The Christian blockbuster

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2010)

With a gross of over $290 Million, The Blind Side made 10 times it profit from it's budget $29 Million. It became one of the most successful sports films ever and appealed to new cinema crowd, the Bible-belt, middle America crowd.
The Blind Side tells the story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron), a poor African-American teenager from Memphis whom mum was drug-addict and he slept on the sofa of a family friend. He was enrolled into a private Christian School, with the promise that he could make a good American football player, but lacks the academic ability. After being kicked out from the projects, Michael is taken in by Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) and her family. They give him a home and adopt the man out of Christian charity. When Michael's grades pick up and he shows his skills as a player some top universities show interest in giving him a scholarship: but he still needs to raises his grades to ensure he can get into university.
The main reason why The Blind Side succeeded with the Christian crowd was because it shows a Republican, Christian family in a positive light. They were shown as a family who took in Michael because it was they Christian ideal of charity (the better aspects of Christianity). Bullock plays Leigh Anne as a hard-as-nails, tough mother, protecting her family and is shown as a more liberal minded Republican. This was a film that also shows how rich white suburban community are completely segregated from the poor inner-city, predominately black areas, with two different cultures. The acting in the film was decent, with Bullock being the stand out performers, winning herself her first Oscar. Whilst her performance is good showing herself to feisty, yet funny, it was not the best of the year: I think Saoirse Ronan was the best performer in her role in The Lovely Bones. Aaron was decent as the gently giant, a person who is shy but has an inter-depth: but his character is a cliché.
John Lee Hancock writes and directs this film. Whilst the direction is decent, pretty standard with this type of film, The Blind Side follows a typical formula, with Michael improving his grades, starting out in American Football, improving at American Football, attempting to get into university and a final ordeal. There are montage scenes and some elements of the film felt similar to previous American Football films like We Are Marshall and Friday Night Lights, where the team starts out poorly but quickly improve. But Hancock knows what he is doing, he does not try to be too adventurous with his direction and works well with the standard formula.
The film has been met with criticism that it took the charity of a white family to allow a black person to succeed: but that was the nature of the story, there was not a lot Hancock could have done. It should be more a commentary on the situation. There was of course the theme of Christian charity in the film, but this was done one a individual level. But a problem with the film was that Michael Oher was basically a secondary character in his own film, playing second fiddle to Sandra Bullock. Whilst the film could be seen as a criticism of the state education system, where there is a lack of funding and teachers did not care. This is of course a problem with schools that are in poor inner-city areas that affect schools in many country. And that a student could improve in a private system. The message is dodgy, but there is a valid point. But a more worrying aspect of the film is the treatment of black characters. In the film there are either gang members, drug addicts or militant activists. There is no character that would be more grounded and realistic. Even Michael was shown to be stereotypical as the gentle giant who was not very academic.
Overall it is what it is and a decent film for it. But it was not worthy of a best picture nod.