(#10) / The Blind Side / (adapted from book) by Michael Lewis / (Movie)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

The Blind Side / (adapted from book) by Michael Lewis / 
(directed) by John Lee Hancock

OCLC Number: 501073267/ Alcon Entertainment / Warner Bros (DVD)  

$9.49 (Amazon) / 129 minutes

Release date: 2009 / Rating: PG-13

Body of Content

Summary: The inspirational movie tells the story of a homeless, teenage boy by the name Michael Oher.  Coming from a broken home, Oher bounces around living dynamics – between foster homes and friend’s houses.  Ultimately, a friend’s family can no longer afford to provide for him and Oher becomes homeless.  The previous family manages to enroll him in a private school – given his athletic prowess in both basketball and football – and that is how Oher’s life intersects with another family from the school – the Touhys.  When the Touhys find out that Oher sleeps in the school’s gymnasium at night, they offer to “put him up for a night”.  As days become weeks, the question becomes how permanent is this arrangement?  The story centers on Oher – who is a shy, African-American, teenage boy – with Mrs. Touhy as the direct opposite – a talkative, white, middle-age, woman.  In a moving narrative, The Blind Side provides the story based on the real-life story of Baltimore Ravens starting left tackle.     

Critique: Thematically, the movie is about charity as much as it is about football.  The movie depicts two individuals – Oher and Mrs. Touhy – whose lives, under any other circumstances, would likely never cross. 

The Touhys take Oher into their household and treat him just like any other member of the family.  Many of the students at school refer to Oher as “Big Mike”.  Mrs. Touhy detects his aversion to the nickname and decides to call him “Michael”.  When, as an under-experienced driver, Oher is involved in a car accident with the Touhys’ youngest child, the parents do not blame Michael for the accident, but instead, praise him for instinctively protecting S.J. with his free arm.  On more than one occasion, Mrs. Touhy defends Michael – as “her son” – whether it is in front of parents from rival football programs, well-intentioned but judgmental lady friends, or a case worker trying to follow the letter of the law. 

Bullock’s performance clearly was recognized by the Academy because of her strong ability to communicate subtle items of charity to Michael.  But the story is, as Mrs. Touhy expresses, not about how much Michael learns from the Touhys, but about “how much he [Michael] is teaching me”.  I did not find the movie cliché – and overall, I’m not one for inspirational films.  However, I found that the kernel contained in Michael Lewis’ book became a well-designed adaption on the big screen.      

Teaser: How could a homeless teen ever become the starting left tackle for a professional football team?

Information about the Author: Michael Lewis specializes in writing stories which revolve around finance and/or sports.  The one-time beat writer for the Oakland Athletics eventually penned the book Moneyball – which, in itself, recently received a film adaption.

John Lee Hancock is primarily a film director and screenwriter – with some work experience in movie production.  His other well-known films include the inspirational tale My Dog Skip and another sports-inspired movie The Rookie (Wikipedia, 2011a).  His next film is one titled The Goree Girls – which is a musical set in the 1940s about a group of inmates who form a country band (Wikipedia, 2011b).    

Supplemental Material

Genre: Drama / Sports

Curriculum Ties: Sociology – race relations, homelessness, class warfare, private schools

Booktalking Ideas: 1) Where would you go – if you were homeless?  Who could you turn to? 2) Why is the left tackle position so important in football?

Reading Level: The film is rated PG-13 – with some adult themes – namely, “for one scene involving brief violence, drug and sexual references” (Worldcat, 2011).  This film is viewable for grades 7 and up – easily.  But the lead character is a high-school student – and interest in the film is easily transferrable and appropriate for high-school-aged teens.

Challenge Issues and Defense: Anytime that a film/book represents racial issues (cf. To Kill a Mockingbird), there exists the possibility of challenges on a wide range of objections.  Still, the film deals with the issues well – and the film produced some awards, including Bullock’s performance – which received an Oscar for “Best Actress”. 

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: I have read some other works by Michael Lewis and loved his interviews on shows like The Daily Show.  This film presented itself as an opportunity to work him into the blog project.  

Last Thoughts

References:

Wikipedia. (2011a). John Lee Hancock [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

John_Lee_Hancock

Wikipedia. (2011b). The Goree girls [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

The_Goree_Girls

Worldcat. (2011). The blind side [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.worldcat.org/title/blind-

side/oclc/501073267&referer=brief_results

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Hillsong (Live)/ Album – “A Beautiful Exchange”