The Blind Side
Essay Preview: The Blind Side
Report this essay
The Blind Side
The Blind Side is the story of a fairly wealthy white family in the south getting involved with helping a homeless African American teenager named Michael. Based on a true story of the Tuohy family and Michael “Big Mike” Oher. The story reveals a mothers nurturing heart for a young man who is not her own. Eventually, the whole family gets behind the campaign to help Big Mike succeed. Michael has no idea who his father is and his mother is a drug addict. Michael has had little formal education and few skills to help him learn. Leigh Anne soon takes charge however, as is her nature, ensuring that the young man is given every opportunity to make it. When he expresses an interest in football, she goes all out to help him, including giving the coach a few ideas on how best to use Michaels skills. They not only provide him with a loving home, which is crucial, but hire a tutor to help him improve his grades so that he would qualify for an NCAA Division I Athletic Scholarship. Its a success story to the point that Big Mike considers Leigh Anne to be his mother to this very day. Michael Oher was the first round pick of the Baltimore Ravens in the 2009 NFL Draft. Look for themes such as protection and provision, love and nurture tenacities when it comes to family and how the mom influences the whole family for good, encouragement, and empowerment, as well as recognition of potential. Also look for attitudes of racism and negativity and selflessness which are in such stark contrast to the tough love of Leigh Anne.
” This movie is set in the south in the mid 2000s. Seventeen year old Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), an extremely large, physically imposing black youth, grew up in the projects in Memphis. He no longer lives with his drug addicted mother, but is in foster care when he is not running away to sleep wherever else he can find. Out of circumstances including Coach Burt Cottons (Ray McKinnon) belief that he would be an asset to the schools football program based solely on his size and seeing him move, Michael is accepted into Wingate Christian School – an exclusive private school – despite his abysmal 0.6 GPA.” (Metacritic.com) After Michael starts attending classes at Wingate, most of his teachers believe he is un-teachable, except his science teacher, Mrs. Boswell (Kim Dickens), who begins to understand that he learns in a different way. The only positive feedback that teachers could ever say about him is that he had big protective instincts. Leigh Anne will use that to explain to him how to play on the field. Up to that moment, he wasnt able to get the hang of the game and its rules, and he wasnt able to understand what his role on the field was. From that moment, Michael starts to play well and be useful to his team.
Believing he is indeed homeless, Caucasian and staunch Republican Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) – mother of Wingate students, teen Collins Tuohy (Lilly Collins) and adolescent S.J. Tuohy (Jae Head), and wife to Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw), franchise owner of several Taco Bells – invites Michael to stay in the Tuohys upscale home for the night. But that one night slowly extends itself both in terms of time and emotion as the Tuohys begin to treat Michael like one of the family and vise – versa. Part of that emotional investment for Leigh Anne is fully understanding Michael as a person so that he can fulfill his potential as a human being, which includes giving him opportunities such as what Coach Cotton initially saw in Michael as a potential left tackle. Potential problems include Michaels poor academic standing which may prohibit him from participating in extracurricular activities at the school, his learning disability which may extend to other aspects of his life beyond his schooling, whether he actually can play football, and authorities questioning Leigh Anne and all the Tuohys motivations in inviting Michael into their home and family. At the same time, Ohers presence in the Touhys lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle.
At the traditional Christmas card photograph of that year, Leigh Anne invites him to appear on the photo. Leigh Annes friends Beth (Rhoda Griffs), Elaine (Eaddy Mays) and Sherry (Ashley LeConte Campbell) meet regularly at a local expensive restaurant. The friends laugh about Leigh Annes taking a homeless black youth in, but she cuts it off, saying that if they dont respect what she does then she will stop coming to their regular meetings every week. (IMDb)
An opportunity arises for Michael to play at university level. However, he needs his grades to improve, so the Tuohys hire a private tuition teacher, outspoken and kind Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), who will immediately succeed. During their Geography lesson, she makes a senseless remark about a university burying the bodies of dead people in their game field, which Michael believes.
There comes a moment when Leigh Anne wants to talk with Michaels mother (Adriane Lenox). Although she seems unresponsive in the beginning, the mother finally wishes Michael the best. She says that social services had branded Michael a runner and she forecasts that Leigh Anne will find one day that he has run away for good without giving any notice. Leigh Anne also faces some guys from the projects which had threatened Michael. They are left speechless when she threatens them and is not afraid of them at all.
Three universities want Michael. S.J. talks to the coaches, and leads the negotiations on Michaels behalf. When Michael gets his grades high enough, he must make a decision, and he does. He chooses the university where Sean had played for, and where Leigh Anne was a cheerleader. That causes Investigator Granger (Sharon Morris) to move onto the matter before Michael arrives there. She questions him as though they were interrogating him at a police station. She thinks that the Tuohys and Miss Sue are using Michael to benefit that particular university.
After thinking and questioning Leigh Ann on the matter, Michael realizes that the Tuohys are now his family, and tells Granger that thats the reason for him to choose that university.
The film ends saying that hell succeed and become a professional player later on. S.J went out to the game field with Michael before all local games.
I will now try to put some focus on the main characters, those that we see through most of the film, they are: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron,