The Blind Side

This film tells the true story of Baltimore Raven, Michael Oher, son of a crack addicted single mother first taken in by a kind man who not only lets him sleep on his couch but finagles Michael’s entry into a private Christian school in spite of his extraordinarily spotty academic record. Life continually blindsided Michael.

The pivotal point in the film, The Blind Side, comes when its main character, Michael Oher, cannot protect his quarterback for the life of him. A huge boy whose size would indicate perfection in the role of offensive tackle, Oher had been too abused by life and those in it to knock any one down. He is adopted by the family of a girl who attends his school.

The Blind Side begins with a voiceover that tells the story of how the NFL discovered the need for offensive tackles who currently receive the second highest salaries in the league. Quarterbacks, the highest paid, were discovered to need extraordinary protection after a quarterback was blindsided, resulting in a crippling accident.

As a movie, The Blind Side has some problems, though I very much enjoyed it. Oher is a huge (6’5”, 340 lbs) black boy, nearly silent. Leigh Anne, his tiny benevolent white mother is a good-hearted, evangelical, well-intentioned, loudmouthed, gun-toting, pushy woman whose husband owns 87 fast food franchises. She, her husband and their children fully devoted themselves to Mike’s happiness; Leigh Anne protected him like a mother tiger.

What’s missing is what doesn’t work in a holiday movie. These noted factors present racial, gender and socioeconomic stereotypes that the film does not entirely avoid. It minimally deals with the racism that we must assume occurred in Memphis.. This is a true story that required a huge feel-good quotient but perhaps not the entire story. But this is not a film review.

Throughout the film, I kept asking myself two important questions:

- Who watches my blind side?

- Whose blind side do I watch?

- What relationships am I in which I am protected from crippling experiences and keep those I care about from experiencing them?

- Do I owe such protection to those outside my circle of care? And they to me?

Sometimes a film is just a film. Sometimes its not. And whether or not you consider it art, sometimes a film is a revelation. Sometimes it blindsides you.