Subscribe Feed (RSS)What makes Lou Diamond Philips’ character an autistic man?
January 21st, 2008 by admin | Filed under Movies.
BuffaloBill1989 asked:
“El Cortez” is the story of an autistic man who attempts to start a new life after his incarceration. After five years in a prison for the criminally insane, Manny (Lou Diamond Phillips) returns to Reno. He moves into a motel and takes a job as a clerk at the Hotel El Cortez. He is befriended by Popcorn (Bruce Weitz), a crippled prospector who seeks his help to persuade Russo (Peter Onorati), a wealthy gambler, to invest in Popcorn’s gold mine. But Manny cannot escape his past. He is hounded by Arnie (James McDaniel), the vengeful cop who arrested him. Arnie leans on Manny to keep tabs on Jack (Glenn Plummer), a dealer who is staying at the hotel. In the meantime Jack’s girlfriend, Theda (Tracy Middendorf), learns about the gold mine and starts putting the moves on Manny. Soon Manny is caught in a labyrinth that leads to a murderous triple cross.
He acts like a normal person, speaks like a normal person, drives, has sex, carries a gun, steals things, more like a con / criminal man than someone with autism / special needs. What makes his character have autism? I don’t see anything autistic about him.
Except he can get ruthless and angry when being confronted.
“El Cortez” is the story of an autistic man who attempts to start a new life after his incarceration. After five years in a prison for the criminally insane, Manny (Lou Diamond Phillips) returns to Reno. He moves into a motel and takes a job as a clerk at the Hotel El Cortez. He is befriended by Popcorn (Bruce Weitz), a crippled prospector who seeks his help to persuade Russo (Peter Onorati), a wealthy gambler, to invest in Popcorn’s gold mine. But Manny cannot escape his past. He is hounded by Arnie (James McDaniel), the vengeful cop who arrested him. Arnie leans on Manny to keep tabs on Jack (Glenn Plummer), a dealer who is staying at the hotel. In the meantime Jack’s girlfriend, Theda (Tracy Middendorf), learns about the gold mine and starts putting the moves on Manny. Soon Manny is caught in a labyrinth that leads to a murderous triple cross.
He acts like a normal person, speaks like a normal person, drives, has sex, carries a gun, steals things, more like a con / criminal man than someone with autism / special needs. What makes his character have autism? I don’t see anything autistic about him.
Except he can get ruthless and angry when being confronted.
Tags: Autism, Incarceration, Labyrinth
This is an IMDb review excerpt:
The film takes place in a local hotel in Reno, Nevada, and it revolves around it’s autistic care taker, Manny DeSilva (Phillips), and his mysterious hotel guests. Although most of the actors, besides Lou Diamond Phillips, are unknown, they all deliver spectacular performances. The protagonist Manny, played exceedingly by Lou Diamond Phillips, is a complex middle-aged autistic man, who has a violent past, and is surrounded by people who seek to exploit him for his disability. El Cortez revolutionizes the way that autistic characters should be portrayed. Manny is strong, intelligent, complex, but also very vulnerable. As he tries to make a better future for himself, Manny’s violent past catches up with him, and he’s thrown into a world of deception, love, and betrayal. Lou Diamond Phillip’s performance is not the typical way autistic characters have been represented in previous films, and Manny’s character illustrates the complexity and dynamics of autistic people.
This hasn’t aired on any of my movie channels, so I haven’t seen it. I’m not sure that I’d be of much help since I know that autism can cover a wide range of behavior, just as something like ADHD does.
Maybe you could gauge him with this information: