Film Appreciation

Rating: 9/10 (14 December 2015)

The Blind Side directed by John Lee Hancock is a film based off of a true story of the famous NFL football player Michael Oher, played by Quinton Aaron. The plot of this film is about a young underprivileged black boy that has an amazing talent playing football, but is extremely uneducated. He ends up going to a school where, the Tuohy's, a wealthy white Christian family take him in and become his legal guardians. Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) her husband Sean (Tim McGraw) and their family face many challenges with adopting Michael.
Throughout this movie Michael and the Tuohy's are faced with many different obstacles, from social acceptance to overcoming emotional hardships. From watching this film a common theme has presented itself through the storyline. The main theme in this movie would be to not judge a book by its cover.
The first major indicator of the theme in this film would be Michael being judged from his appearance that he is good at sports. Burt Cotton (Ray McKinnon) pushes for Michael's application to be accepted into Wingate Christian School because he assumes because of Michael's appearance he will be good at sports. While Michael has the physical ability to play the sports, he lacks the emotional and mental ability. Throughout this film Michael is coached to become a better football player.
A second indicator of the theme in this film would be Michael being judged from all of his teachers in the school. They assume that he is worthless and unable to learn because he hasn't had a stable upbringing to where he had the opportunity to become educated. One of the instructors Mrs. Boswell (Kim Dickens) can see the potential in him, so she works closely with him to get his grades up to be able to play sports in school.
Lastly Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy being accused of taking Michael in for their own benefits. On the outside it may seem like they took him in to build him up to be a good football player to benefit their college, but throughout the film it shows the emotional bond that the Tuohy's and Michael have created. From an outside perspective it may look like the Touhy's adopted Michael for their personal gain, but the film shows the whole story of the emotional bond that they have created.
In this film there are a few techniques that contribute to the theme. The first being when Burt is talking to the man that brought Michael to the school there are parallel cuts between that conversation and Michael playing basketball. This gives the viewer the indication that Michael is good at sports and that he will fit in at Wingate. Going back to the theme this scene strongly identifies with the theme that you can't judge a book by its cover.
A second indication of the theme through techniques would be in the scene that Michael is being interrogated by Investigator Granger (Sharon Morris). The technique that is being used in this scene would be the high angle shots and low angle shots. In the clips with Michael it was filmed with high angle shots and Investigator Granger was filmed with low angle shots. The high angle shot dwarfs Michael and makes him appear smaller and more like a victim, while the low angle shot makes Investigator Granger seem larger and extremely intimidating. In this scene she is trying to bully Michael into saying that the Tuohy's adopted him for their benefits, which ties back into the theme that you can't judge a book by its cover. Overall this movie is a good film with a strong theme.
I would recommend to watch if you like sports movies with a little more emotion behind them, such as Remember the Titans. Judging a book by its cover is very strong in both of these films and it is prominent throughout the films.