknown beneficiary received his father's $3 million inheritance. Who is this beneficiary? Why was he deprived of inheritance rights, and he is now in desperate need of money? Charlie is furious and determined to get to the bottom of this matter.

Charlie went through the bank and found out that the beneficiary was now in Walbrook's mental hospital. At the asylum, a dull-eyed middle-aged man jumped into a Buick convertible and kept saying he always drove it on Saturdays. Charlie was puzzled. From his guardian, Dr. Bruno, he learned that this person was his brother Raymond Babbitt. An autistic patient with severe psychological defects but amazing mental arithmetic ability. In Raymond's psychological world, there are dangers everywhere in this society. He uses traditional methods to deal with any problems he faces, that is, routines and rituals. He has a certain routine for how he behaves, eats, sleeps, dresses, and even goes to the bathroom, and any break from these routines causes him to become irritable. He had been living in Walbrook Mental Hospital for more than 20 years, but Charlie knew nothing about it, and he didn't even know that he had such a brother. He only vaguely remembered that when he was a child, there seemed to be a man named Lehman who often visited him and sang to him.

Faced with an inheritance of US$3 million, Charlie not only received no penny, he did not even have custody rights. Angry and annoyed, he decided to take Raymond to his residence in Los Angeles. At the same time, he informed Dr. Bruno that he would never send Raynor back to the hospital unless he received half of the inheritance.

On the way back to Los Angeles, Ramon showed amazing memory and mental arithmetic skills. He listed the dates, times, and casualties of plane crashes of various airlines, and firmly refused to fly. Charlie couldn't resist, so he had to drive a Buick car and set off. The beautiful and kind-hearted Suzanne objected to Charlie's violent actions against Raymond for the inheritance. She persuaded Charlie to no avail and left him angrily. Charlie was very painful.

Charlie continued to move forward with Raymond. Raymond insisted on eating, sleeping and watching TV according to his own habits, which made Charlie exhausted. He found a psychiatrist to treat him along the way, but to no avail. During the test, the psychiatrist found that his mental arithmetic was extremely fast and accurate, but his intelligence about money and its value was not as good as that of a child.

That night, Charlie overhears Raymond talking about "Lehman" and discovers a photo of their father, Raymond, and two-year-old Charlie. "Lehman" is what Charlie called Raymond when he couldn't pronounce it when he was a child. Raymond actually clearly remembered Charlie waving to him from behind the window when he left home, and also clearly remembered the lyrics he sang to Charlie when he was a child.

Childhood memories deepened the relationship between the two brothers. Raymond kept talking about Charlie Babbitt from time to time. Charlie was moved by his brother's affection, and he developed a affection for Raymond and stopped yelling at him.

After Charlie discovered that Raymond had amazing counting ability, he bought a pack of playing cards and let Raymond see the entire deck, and then drew seven cards from them. When he asked him what cards they were, Raymond replied: Fast and accurate, after repeated trials, Charlie suddenly had a whim and took Raymond on an adventure. He pawned his high-end watch, made a suit of clothes for Raymond and himself, dressed up and down, and drove into the casino city of Las Vegas. They sat down at the card table and played blackjack. One night, Raymond won 86,000 yuan. This amount was enough for Charlie to repay the debt, and he couldn't help but be ecstatic. At this moment, Suzanne felt that she couldn't bear to leave Charlie when he was in trouble, so she returned to him and saw that he was using Raymond to gamble, and she was very disapproving.

Raymond came into contact with society for the first time and became very curious. He tried to date and dance with a ***. *** Seeing that his expression was dull and his speech was incoherent, he ran away. In order to make him enjoy a normal life, the kind-hearted Suzanne danced with him and taught him how to kiss. For Raymond, all this was so novel, he began to understand humor and learned to joke.

Raymond felt happy with Charlie. The brotherhood and the colorful world around him injected vitality into Raymond's life, but he still could not take care of himself. I almost had an accident while using the microwave once.

Charlie and Raymond got emotionally connected during the trip, so Charlie no longer selfishly only thought about the $1.5 million inheritance, but began to think about Raymond's future life. Dr. Bruno told Charlie that his father clearly designated Bruno to be responsible for managing the estate in his will. He had every right not to give Charlie a penny, but he was still willing to give Charlie a check for $250,000 as long as he stopped entangled. Charlie did not take the check, but told Bruno emotionally that he was no longer thinking about money now, he just wanted to obtain custody of Raymond and live with his brother.

Under the auspices of Dr. Masen, a psychology expert, the test on Raymond began. There is no lawyer, no judge, only Charlie and Dr. Bruno who care about Raymond. Raymond described his experiences along the way intermittently, and clearly expressed his closeness and attachment to his brother Charlie. He said he wanted to go back to Walbrook Hospital and be with Charlie.

