#63 - "Rain Man" (1988) with JB Huffman from "Manly Movies" Podcast

80s Flick Flashback

No one was overly surprised when this 80’s flick dominated the 1989 Academy Award ceremony. It featured one of America's biggest movie stars showing a little gravitas as a self-absorbed hustler who learns the importance of family. It had an Oscar mainstay going deep into affliction, playing a character with a disorder that not many everyday moviegoers knew much about at the time. And at the helm, a respected director whose films had been gaining in prestige and popularity throughout the decade. So grab some cheese balls and apple juice before you crank up the classic Buick Roadmaster convertible as Tim Williams and guest co-host, JB Huffman from "Manly Movies" Podcast", discuss “Rain Man” from 1988 on this episode of the 80’s Flick Flashback Podcast!

• Here are some additional behind the scenes trivia we were unable to cover in this episode:
  Golino auditioned for lead roles in Pretty Woman and Flatliners, but both times she lost the part to Julia Roberts during the final audition.[18] She was first runner-up for both roles and, in the case of Pretty Woman, she revealed many years later: "I was in the running until the final audition: it came down to Julia Roberts and me. The director asked us to walk in the same corridor, wearing the same clothes and makeup. As soon as I saw her [Roberts], I knew that she would have been chosen. And since she knew that, she told me: 'Go and get them, big mama!' I wouldn't have dared to say that to my rival. I would have been good in that film but she was perfect”.
• "Wallbrook", the building at the back of the long, tree lined drive, is actually Saint Anne's, a convent that houses over two hundred nuns, and is located in Melbourne, Kentucky. In the movie, when Charlie removes Raymond from Walbrook, we see them walking down a long oak tree lined driveway. In 2007, many of these oak trees had become diseased, forcing their removal (replacements were to be planted). Before the trees were cut down, several people came to the grounds of the convent and re-created the scene where Raymond and Charlie walk down the drive.
• Director Barry Levinson admitted that Ray's comment about Qantas being the only aircraft company to never have had a fatal crash was made up, and that he didn't know if this was true. In reality, Qantas has had eight crashes, all prior to the making of the film, but they were all propeller-driven planes, not jets.

Sources:

Wikipedia, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo

https://www.levinson.com/

https://www.britannica.com/

https://www.looper.com/362539/the-untold-truth-of-rain-man/

https://www.avclub.com/rain-man-revisited-1798212172

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