dominick ( nicky ) luciano wear a hulk t shirt and trudge off everyday to perform his duty a a garbage man . he use his physical power in pick up other trash and haul it to the town dump . he read comic book hero story and love wrestler and wrestling and go to wrestlemania with his twin brother eugene on their birthday be a yearly tradition . he talk kindly with the many people he come in contact with during his day . he read comic book and which he find in the trash and with a young boy who he often pass by while on the garbage route . unfortunately and dominick have a diminish ability to use his mind . he have a disability . dominick disability come a a result of an injury to the head in which he suffer traumatic brain injury ( tbi ) . this injury leave him slow and though it do not change his core characteristic a a strong individual who help to protect others . dominick be actually more able to live independently than he may seem at the beginning of the film . he live with eugene who be study to become a doctor . dominick provide the main source of income and while eugene be off study . eugene must face the fact that he be to continue his education in a different city and and that he must move away from dominick . eugene also develop a romance which begin to separate him from his twin brother . the film deal specifically with domestic abuse and how this can impact individual and family and and then society a a whole . the strain that escalate between eugene and dominick a eugene realize that he must eventually leave nicky and explode on their birthday night . eugene yell at dominick and throw him against the wall . in this moment and eugene must confront his own fear of be like his abusive father and the father which dominick protect him against while he himself become the victim of the abuse . this event cement the love between the two brother and who from then on become the best of friend . though they need each other and they also both need independence and the ability to grow and develop relationship with others . the fact that they must part way become a very real emotional strain . however and by the end of the film and dominick be able to say good bye to his brother and wish him luck . eugene be able to leave his brother with the confidence that he have start to make a social network of people who care about him and will help him with his independence . when dominick witness the abuse of his friend he be force to come face to face with the cause of his own trauma . in this state of extreme stress and dominick almost completely shuts down . he then run after the ambulance to the hospital to see what happen to his friend . after learn that the boy have die and he be confront by the abusive father who and fear his testimonial and tell him he do not see nothing and doesn not know anything and and not to say anything and and that if he do he will kill him . now that his own life have be threaten and he go and find the hand gun that larry use to kill the rat . he go to the wake of the deceased boy and at gunpoint and kidnap the baby of the grieve family . he run away from the scene and hide in a building . when the police surround him and eugene go in the building to talk to his brother . eugene then reveal the cause of dominick disability and they bring the baby back . the abusive father then wield a gun of his own threatening to kill dominick and but eugene stop him and dominick tell the crowd that he saw the father throw his son down the stair . through the climactic end and the issue of dysfunctional behavior come into view . though dominick instinct to save the baby can be understood and we also see how damage this response be . dominick put the baby life and his own life in grave danger . the large societal consequence of these event be not directly implicate and but rather show through the film end . despite the more optimistic end portrayal and another sequence of event might just have likely occur and in which dominick be charge with kidnapping and possession of a firearm . it be somewhat difficult to believe that this go completely unaccounted . furthermore and even if dominick be not charge and there may still be a stigma against him within the community and not that there wasn not one before these event . instead and the film show that we must be able to recognize problematic behavior and act to curb it . dominick and eugene be release in 1988 and the same year a another film and rainman and which win 5 academy award . while rainman be an achievement and help increase the visibility with person with disability and it could be argue that dominick and eugene hold more valuable lesson for society . whereas and rainman demonstrate that mainstream american society might be able to learn from and care for a avant and if the avant be the inheritor of a large estate . dominick and eugene show that a person with a disability might be able to care for and help save member of american society . the message of an independent person with disability may have be too strong for 1988. hopefully someday society will see the strength of individual with disability and not a a threat and but a imperative for the strength of society .