The Blind Side

Jalan cerita

Selama 17 tahun, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) berada dalam jagaan keluarga angkat yang berbeza, disebabkan oleh masalah ketagihan dadah ibunya, di serata Memphis, Tennessee. Setiap kali dia dihantar ke keluarga angkat baru, dia melarikan diri. Salah seorang dari bapa kawannya, di mana dia menumpang tidur di atas sofa, mendaftarnya ke sebuah sekolah Kristian, selepas bapa kawannya itu meyakinkan jurulatih bahawa "Big Mike" adalah seorang yang bersifat olahragawan, dan bukan seorang yang bersifat ganas. Jurulatih meyakinkan guru besar untuk menerimanya ke sekolah.
Di sekolah, Michael berkawan dengan Sean "SJ" Jr. (Jae Head). Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) adalah seorang pereka bentuk dalaman, ibu kepada SJ dan Collins (Lily Collins), dan isteri kepada Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw). Semasa temasya Thanksgiving sekolah sebelum cuti, Leigh Anne menemui Michael berjalan seorang diri, menggigil dalam kesejukan; dia kasihan kepadanya dan menawarkan tempat untuk bermalam. Keesokan pagi, dia mendapati Michael cuba meninggalkan rumah lantas meminta Michael meraikan Thanksgiving bersama  keluarganya. Secara perlahan-lahan, Michael mula menjadi sebahagian dari keluarga Touhy, walaupun kawan-kawan Anne memberi amaran bahawa Michael memberi kesan kepada kehidupan sosial SJ dan Collins. Walau bagaimanapun, SJ dan Michael menjadi sahabat karib. Leigh Anne pergi ke sekolah untuk mengetahui pencapaian akademik Michael dan terkejut mendapati meskipun dia mendapat peratusan rendah dalam setiap aspek namun dia mencatat peratusan 98 untuk 'naluri melindungi'. Sean turut berbincang dengan Michael dan meletakkan keluarga Tuohys sebagai orang yang perlu dihubungi sekiranya berlaku kecemasan dan meminta jurulatih sekolah menyenaraikan Michael ke dalam pasukan futbol.
Memiliki susuk yang besar dan tenaga yang kuat, Michael beraksi cemerlang di padang dan menarik perhatian jurulatih kolej dari seluruh negara. SJ memberitahu Michael bahawa ibunya kurang menyenangi Tennessee. Leigh Anne mendapat tahu untuk mendapat biasiswa Divisyen I NCAA, Michael perlu mendapat GPA 2.5. GPAnya sangat rendah, jadi mereka mengupah tutor peribadi, Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), untuk menaikkan gred. Guru di sekolah juga memberi perhatian khusus dan mula memberikan ujian secara lisan berbanding format bertulis. Semasa salah satu sesi tutorialnya, Miss Sue, alumni University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss."), memberitahu Michael bahawa FBI menanam jasad manusia yang tidak dikenali di bawah Stadium Neyland University of Tennessee. Michael tawar hati dan ini antara penyebab beliau memilih University of Mississippi. Michael akhirnya mendapat GPA 2.52 . Kemudian, Michael menerima panggilan dari NCAA, yang mengesyaki pasangan Tuohys memaksa Michael memilih Mississippi, dari Tennessee, pasukan negerinya. Penyiasat turut memberitahunya bahawa pasangan Tuohys berasal dari Mississippi dan jurulatih sekolah menengahnya mendapat tawaran kerja di Ole Miss selepas Michael memilih Mississippi.
Michael leaves the investigation room and confronts Leigh Anne; he asks her if she only took him in so that he would play football for her alma mater. Michael goes to his birth mother's apartment in the projects, where his old friends at first welcome him, then make sexually suggestive remarks about his adoptive mother and sister. A fight ensues, in which Michael easily dispatches three armed thugs, and flees the scene. Leigh Anne goes in search of Michael. He finally calls her, and they meet at a neighborhood laundromat. Leigh Anne tells him that she wants him to choose which university he accepts a scholarship from and any decisions he makes in life will be supported by her. Michael returns to the NCAA office and tells the investigator that he chose Ole Miss because his whole family has gone to school there. Michael is accepted by Ole Miss with a football scholarship. Leaving Michael at school, Leigh Anne feels happy for what she has done for Michael and also what he has done for them all.
The film ends with the 2009 NFL Draft, showing the real-life Michael Oher being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens.
The end credits include a dedication to the director's father, also John Lee Hancock, a football player and coach who died in 2009.

Pengeluaran

The Blind Side was made by Alcon Entertainment and released by Warner Bros. The film was partially filmed at The Atlanta International School and The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, and features many of their students. The film premiered on November 17 in New York City and New Orleans, and opened in theaters on November 20 in the rest of the United States and in Canada. 
Academy Award-winner Julia Roberts was originally offered a star role in the film but, just as she did with what became Bullock's blockbuster role in The Proposal, Roberts turned it down.
According to Reuters, the film's production budget was $29 million. Sandra Bullock, who had initially turned down the starring role three times due to discomfort with portraying a devout Christian, was not only won over, but also took a pay cut and agreed to receive a percentage of the profits.

Penerimaan kritikal

The film received mixed to generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that, as of March 1, 2010, 69% of 144 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.2 out of 10.  The site's general consensus is that "It might strike some viewers as a little too pat, but The Blind Side  has the benefit of strong source material and a strong performance from Sandra Bullock." Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 58%, based on a sample of 24 reviews. 
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 53 based on 28 reviews.

Box office

The Blind Side opened in 3,110 theaters on its opening weekend, the weekend of November 20, 2009. It grossed a strong $34,510,000 in its opening weekend, the second highest gross of that weekend, behind The Twilight Saga: New Moon. It was the highest-grossing opening weekend of Sandra Bullock's career. The per-theater average for The Blind Side's opening weekend was $11,096. In its opening weekend, the movie already proved to be a financial success, having a budget of just $29,000,000. It proved to have remarkable staying power, taking in an additional $9.5 million, bringing its gross to $60,125,000 by the weekend of November 27, 2009. The movie enjoyed a very rare greater success for the second weekend than it did in its opening weekend, taking in an estimated $40 million, an increase of 18 percent, from November 27 to November 29, 2009, bringing its gross to $100,250,000. In its third weekend, the movie continued its trend of rare feats by moving up to the number one position with $20.4 million in sales after spending the previous two weekends in second place for a total gross of $128.8 million, due to strong word-of-mouth. In its fourth weekend, it moved down to second place, dropping a slim 23% with an estimated $15.5 million for a total of $150.2 million in the United States and Canada as of December 13, 2009. The film hit $200 million domestically on January 1, 2010, marking the first time a movie marketed with a sole actress' name above the title (Bullock's) has crossed the $200 million mark. The Blind Side has also become the highest grossing football movie and sports drama of all time domestically , unadjusted for ticket inflation.

Home media

The Blind Side was released on DVD and Blu-ray March 23, 2010. The Blind Side is available to rent exclusively from Blockbuster Video both in-store, online, and OnDemand as of March 23, 2010 . However, customers of RedBox® and NetFlix will not have rental access until April 20th. 
This stems from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by RedBox against Warner Brother's. Warner Home Video, who, in an attempt to boost DVD sales, refused to sell wholesale titles to RedBox. On August 19, 2009 RedBox sued Warner Home Video to continue purchasing DVD titles at wholesale prices. On Feb 16, 2010, RedBox settled the lawsuit and agreed to a 28 day window past the street date.