In The Blind Side Lewis examines how Michael responds to his outsider status in white, upper-class Memphisin particular, the varying degrees of racism that he experiences as a young man. Also during that year, Aaron appeared in the family filmDancer and the Dame, a drama about a down-on-his-luck detective named Dancer who gets matched up with an extremely special canine partner. The movie does show that before Oher met the Tuohys, he was staying with an athletic coach from his public housing complex in Hurt Village, Tony Henderson (Hamilton in the movie), who helped Oher get into a private high school. (Thats just the crap they wrote about me in the last sixty days!) He appeared in the episodes "Holding Out for a Hero" and "The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get," asa student athleteand a mentee to Nathan. And it should go without saying that, regardless of the real-life origins of the film, these portrayals are implicitly racist ones, stemming from stereotypes of urban Black-ness. 5.0 out of 5 stars. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of. She and everyone else around her congratulates her for this act for the rest of the movie. Seriously, though, can you imagine how differently this would've played out hadthe rolesbeen reversed? After that, Aaron briefly went back to football films withGreater, this time as Coach Aaron, a supporting character in the biopic about real-life football player Brandon Burlsworth from the University of Arkansas. [13] The film hit $200 million domestically on January 1, 2010, marking the first time a movie marketed with a sole actress' name above the title (Bullock's) has crossed the $200 million mark. Montez de Oca, J. More broadly, he escapes the institutional racism that keeps the inner-city squalid and dangerous. However, the film's decision to rewriteOher's football education results in it turning its focus away from the greatest ways that his adoptive family helped him. A big part of the tutors job was to steer the players away from the professors and courses most likely to lead to lack of performance. Then I figured, why not speak about my experiences and how I got over them? By the time [Sean] met Big Mike, he had a new unofficial title: Life Guidance counselor to whatever black athlete stumbled into the Briarcrest Christian School. It was a small role but that might have been a good thing, as the film was hardly a runaway success. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." There's a lot more to come and I hope that withHalfwayaudiences are able to see that there is much more to me than just Big Mike.". Maybe they know best, but maybe they don't. The Warner Brothers release was nominated for two Academy Awards including Best Picture, and won the Oscar for Best Actress. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. Upon its release, the film quickly went on to become the ninth highest-grossing movie in the U.S.in 2009, and earned Sandra Bullock a Best Actress Oscar. Early Life. "Tykeem's film might be inspiring," Wallace wrote, "but it's also a bit naive.". (2012). Michaels outsiderness is particularly noteworthy since The Blind Side is set in the state of Tennessee, which has a long history of racism against African-Americans, and which, even in the early 2000s, is a de facto segregated state in some ways. He then proceeds to find his biological mother in Hurt Village. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Why did she assume anNFL career was the only viable path for a giant Black man? InFishbowl California, Aaron played a lovable bodega clerk who befriends the leading lady. The journey that Michael and the Tuohy family go on is the heart of the movie. His meager ties to his past are broken further. This is the true story of Michael Oher, and what he thinks of the movie about his early life. After thinking things over and questioning Leigh Anne, Michael tells Granger he chose Ole Miss because "it's where my family goes to school." (Jae Head). For making me practice every day when I got home. It stars Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, and Quinton Aaron as Oher. Michael comes from an impoverished area, and the Tuohys live in a very nice, wealthy part of town. Sandra Bullock played Leigh Anne Tuohy, the headstrong mother who took Oher in. After they make the U-turn to pick up Michael, Sean asks, "Where to?" From the snap of the ball to the snap of the first bone is closer to four seconds than five. Criminal Justice classes were also almost always filled with other football players. [8] But after a visit with the real Leigh Anne Tuohy, Bullock not only won the role, but also took a pay cut and agreed to receive a percentage of the profits instead. She is also told that, although he scored poorly in a career aptitude test, he ranked in the 98th percentile in "protective instincts". Menu. It was amazing he hadnt already died some nineteenth-century death from, say, the mumps. Lineman for the Washington Redskins in the 1980s. Furthermore, his unlikely success story draws attention to inner-city conditions and hopefully inspires other people, including the Tuohys, to do more to fight institutional racism and help impoverished, struggling children. Doctors." An inner-city Memphis man who takes care of Michael Oher while Michael is . Michael Oher has one main issue with the Hollywoodized version of his life. Leigh Anne likens Michael to Ferdinand the Bull, a gentle giant -- a similarity that becomes obvious once he tries out for the school football team. