Preliminary Data Trends
March 15, 2025
Introduction
Last week, I talked about the movies I was planning to watch. As of posting, I have completed 4/8 (one for each decade) with a full analysis. Lets just jump into the scores and what they mean. I would also like to point out that the movies have two extra criteria being I cannot have seen these movies before, and the condition the neurodivergent character is diagnosed with must be as close to autism as possible (if someone outright states the character has autism, that’s even better)
The guidelines
I am still using Safran’s guidelines, which have just been slightly modified for clarity. Here’s what it looking like:
On a Likert scale (1-5), rate each statement and provide an example:
Positive Representation:
1. Has a complex personality, with a full range of emotions.
2. Interact as equals.
3. Is part of the mainstream, for example, holds a job, or a student in a general education class.
4. Is portrayed as an ordinary person without superhuman abilities.
5. Provides insight into societal barriers.
6. Is shown in loving relationship and expresses age-appropriate needs.
Negative Representation:
7. Pitiable and Pathetic.
8. Object of Violence.
9. Sinister or Evil.
10. “Superhuman” in abilities or effect on others.
11. Subject of Humor.
12. A Burden.
13. Lives separated from mainstream society.
The movies we have for analysis are:
1988 – Rain Man
1998 – Mercury Rising
2005 – Mozart and the Whale
2016 – The Accountant
The Scores
I will be purely listing out the scores of the movies with explanation, expect no commentary for scores of 1, as it usually indicates that there was either none, or such a negligible amount I found it wholly unimportant.
| Please respond to each of these statements on the space provided based upon your viewing of the film. Provide an example whenever applicable. | Mercury rising | Mozart and the Whale | Rain Man | The Accountant |
| Positive Representations | ||||
| Has a complex personality, with a full range of emotions. _____ | 3 For the most part, simon maintains a strong, adamant personality, acting sluggish and slow, but at times shows incredible frighteness | 5 Donald and Isabelle show every emotion imaginable, nervousness, love, caring, happieness, sadness. The side characters in the group also show varying emotions including indifference and jealousy | 4; Has emotion, moments of fear, curiosity, discomfort etc but never shows too many at once. | 5; As the character has been seen to be exceedingly blunt, we can take most of his words as the truth. Throughout the movie, he shows that he has various actions he regrets, and misses his brother. Furthermore, he also shows many of his emotions through actions, such as caring for Dana Cummings, and taking her into account as he rescues her, and in the end, gifting her a Pollock painting that he values dearly. |
| Interacts as equal. _____ | 4 Other than maneuvering around his autism, characters tend to treat him fair for a 9 year old | 5 As majority of the cast is autistic, Donals often interacts as equals | 3; while the movie is about Charlie learning to be with his brother, Raymond is portrayed as exceptionally naive. In addition, Charlie spends roughly the first half of the movie placing Raymond as an “idiot” who is beneath him. | 5; A regular jobholder. Interacts with clientelle of various ranges, from farmers all the way to multibillionare CEOs, and many very high profile criminals. |
| Is part of the mainstream, for example, holds a job, is a family member, or a student in a general education class. _____ | 2 Is seen sitting away from his class. When he returns home from the bus, simon drives past children playing baseball. When he steps into his home, the scene pans back to focus on the playing kids. | 4 while donald sometimes struggles to live in the outside world, he and the other neurodivergents function well within society, are often seen doing normal activities. | 1; Raymond lived in an institution cut off from the rest of the world, this movie is effectively his first interaction with the rest of the mainstream society since Raymond was 3. | 5; Holds a job (Accountant), and has various firms. Generally seems used to being a part of the mainstream society as his character is based around creating new identities to live in society. |
| Is portrayed as an ordinary person without superhuman abilities. _____ | 1 Breaks a cryptograph in like 3 seconds flat when 2 supercomputers couldnt after DAYS | 2 While donald is a math savant, many of the autistic side cast are early portrayed as crazy/insane, talking to themselves constantly, repeating the same exact phrase over and over etc. Only later in the film does the side cast begin to show signs of neurodivergence and not lunacy. | 2; Maintains the Savant status, having exceptional memory and perception, such as counting 246 toothpicks in seconds | 2; Insanely smart savant borering on superhuman intelligence. Capable of doing 15x the work of another accountant in the same time. Wolff’s reputation is almost as a miracle worker, capable of fixing any issue in accounting no matter the issue. |
