The Blind Side

The Blind Side is a 2009 American biographical sports drama film based on Michael Lewis's 2006 book "The Other Side: Evolution of a Game" that was directed by John Lee Hancock, starring Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Kathy Bates, Tim McGraw & Lily Collins.

The story is about Michael Oher, an offensive linesman who first played in the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens & the Tennessee Titans and his adoption by the Tuohy family.

Plot
Set in 2003, seventeen year old Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) grew up in the projects in Memphis, Tennessee living in foster care, no longer living with his drug addicted mother (Adriane Lenox) and runs away to sleep wherever else he can find.

Coach Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon)'s belief that Michael would be an asset to the school's 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.

After Michael starts attending classes at Wingate, most of his teachers believe he is unteachable, except his science teacher, Mrs. Boswell (Kim Dickens), who begins to understand that he learns in a different way. Believing that he is indeed homeless, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock), a fast food franchise owner, wife of Sean Tuohy and the mother of Wingate students, Collins and S.J.

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 vice 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 in the film include Michael's 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.

Cast

 * Quinton Aaron as Michael "Big Mike" Oher
 * Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy
 * Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy
 * Jae Head as Sean "S.J." Tuohy, Jr.
 * Lily Collins as Collins Tuohy
 * Kathy Bates as Miss Sue
 * Ray McKinnon as Coach Burt Cotton
 * Kim Dickens as Mrs. Boswell
 * Adriane Lenox as Denise Oher
 * Eaddy Mays as Elaine
 * Robert "IronE" Singleton as Alton

Coaches playing as themselves


 * Tommy Tuberville (then coach of Auburn)
 * Nick Saban (then coach of Louisiana State)
 * Lou Holtz (then coach of South Carolina)
 * Phillip Fulmer (then coach of Tennessee)
 * Houston Nutt (then coach of Arkansas)
 * Ed Orgeron (then coach of Ole Miss)

Production
The film was produced by Alcon Entertainment and released by Warner Bros. According to Reuters, the production budget was $29 million.

The filming for the school scenes took place at Atlanta International School and The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia & it features many of their students as extras. The film premiered on November 17 in New York City and New Orleans and opened in theaters on November 20 in the rest of the United States and in Canada.

Julia Roberts was originally offered Sandra Bullock's role, but she turned it down.

Initially, Sandra Bullock initially turned down the starring role three times due to discomfort with portraying a devout Christian and she felt she couldn't objectively represent such a person's beliefs on screen, but after visiting the real Leigh Anne Tuohy, Bullock not only won the role, but she also took a pay cut & agreed to receive a percentage of the profits instead.

When Quinton Aaron auditioned for the film, he was working as a security guard between acting gigs & after his audition, Aaron left a card with his contact information, offering to work as a security guard on set in case he wasn't selected for the role. To prepare for the role of Michael Oher, Aaron trained with the Georgia Tech football team in the spring of 2009.

Box Office
"The Blind Side" opened at #2 at the box office, grossing $34,119,372 with an average of $10,971, becoming the second highest gross of that weekend behind The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

In total, the film grossed $255,959,475 and $309,208,309 worldwide.

Critical Reception
"The Blind Side" received moderately positive reviews, with critics praising Sandra Bullock's performance.

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 66%, based on 196 reviews, with a rating average of 6.1/10. The site's general 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."

Metacritic (which assigned a normalized score of 53 out of 100, based on 29 critics) indicating "mixed or average reviews".

CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.

USA Today wrote that the film has "strong performances and stirring football scenes" while Entertainment Weekly called it "a feel-good movie that never stops feeling good."

Ann Hornaday from the Washington Post wrote: "Grounded in the direct, disarming truth of their experience, the movie has a straightforward lack of cheap sentiment that saves it from being either too maudlin or saccharine-sweet."

However, there were some critical reviews.

Elizabeth Weitzman from the New York Daily News said, "It's fair to say that Bullock's appealing portrait of a strong-willed Tennessee belle ranks among the best work of her career. It's just too bad the movie around her comes up short."

Race controversy
The film has been criticized as presenting a white savior narrative in which Oher (an African-American male) is unable to overcome poverty and personal failure without the guidance of his adoptive, white mother Tuohy.

For example, Jeffrey Montez de Oca of the University of Colorado writes that in The Blind Side's portrayal of adoption, "charity operates as a signifying act of whiteness that obscures the social relations of domination that not only make charity possible but also creates an urban underclass in need of charity."

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.