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Bullock won an Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy. There are so manyways. The Blind Side: (Movie Tie-in Edition) by Michael Lewis (17-Nov-2009) Paperback. Let me tell you something, son, he concluded (in translation). Michael is heavily recruited by many prestigious schools. I'm in a prayer group with the DA, I'm a member of the NRAand I'm always packing.". But Mr. Simpson was new to the school, and this great football coach, Hugh Freeze, had phoned Simpsons boss, the school president, a football fan, and made his pitch: This wasnt a thing you did for the Briarcrest football team, Freeze had said, this was a thing you did because it was right! Michaels job was simply to take the kid who had been jabbering at him and wall him off. Should you always do what others tell you to do? With him are the Tuohy Family (Collins, Sean, Leigh Anne and Sean Jr.), as well as his brother Marcus and his tutor, Sue Mitchell. And even though The Blind Side is based on true events, the movieloves its White Saviors as well, with Sandra Bullock selflessly rescuingfuture offensive lineman Michael Oherfrom an inevitable life of crime and poverty. The film's portrayal of Black America is an inner-city Donald Trump fantasy -andeven includes a crack addict mother, without which no quietly anti-Blackfilm is complete. The president in turn had phoned Simpson and told him that if he felt right with it, he could admit the boy. He was shot and killed, then thrown off an overpass on the west side of Memphis. Collins replies that they cannot just throw Michael out. I am not a fan of American football, but the film attracted me to sports. By CBSNews.com producer David Morgan . In other ways, Michael uses his outsiderness to his advantage: as the biggest kid at Briarcrestif not the biggest 16-year-old in the state of Tennesseehes a natural football player. Kick him out of one growth path and onto another. Left tackle for the San Francisco 49ers during. When she sees Michael, a large Black man, walking on the side of the road one night, she stops and talks to him instead of rolling up her windows. The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds. Sign up for notifications from Insider! For all we know, Michael could be a straight-upasshole, but because the film gives a very flat version of the real-life man, it's impossible to know as a viewer. [17] The Blind Side ended its domestic theatrical run on June 4, 2010 (nearly 7 months after it opened), earning a total of nearly $256 million. And, of course, to Oher's athletic abilities, football instincts, and determined personality, which were real. Though it won't completely win moviegoers over, they'll still be in awe of the bold lead actress. But this waxwork parade isn't it. Minor Characters. Although Halfway would take some time to produce, Aaron didn't slow down while the indie film was underway, and stayed busy taking an assortment of other acting jobs in between. Thanks to the persistence of a father figure, Big Tony, Michael becomes one of the only black students at Briarcrest Christian Academy. 2016 started off in familiar fashion for Aaron, with a bit part inMothers and Daughtersthat didn't even make the first page of the film's IMDb credits. Next, he joined Vivica A. In becoming a Tuohy, Michael conquers some of his loneliness: for the first time in his life, he has a family that gives him unconditional love and takes care of his needssomething that couldnt be said of his biological mother, Denise Oher. [19] It was the third biggest release of that weekend behind Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. By the end of one day with Leigh Anne, I was exhausted. When she sees Michael, a large Black man, walking on the side of the road one night, she stops and talks to him instead of rolling up her windows. She said to be an artist, you had to practice every day, and for reminding her daughters that there's no race, no religion, no class system, no color, nothing, no sexual orientation that makes us better than anyone else. In "The Blind Side," Oher meets the Tuohys shortly after getting into Wingate, through a friendship with their young son