| Provides insight into societal barriers. _____ | 4 Generally portrays traits aligned with middle to high functioning autistics, and shows how they function and how the people around them see them, from varirous government agents calling him lesser, while parents and public seem to act somewhat patient, but ununderstanding | 3 only donald’s struggles are easily understood. Issabelle’s struggles are much more situational, along with the side cast | 4; Contains many “lab coat” scenes where a doctor explains what Autism is and how it effects the individual. | 3; The overall movie doesnt provide much. However, there are certain scenes (especially at the end) where the movie characterises autism not as lesser, but different. It does so very explicitly, by having the head of a neurodivergent institute simply say it as parents of a neurodivergent child tour the facility. |
| Is shown in loving relationship and expresses age-appropriate needs. _____ | 4 Absolutely, expresses a want for his parents (who were murdered), but little else. | 5 Donald and Isabelle’s relationship goes through significant turmoil, as both show the proper emotions. The side cast also shows proper needs and emotions when their friend is going through this | 4; Naturally, the plot progression of the movie has him in a loving relationship with family. At a Casino, Raymond shows interst in another woman there. | 2; A decent portion of the Wolff’s background is on the fact that he rejects his needs as a neurodivergent person. He also doesnt express much of his wants and needs, but does show that he indeed misses his brother. |
| Negative Representations | ||||
| Pitiable and pathetic. _____ | 3 Largely unable to function on his own, but he is a nine year old, and takes the fact that there are people trying to kill him somewhat as a nine your old could. | 2 none of the characters are over the top heroic or noble, or anything of the sort, and go through moments easy to feel pity for, be it abandonment, rape etc, but ultimately, nothing made to make them a “damsel in distress” or anything of the sort. | 2; The viewer may feel pity over Raymond’s childhood treatment. However, it is ultimately not to make his character pitiable. | 2; Wolff is a stone cold criminal accountant and a very skilled fighter, capable of handling any situation. He is also making millions a year. Any pity to the character is over his father’s treatment of him, but not to make Wolff pitiable. |
| Object of violence. _____ | 3 The government is trying to kill him throughout the movie, but is ultimately, not violent, intent to kill, but not actually violenced against | 1 No form of violence whatsoever (there is an attempted suicide however) | 1 | 3; Wolff’s father places him and his brother under harsh training, we see them being beaten to the floor. |
| Sinister or evil. _____ | 1 Completely innocent. He innocently calls a phone because he found a phone umber in the crypt he accidentally broke/saw through, generally has no idea whats going on other than people trying to kill him, and being carted around | 1 | 1 | 2; While Wolff is a criminal, he is never directly characterized as sinister or evil. He simply balances money. |
| “Superhuman” in abilities or effect on others _____ | 5 Cracks a highly advanced crypt that 2 supercomputers couldnt crack over days, in a matter of seconds | 4 Nearly every autist in the movie has some form of savantlike ability, be it knowing extremely detailed trivia to insane math skills. While individually, these savantness severety might result in a score of three, the number of savants warrants a 4. | 3; Raymond is a savant with incredible memory and perception. Memorizing almost everything he sees, and being able to count toothpicks instantly. | 4; Almost superhuman intelligence. Insanely skilled fighter, taking on multiple armed men at once. |
| Subject of humor _____ | 1 No | 2 a few humurous moments, but not to make them laughable. | 2; A few humorous moments, the character himself however, is not a subject of humor | 1; Generally not a humurous movie. |
| A burden. _____ | 3 Art, the rogue FBI agent, is generally seen struggling to handle his autism and personality as he tries to help him. Simon’s perceptino of art as a stranger makes him strongly refuse to communicate with him. | 2 While Donald needs to put in a little more work to deal with the people in his life, they and donald can largely operate themselves. | 4; Charlie is seen struggling in his travels with Raymond, and is seen struggling to manage Raymond’s condition. | 1; Wolff has been shown to be more than capable of handling himself. |
| Lives separated from mainstream society. _____ | 3 Is seen sitting away from his class. When he returns home from the bus, simon drives past children playing baseball. When he steps into his home, the scene pans back to focus on the playing kids. | 2 has a job, friends etc, but feels a slight disconnect with neurotypical society, as seen in Donald’s express desire to be “normal” | 4; Raymond has been isolated from mainstream society majority of his life. | 1; Wolff creates multiple personalities and lives just to continue living in society should any identities be compromised. |
Overall Scores:
Rain Man – 0.57
Mercury Rising – 0.29
Mozart and the Whale – 2.0
The Accountant – 1.667
Data Analysis:
Overall Portrayal Trend:
Off these 4 movies alone, we have a trend of an average 0.365 score increase per year. I largely expected such an outcome, just not on this specific scale. This result fits neatly with the idea that autism has grown more mainstream in recent years that I found an overwhelming consensus on in my literature review.
