1988 Rain Man

The director Barry Levinson was on a role on the mid-Eighties, his previous film being Good Morning, Vietnam, which not only was a huge hit it also gathered nominations and won critical acclaim.

He took this further with Rain Man, a movie about two brothers on a road trip to get an inheritance, one of whom has autism. It was originally a project for Steven Spielberg, but as is so often the case, the script did the rounds and wound up with Levinson. It was originally set to star Bill Murray, as the autistic savant, and Dustin Hoffman as the self-centred salesman brother. This was changed to Hoffman playing the savant and Tom Cruise, the leading star of the decade, playing his brother. It worked.

Not only was Rain Man the biggest film of the year, it was also a huge award winner. It won 4 Oscars, including best picture and best actor for Hoffman, as well as best director for Levinson and best screenplay. It also won at the Golden Globes.

There is no doubt that Tom Cruise's star power led it to be champion at the box office, but it is also an excellent film with both leads delivering beautiful performances. This movie proved that Cruise could act rather than look good, as he previously did with The Color of Money, alongside Paul Newman. It also cemented Dustin Hoffman as a real Hollywood legend, delivering time after time performances that are memorable.

Rain Man remains popular, and while it may be written that it is somewhat controversial, it has done more good to recognise people with autism than harm. We should not look at it through our modern, overly-politically-correct eyes.

Funnily enough, a scene where Hoffman talks about planes and states that 'Quantas never crash', was omitted from many airlines, apart, of course, from Quantas. The scene is pivotal because it is the sole reason they take a road trip, but I guess airline bosses don't care about story. Much as they don't about their customers.

Rain Man made $354m at the box office.

You have links below to the movie and soundtrack, and a search for the original novelisation which is now quite rare. Someone make a Rain Man t-shirt with Qantas quote please! 
 There is a novel out there, and you can search Abe Books for a breakdown, however, they are rare. Here's a link to my findings -   Rain Man novelistion