S.J. Football drama fictionalizes events surrounding the true story of All-American offensive tackle Michael Oher. Another source of prejudice is socio-economic status. For her performance, Bullock won the Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress, and received her first Oscar nomination as well. The two parties met at various athletic events, and it was the Tuohy patriarch, Sean, who noticed Oher was couch-surfing without a stable home. "When I first started speaking to kids, it was about following your dreams,"he recalled. The film was a commercial success, grossing $309 million on a $29 million budget. Itscamera movements are steady, and its actors say their lines in human-like ways. / CBS NEWS, A young African American student is taken in by a well-to-do Memphis family who enable him to succeed -- academically and on the football field -- in an inspirational tale based on a true story. Overall, he opined that the film provided "a Photoshopped [sic] image of reality that is bland, parochial, and stereotypically acted," and concluded: "There is a rich, complex story to be told about Michael Oher, and his mentor, Leigh Anne Tuohy. Video of his plays begins to make the rounds, and college coaches beat a path to their door. Michael Lewis. Racism and Outsiderness Quotes in The Blind Side. At the end of a successful season for Michael, a teammate confronts him, making a lewd reference to Leigh Anne and her daughter, Collins, and Michael beats him up. The film was inspired by the real-life story of football player Michael Oher, played by Aaron, who was adopted by his high school football coach's family. Aaron stayed busy in 2018, putting out four different projects in the first three quarters of the year. Based on the 2006 book of the same name by Michael Lewis,[2][3] the film tells the story of Michael Oher, an American football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of his adoptive parents Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. When the Ole Miss defense gathered in a single room, the only white people were coaches. Watch The Blind Side: Inspirational Video. Fellow Quarterbacks of Life include actor James Earl Jones, surfer and shark attack survivor Bethany Hamilton, and NFL Hall of Fame Quarterback Warren Moon. You can see video of her story here. Legendary quarterback for the Washington Redskins, whose, Legendary offensive player for the New York Giants in the 1980s, whose sack essentially ended the career of. It just went away, the way it would have gone away for some well-to-do white kid. He also launched an app, Good Deeds, which helps to connect people with resources to those who need them. Of "The Blind Side," Hancock said, "Sports, specifically football, was the engine that propelled the story forward, but he could have been a dancer or a pianist -- it wouldn't have made any difference. Sandra Bullock poses with the award for best actress in a motion picture drama for "The Blind Side," backstage at the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Sandra Bullock poses backstage with the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Leading Actress for her work in "The Blind Side," Saturday, Jan. 23, 2010, in Los Angeles. All I can say is, if there were more Leigh Anne Tuohys, the world would be a better-run, more harmonious and more productive placeas long as it was by her rules! The site's critical consensus reads, "It might strike some viewers as a little too pat, but The Blind Side has the benefit of strong source material and a strong performance from Sandra Bullock. Rode the six hundred. Horror review siteCulture Crypt, for example, called it "a slow burn horror thriller without the thrills, the horror, or even the burn.". You can have courage based on a dumb idea or mistake, but you're not supposed to question adults, or your coach or your teacher, because they make the rules. Soon enough, that all changed after Leigh Anne Tuohy and her family adopted Oher and helped him get to college, and then to the NFL. Although it only earned a 40% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, it had its defenders;Huffington Postraved about it, calling it "a truly excellent film. SJ talks to coaches and negotiates on Michael's behalfand his own. She also argues that the film portrays Oher as a simpleton who uses instinct over intellect, as a psychological test concludes that Oher has little "ability to learn" but much "protective instinct" (a scientifically nonsensical statement, according to DiAngelo). Oher was born Michael Jerome Williams Jr. on May 28, 1986, in Memphis, Tennessee. "We needed an actor who would have a real screen presence opposite the whirlwind that is Leigh Anne," said producer Broderick Johnson. The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family. Quinton Aaron. The Blind Side (2009) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. It