Subscore Trends:
More interesting than the overall portrayal is the unique changes (i.e, have they been getting more supernatural, more violent, etc). For this, we see 4 categories that have a distinct, strong pattern:
The number order indicates the scores for Rain Man, Mercury Rising, Mozart and the Whale, and The Accountant respectively.
Interacts as an equal: 3 4 5 5
Is a part of the mainstream: 1 2 4 5
A Burden: 4 3 2 1
Lives separated from mainstream society: 4 3 2 1
More interestingly, we see a few that remained largely unchanged:
Is portrayed as an ordinary person without superhuman abilities: 2 1 2 2
Sinister or Evil: 1 1 1 2
What does it all mean? Is there a takeaway?
I think more interesting than the strong changes, which show a clear view of how societal views on autism have changed being:
Neurodivergent are not lesser, but different
Neurodivergent and autism diagnoses have increased by at least 175%
Neurodivergent are not lesser, but different, and thus arent really a burden
Neurodivergent and autism diagnoses have increased by at least 175% and are a fundamental part of modern society
More worrisome however, is the unchanged statistics keeping the idea that:
1. Many on the spectrum are gifted with some sort of superhuman intelligence (yes, every single movie I have found has to do with autism has a savant; its almost annoying, since not many on the spectrum are savants)
This can be especially an issue, since not only are many non savants facing the expectations of a savant, but some on the spectrum even struggle to overcome intellectual barriers (couldn’t find a better way to phrase this, I truly apologize). The last thing people need is the expectations of some supergenius capable of outperforming 2 computers, or 15 people, etc.
2. The idea that neurodivergent people cannot be sinister or evil. There seems to be a clear idea that the neurodivergent person is innocent and pure, which isn’t always the case…
While I don’t mean to be political, I feel one strong example of this could be Elon Musk in recent months. He is one of the most controversial figures on social media at the moment, and has stated to have Asperger’s, a diagnoses on the autism spectrum.
Overall:
The major benefit to having this understanding of film portrayal, is that films and movies are one of the most easy ways to provide information to people. If these films perpetuate certain ideas, it brings rise a stereotype, which is almost always a negative thing, be it failing to meet a stereotype, or a stereotype putting one down.
It is important to understand how modern society has progressed in order to adress.
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ORAL DEFENSE:
Think about the original curiosity that led to your inquiry. What other areas of inquiry might that same curiosity lead to?
This study largely started with a general interest in ASD and other closely related spectrum disorders. Initially, I had wanted to look at language development factors in children with ASD, but shifted it to this topic recently.
I think this look at autism portrayal draws attention to a greater look at not only societal treatment of autism, but thee resources and opportunities available to this community.
I think your findings are very interesting! Do you think your films having the superhuman savant element comes from the fact that the most famous films for featuring neurodivergent representation become famous because that aspect is “interesting” to people? Namely, I think if there were neurodivergent characters who weren’t portrayed that way, would the movie just not be famous for that element?