Marcus & Alex: The Blind Side (2009)

Marcus:
            I had no idea of what to expect from “The Blind Side” before watching it. I had heard it was based on a true story, which it is, and I was able to make an educated guess that the title refers to some kind of football term, which it does, but I’m not a huge sports buff so there was just as much chance that the movie was about an obese kid who has a stroke and goes blind in one eye.

            The obese boy in question is Michael Oher, played by 25-year-old Quinton Aaron who plays the male equivalent of Precious, but instead of being pregnant, he’s been knocked up with a permanent case of the Mondays. You know, the kind of Mondays where your dad commits suicide and your smack head mom abandons you in the street.

Michael spends his nights wandering the streets in search of somewhere to sleep, and his days attending the ridiculously posh Wingate Christian School, where the students are whiter than an albino shooting a toothpaste commercial in Scarface’s coke den. It’s blindingly obvious that he doesn’t fit in and yet the teachers can’t understand why he’s so uncomfortable. It’s as if they don’t really care, although the school did originally only admit him to have him play sports, maybe they just have different priorities, first of which is to insult him behind his back at every staff meeting. Having not read the book, I can only assume there is more to the real story than just what is depicted in the film. But if there isn’t anything else to the story then damn, those are some cold-hearted teachers they got down there in Tennessee.

A big problem with this film is that it takes its source material for granted. Here it sits upon this incredibly moving story and yet it seems to present everything in such simple terms. There are no subtle nuances or shades of gray that merit deep thought, it’s just boom, pow; clean, easily digestible chunks of story with no fat or gristle. Then again, what else would you expect from John Lee Hancock, the man who directs films for the American heartland, uncomplicatedly looking at the nations favorite pastimes such as Baseball in “The Rookie” or in the case of his 2004 film, “The Alamo,” war.

The story just punches you square in the face with its simplified, dumbed-down fists and you have to take it because it’s still so damn emotional. The story alone is so moving that the acting doesn’t need to be particularly good and John Lee Hancock seems to know it. After all, he did cast Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, a former college basketball star. Nice call, casting the equivalent of Garth Brooks as Tyler Hansbrough. Other cast members include the aforementioned Quinton Aaron as Big Mike Oher, Kathy Bates in the most arbitrary and seemingly unimportant movie role ever as Michael’s tutor, Miss Sue, who shows up for about ten minutes to scare him shitless and not teach him geometry, then disappears again to probably go stand in an empty field as boring as her character. We also have to put up with Jae Head as Sean “SJ” Jr., a spastic, cocky little shiteater who needs a shot of morphine in the arm and a shot of fist in his mouth just so he’ll shut the fuck up.

And yet, amidst all this we get one shining beacon of hope in this fogbank of mediocrity. Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy is as strong a female protagonist as one will see this decade. A sharply witty mother who does not suffer fools and yet shows hospitality and favor to good Christian people in need. She is fantastic. Cutting to the point of near bitchiness, and yet always likeable enough so that you never lose sympathy for her, Bullock portrays this strong, caring mother to a “t”. She alone makes this movie worth watching and I recommend it solely for her performance.

Overall the movie has a flat, insipid story that tries to spread itself too thin and just ends up oversimplifying everything. It’s a passable effort, but all it’s work is overshadowed by Sandra Bullock, who shines in her best role ever and one that definitely earned her the Oscar for Best Leading Actress.


Alex:
           The book the “Blind Side” begins with the Redskins and Giants Monday Night Football game in 1985. The author Michael Lewis (he of “Moneyball” and “The Big Short” fame) describes the events of the most shocking moment in NFL history in a series of seconds. Joe Theismann, the quarterback for the Washington Redskins snaps the ball and hands it of to Running Back John Riggins. One second. Lawrence Taylor, a linebacker for the New York Giants rushes Theismann’s left using his superhuman speed to pass by Giants blockers untouched. Two seconds. Riggins pitches back to Theismann for the called “flea-flicker” play. Three seconds. Taylor, at full bore, bears down on the quarterback. Four seconds. Taylor connects with Theismann sending him to the grass. But Theismann’s leg buckles awkwardly, and is snapped in two. His fibula and tibia break and puncture his skin. Blood squirts out like a geyser. Lawrence Taylor, one of the most intimidating men to have played the game, leaps away from the scene like a man possessed, a man scared. Taylor was able to destroy Theismann’s career because the Redskin’s starting left tackle, increasingly one of the most important positions in football, was on the sideline for that play.

I read the “Blind Side” a little over a year ago, and I have seen the movie at least twice after that. But I can remember Lewis’ descriptions more vividly then I can any scene from the film. Sandra Bullock was a very good Concerned White Christian Lady, and her winning of the Oscar that year wasn’t the biggest travesty in the Academy’s history. But the rest of the movie, as Marcus described, was overly simplistic, poorly written, and directed. But my biggest problem with the film is that IT MISSED THE POINT ENTRILEY, missed it wider then Michael Oher’s massive girth.

Lewis’ book has two narratives. One follows the remarkable story of Michael Oher, a homeless youth who, because of his size is allowed to attend a private school in Memphis, and because of his homelessness is taken in by the loving Tuohy family. Because of their good hearts they provide young Oher a life, and introduce him to football. (Oher as a child wanted to become a professional basketball player, even as he started develop the physical characteristics of a football player)

The other part of the book describes the emergence of the left tackle. During the 70’s and 80’s, principally under Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers, the passing game surpassed the running game in terms of importance, meaning the quarterback became the most important position on the team, and needed to be protected. Pass rushers like Taylor had become more and more prevalent during this time, to disrupt the quarterbacks’ rhythm or, to kill him. All of this meant that football teams needed a player that was able to stop them. The left tackle protected the quarterback from pass rushers he was not able to see, and often would not be aware of until after the 300 pound man was on top of him. The left tackle was the quarterback’s sentinel, the only thing keeping him upright, or in Theismann’s case, the only thing keeping his leg in one piece.

The second narrative explains why college football coaches in the South begin to salivate at the opportunity to sign Oher. (He eventually winds up at Ole Miss, the Tuohy’s alma mater) It explains why, despite the fact that Oher was only playing football for a few years, he becomes the Baltimore Ravens first round draft pick in 2009. But all of that is ignored in the movie. The story of an emerging position in an evolving game is cut out, replaced by an incomplete story much simpler to follow. Despite its best efforts, and a good job by Ms. Bullock, that’s what the “Blind Side” feels like, incomplete.