Posted on 05/30/2010 4:12:53 AM PDT by stan_sipple
For the reader who has no frame for "The Blind Side," it is a football movie where a snappy, sharp-tongued Southern woman (played by Sandra Bullock) rescues a black boy from his miserable life and creates of him, a la "My Fair Lady," a star athlete.
"What do you think," I asked my young plebeians, "the writers and directors of ‘The Blind Side' are trying to persuade you of?"
I told them to watch the trailer, and I wanted them to note the stereotypes of African-Americans. I turned on the projector, and away we went. The trailer is only 21/2 minutes long, but after my students saw it once, we filled the board with almost 15 racist stereotypes.
Oher is a lineman for the Baltimore Ravens. When asked if he was going to see the film, he told the Baltimore Sun that he was "not in a hurry to see it." Recently, that same newspaper reported that Oher is now writing his autobiography because he didn't particularly like how he was portrayed in the film.
What would the "true story" of Oher's life look like if Spike Lee, our country's premier African-American director, made the film? What will the "true story" be when Oher tells it himself? Will it be about a white woman who "saves" a poor, simple-minded, black youth?
Ultimately, "The Blind Side" reinforces the cultural myth that whites are the saviors of African-Americans. Whites love this myth because it makes us feel like heroes. We believe it because it relieves us from examining our own latent or overt racism.
And when the one thug asks if she has a Saturday night special, she said “yes, and it shoots pretty good every other day too” (Paraphrasing myself here...)
I didn’t see this movie about the sassy white people saving the poor black boy—they just gave him an opportunity to succeed...but the effort was his. He went from a .6 gpa to a 1.7 to over a 2.5—he was studying non stop with a tutor. He had obvious football talent, but you can’t succeed to the level he did on just talent—he worked at that too. Contrast that to the thugs in Hurt Village...Laying around and trying to bring Michael down to their level.
Certainly it has been Hollywoodized to some level...but the basic story matches what I have read about Michael Oher and the Tuohys.
Or she could write about Dennis Rodman who lived with a white family while he played college ball
“yes, and it shoots pretty good every other day too”
LOL, I forgot that part!
I really thought Sandra Bullock was great in that movie. And, talking about judging by the trailer, she DID live up to how good her performance looked in the ads.
I’m glad she won the Oscar for it.
Hollywood used to make “feel good” “inspriational” etc. movies like this all the time. Maybe some more successes like “The Blind Side” will inspire them to make more.
One of the most depressing movies I ever saw was the one with John Goodman as Babe Ruth. I don’t know if that was a TV Movie or if it was a theatrical release, I saw it on TV anyway.
It was basically Babe Ruth with warts and not much else. The ending was just awful as it basically said that since Ruth never got to be a manager his life was ruination (oh and with the drinking and carousing, too, of course).
Feh - who needs that stuff?
I can read the daily paper if I want to feel bad about life.
I know the world ain’t all sunshine & roses, but I also know that Babe Ruth is, and probably always will be, the most famous Baseball player of all time. There has to be a lot of good in that.
It probably just galls this “teacher” that here was a movie that showed Christians in a good light, as opposed to revealing them as the eeeeevil people he knows they secretly are.
Admittedly most teachers are NOT like the science teacher in the movie - I ought to know, as I am like her and am surrounded by the ones like the English teacher. I am also a very strict football coach who does not allow any F’s to be on the team, where-as the school policy is 2. My players appreciate the fact that I make them stay up on their grades - even the ones who aren’t honor roll.
Contrast that to the thugs in Hurt Village...Laying around and trying to bring Michael down to their level.
There is a sub-story there too. The one that was always quiet and had the small cross tattoo - he as a good athlete but a poor student and was jelous (sp) of Mikes situation. At the end of the movie you saw a newpaper clipping he was killed in a shootout.
The movie simply notes what much of the black community has become. Dont blame the mirror. I dont even believe that the mentality expressed in this article is the majority view among blacks. They dont like this movie because a woman who represents what they despise (white christian suburban capitalist mom) helps a boy become a man.
There you go.
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