was called "The Blind Side" because it is about coming over your "blind side" and never giving up on anything. After the game, Sean notices Michael picking up food discarded on the bleachers. "She's about to get her way.". and Leigh Anne Tuohy interrupting practice with a family-based metaphor for Oher to figure out blocking. Michael Lewis. "[27] Melissa Anderson of the Dallas Observer argues that the "mute, docile" portrayal of Oher effectively endorses the Uncle Tom stereotype of African-American submission to white authority. "The Blind Side" gives the bulk of the credit for Oher's rise from poverty to football star to the Tuohys. Redbox and Netflix customers had to wait 28 days before they were able to rent the movie. While it wasn't a main character, it was a larger role than some of his previous films, and did merit a credit in the trailer. Unfortunately, critics like Marlon Wallace ofDelmarva Lifethought the film fell short of its potential. -Graham S. Below you will find the important quotes in, Would not have made it through AP Literature without the printable PDFs. The real NCAA investigator depicted in the Oscar-winning movie "The Blind Side" says Hollywood took quite a few liberties with the details of her work. While the trailer makes the film seem like a light comedy, critics like Scott Haeyes of the St. Albert Gazette and Last Caress of Battle Royale with Cheese note that it's actually much darker, but an enjoyable film nonetheless. Trending. His low G.P.A. The family seemed to have all the success and joy in the world, but when Michael showed up, it was as if he was the final piece to the puzzle. In 2015, Aaron had a small role in My Favorite Five, a film about a sexually manipulative woman who uses her feminine wiles to get ahead in life. [37][failed verification] The change was interpreted as a response to films like The Blind Side being nominated for Best Picture to fill up the set number of spots.[38][39]. Tony Henderson / Big Tony. as well as other partner offers and accept our, says Hollywood took quite a few liberties, she doesn't try to grill or intimidate kids. Left Behindmight not have done well with the critics, but Aaron toldThe Blazethat he stood by the story. He hadn't seen the little white boythe three-year-old son of one of the tutors. There are also plenty of famous racist movies thathave wonOscars. to hit unexpectedly from or as if from the blind side; to surprise unpleasantly See the full definition Hello, . ("Boyhood" might be the exception that proves this rule, and it's one of those movies that took forever to make.) Later, Leigh Anne drives Michael to his mother's house. [20], Sandra Bullock's performance on The Blind Side received wide praise. Stay up to date with what you want to know. "I started to create that path [toward success] because I didn't have the small things to worry about and it all came from help," Oher said in 2021. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Areboot of the 2000 movie based on thepost-apocalyptic Christian book series byTim LaHayeandJerry B. Jenkins, the story follows a rapture in whichChristians with strong faith start to mysteriously disappear, leaving behind only those that haven't found Christ. People began debating The Blind Side, the film about former NFL offensive tackle Michael Oher. A number of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision coaches and recruiters make brief appearances as themselves: Phillip Fulmer, Lou Holtz, Tom Lemming, Houston Nutt, Ed Orgeron, Franklin "Pepper" Rodgers, Nick Saban, and Tommy Tuberville.[4]. Newcomer Quinton Aaron portrays the oversized teenager transformed from a homeless street kid to a star athlete through the kindness and charity of a dynamic woman (Bullock--Gravity) who offers him. At school, hes extremely shy and lonely, partly because he isnt sure how to make friends with his wealthy white classmates, and partly because he hasnt had many stable relationships in his life. "But, in turn, he brought out a side of their family that they didn't even realize was missing. Jump-start him. When hed charged Antonio, the boy somehow had been hit and thrown up against the wall. [42][43] This stems from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by Redbox against Warner Home Video, who, in an attempt to boost DVD sales, refused to sell wholesale titles to Redbox. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Adam Lacey. Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. AfterHeart, Baby, Aaron played Quain, a supporting character in the indieAn American in Texas,which, likeJustice, hit theaters in 2017. Popular football scout who traveled the country searching for NFL prospects still in high school, and whose newsletter was once required reading for football coaches and other NFL insiders. 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