The six days with Raymond made Charlie feel that family love is more important than money. He no longer resents his father and no longer appeals to get his inheritance back. He affectionately put Raymond on the train back to Walbrook and promised to visit him every two weeks.

The train was about to leave, and Charlie reluctantly said goodbye to Raymond. Raymond went in, and after a while he returned to the carriage entrance to see Charlie. He muttered: "One is bad, two are good."

Appreciation

"Lehman" is a movie that profoundly displays human nature.

Through the experience of two brothers getting to know each other, resenting each other and falling in love, it vividly shows the collision, conflict, and ups and downs between the secular concept of money and interests and family relationships. At the same time, it deeply depicts two people with different personalities and characteristics. figure.

At the beginning of the film, the director outlined for the audience a typical image of young people in today's American society. Charlie is smart, capable and energetic. He formed his own company, borrowed money from friends, and sold imported cars. However, he was in a difficult situation in his career and had little room for action - funds were stretched, scheduling was difficult, environmental protection agencies were not working smoothly, banks were demanding payment, and customers were returning goods. Faced with a lot of pressure, he struggled to cope. Although he had skillfully controlled the situation, it was still very dangerous. If he could not raise 80,000 in cash, he might go bankrupt at any time. In this way, the film shows the audience Charlie's smart personality and his financial dilemma at the beginning, which provides the motivation for his later fight for the inheritance and abduction of Raymond. This scene also serves two purposes. First, it establishes the audience's sense of identification with Charlie. The market is a battlefield. Charlie starts from scratch and fights alone. The audience places sympathy on him. In order to survive, even if he takes some abnormal actions, the audience will think it is reasonable; secondly, Charlie His shrewdness and ability made the audience realize that he was overconfident and even a little self-righteous, which provided a footnote for his subsequent conflict and break with his father.

Charlie was both surprised and happy when he suddenly heard that his father had passed away. He hoped to get a legacy from his father to meet his urgent needs. Unexpectedly, the cruel father gave all 3 million US dollars to Raymond, leaving only his beautiful old-fashioned high-end Gram convertible car. The reason is that his son has never visited him or even made a phone call in all these years, thus automatically severing the relationship between father and son. The director created a series of dramatic plots around this Buick car. When Charlie was a child, in order to show off to his classmates, he stole this car that his father cherished very much, regardless of his father's objection. The stubborn old man reported the theft to the police, which made Charlie spend two days in jail. How could the full-blooded Charlie swallow this breath and run away from home. Two indomitable people collided over a car problem, causing a breakdown in the relationship between father and son. His father's emotional trauma could not be healed until his death. Charlie abandoned the family for the car, so his father bequeathed the car to him. This seemed to be fulfilling his son's wish, but in fact it was another humiliation and ridicule to Charlie, because while giving away the car, he also deprived him of his property inheritance rights. Later in the mental hospital, Charlie learned that he had a brother and got to know him through this car. What made Charlie even more angry was that he also discovered that his father refused to let him drive this car, but took the initiative to let Raymond drive the same car every Saturday. The father's revenge on Charlie and his preference for Raymond are clearly expressed through this car. The director repeatedly uses this car as a catalyst to strengthen the dramatic conflict. The director has always shown his father's unreasonableness from Charlie's perspective, which makes the audience identify with Charlie even more. Not only do they not hate him, but they subconsciously hope that Charlie can get that inheritance. After all, why does a "***" need so much money?! This also provides a "reasonable" basis for the male protagonist's financial motives, causing the audience's moral judgment to go into misunderstandings. This is exactly what Hollywood movies do. One of the characteristics of the film is that the director's brilliance lies in firmly grasping the audience's emotions and influencing their love and hate.

After Charlie abducted Raymond from the mental hospital, he drove a Buick car from Cincinnati to Los Angeles. During this three-day trip, the director convincingly demonstrated Raymond's personality and Charlie's psychological transformation.

Although Raymond has autism and is addicted to self-centered psychological activities, he has amazing mental arithmetic abilities. He can recite names and phone numbers from the phone book in alphabetical order. We are familiar with airline crashes. Toothpicks were scattered on the floor, and he could tell the number just by looking at them. But he has no sense of value for money. He sees no difference between an ordinary car and a high-end new racing car. He has no extravagant demands or desires. He just wants a stable environment and an unchanging routine of life. Once the routine of life is disrupted, he will immediately become restless and insane.

He locked himself in a familiar environment and was full of inexplicable fear of the outside world. He was as timid as a rabbit and as innocent as a child.

When Charlie abducted Raymond, he was full of resentment and disgust towards his brother. Especially when he and Susanna had sex in the hotel, Raymond followed the sound into the room ignorantly and hummed along. snort. In addition, Raymond refused to fly and had to adhere to certain rules for eating, dressing, watching TV, and sleeping, regardless of whether the local conditions permitted it at the time. This made Charlie work for him all day long and he was full of complaints. However, as the trip continued, things changed. One time when Raymond was brushing his teeth, Charlie wanted to talk to him and took away Raymond's toothbrush. Raymond remembered what Charlie often said when he was young: "Funny teeth, funny Rayman." This "Rainman" (original English text is Rain man, meaning "Rain Man", many domestic media use free translation to call this film, In fact, the transliteration is more accurate) is Xiaocha’s philosophy that prohibits the mispronunciation of Raymond, but it’s more than that. It also has rich emotional connotations, that is, it is an "index" for Charlie's memories of getting along with his brother when he was a child, and it is also a code that shows that the two brothers once got along well. This "Rayman" brought back warm memories of Charlie, and the director cleverly used photos of Charlie, Raymond and their father, as well as little Charlie waving goodbye to "Rayman" when Raymond left home and was hospitalized, and Charlie and Raymond singing a duet. Childhood songs and other plots can be used to strengthen the revival of this feeling. The warm memories brought the two brothers closer together.

The film then sets up the Raymond Casino win. Charlie used Raymond's amazing memory and mental arithmetic ability to win 86,000 US dollars in one fell swoop in Las Vegas and achieved brilliant results. Charlie used the money to pay off his car debt and save his company. Charlie was out of debt, in high spirits, and very grateful to his brother. From then on, he kept his promise to let Raymond drive on the track, teach him to dance, and joke with him. Through a series of activities, the family relationship between the two brothers was consolidated. Gradually, Charlie changed. The consideration of money and interests gradually gave way to the concern of brotherhood. He also accepted his brother emotionally and began to hope to live with his brother and was willing to help him. At the same time, he also forgave his father and realized that he was also at fault: because he hated his father too much, he had not written a letter for many years, which greatly hurt the old man's heart. Freed from the shackles of money, Charlie has been spiritually sublimated. He no longer only thinks about himself all day long. This can be evidenced by the way the director arranged for him and Susanna to get back together.

Susanna is a beautiful, kind-hearted girl and Charlie's girlfriend. She is also the embodiment of justice and humanity in the film. She loved Charlie, but strongly condemned his behavior of abducting and using Raymond in order to obtain the inheritance. She left in anger twice, but whenever Charlie encountered difficulties, she always appeared by his side in time. When Raymond's first "date" failed, she was willing to be the girl herself, dancing and kissing him, allowing Raymond to try the joy of life. She was like an angel who left when Charlie's personality declined because he lost his conscience; she came back in time when he regained his humanity. Her departure and return can be said to be proof of Charlie's change in character. This character not only plays the role of exposing and flogging secular concepts and social heresies in the film, but also enriches the mood of the film.

The story of this film is thin, but it has achieved great success and won the 1989 Oscar for Best Picture. All of this is inseparable from the excellent performances of the actors.

Raymond is a fragile, short, reserved character who is keen on number games and baseball games. He never hurts others and lives completely in an unchanging environment. He didn't speak much, he only spoke a few words over and over, and he moved even less, with his shoulders slanted and his neck straightened. He takes unchanging steps and likes to keep shaking his body. The famous movie star Dustin Hoffman used his superb acting skills and amazing understanding to bring a rigid but lovable person to life. He plays a mentally defective person, but gives him a witty and humorous mood, so that the audience will not only not feel boring after watching it, but will laugh out loud at some of Raymond's actions and words from time to time. Especially in the two scenes in Las Vegas, his performance was amazing.

In the first scene, Raymond walks into the casino curiously, unaware of everything around him, but once he sits at the gaming table, he begins to use his mental arithmetic skills. Seeing this dull-witted man succeed again and again not only made the people in the play stunned, but also made the audience laugh. In the second scene, Hoffman lets the audience see a man with a mental defect suddenly having a whim and suddenly dating, dancing, and kissing a woman. This allows the audience to see that Raymond, like ordinary people, also has seven emotions and six desires, and thus becomes more aware. Sympathize with this character. Hoffman's performance is so lifelike that it can't help but amaze people. Hoffman's calm and skillful performance coupled with Tom Cruise's fiery and exaggerated acting skills are in sharp contrast, making a movie with a dull storyline exciting and interesting.