Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. Author: Ralph Nelson. Among others, the Tuohy family of Memphis, Tennessee. Bullock won the award for her role as the strong-willed mother of the family, Lee Ann Tuohy, in the sports drama The Blind Side.
It tells the story of how Tuohy, a wealthy interior designer and charitable Christian, adopts Michael Oher, a poor black child, and sets him on the path to football greatness. The real Michael Oher continued to play offense in the NFL and won the Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens.
Fittingly enough, The Blind Side has the subtlety of a thunderous midfielder collision — the kind of sweet, heartbreaking soreness that would be appropriate on a Hallmark channel. But well-cooked American Pie Schmaltz has long been the academy's favorite flavor. Along with Bullock's Oscar win, The Blind Side was also nominated for Best Picture. Reports at the time described the film as a «cultural phenomenon» — especially in middle America — as it stunned the industry, grossing over $300 million at the box office.
Ostensibly Michael Oher's (Quinton Aaron) story, The Blind Side, written and directed by John Lee Hancock, makes Leigh Ann Tuohy a hero. Indeed, thanking the Tuohy family for their philanthropy is what the film is about. In particular, Leigh Ann, who at one point wonders: «Am I a good person?» — a moment that begs the audience to agree — yes, this white, rich, God-fearing character is a very good person. Not surprisingly, the film — despite its success — caused some backlash with accusations of a «white savior» complex.
The story may even be more problematic than critics at the time suggested. On August 14, Michael Oher filed a petition alleging that Sean and Lee Ann Tuohy did not adopt him, but instead forced him to sign a custody agreement. “The lie about adopting Michael is the same lie that co-conservatives Lee Ann Tuohy and Sean Tuohy got rich off of [Oher],” the petition reads. According to the statement, the Tuohys, including their two children, made millions from the film, while Oher made nothing. Bullock, meanwhile, is facing calls to return her Oscar.
The film is based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: The Evolution of the Game by Michael Lewis, who also wrote Moneyball and The Big Short. The book was not only about Oher, but how the success of mega-star linebacker Lawrence Taylor brought about change in American football, both on and off the field. To compete with Taylor's aggressive defensive style, the offensive left tackle position, which protects the quarterback's blind side, became the second most powerful position behind the quarterback.
As shown in the film, Oher was born into a broken family—his mother was a drug addict—but he managed to get a place at Briarcrest Christian School in Shelby County, Tennessee. Oher had no aptitude for science. He secured his place in the school through chance and circumstances. Tuohy's children also attended Briarcrest, and Lee Ann herself graduated from high school there. She used to attend public school, but her father transferred her when the Memphis schools were merged.
Michael Lewis would describe Oher at 6ft 4in and over 300lbs, also known as «Big Mike», as a physical exemplar — a strong, explosive player — and a quiet type. The film goes even further and presents Oher almost like Forrest Gampian, a good-natured simpleton whom the Tuohy have been persuaded to pull out of their little educated shell. He passes an IQ test that scores poorly on «learning ability» but high on «protective instincts».
Sandra Bullock with Lee Ann Tuohy in 2009. Photo: WireImage
Robin DiAngelo, an American writer and professor of multicultural studies, wrote about the film in White Fragility. “As an education professor who has never heard of a test that measures ‘defensive instinct’, I have been unable to find evidence for this strange measurement,” DiAngelo wrote.
According to an essay by Erin Ash, professor of media and communications, this a key component of the white savior movie is to make black characters safe.
The original book by Michael Lewis describes how Sean Tuohy, a self-made restaurant millionaire and sportscaster, first became interested in Oher. Tuohy participated in school track and field programs and saw Oher everywhere, noting that Oher always wore the same clothes. But as seen in the film, Sean's wife Leigh Ann took charge, bought Oher clothes, provided him with a bed, and became his legal guardian.
According to Lewis, passers-by might consider Leigh Ann's philanthropy to be «aggressively philanthropic». The film, however, ignores the alternation of other families who helped and adopted Oher, including a black family named the Franklins who took care of Oher before Tuohy. «The family that did the most for me at that time,» Oher wrote of the Franklins in his 2011 autobiography.
> Michael Oher playing for the Baltimore Ravens in 2010. Photo: AP
In the 14 years since The Blind Side was released, there has been a broader understanding of how issues of race and racism are portrayed on screen, although this certainly did not escape the attention of some critics at the time. The film is clumsy at best and, in the words of Robin DiAngelo, «anti-black» at worst. Not only does Bullock's Leigh Ann save «Big Mike» from projects (meaning he would have died of drugs on the street if she hadn't shown up in his life), she even unlocks his inner football beast with a reverse action. psychology — telling him to imagine that he is protecting her from the opposing team.
However, Oher does not understand the game, so Tuohy's young son teaches him. Later, during Oher's first major game, opposing fans shower him with racial slurs from the stands. Leigh Ann dismisses racism as «sticks and stones.»
The invisible side is not entirely devoid of self-awareness; Michael's arrival forces everyone to check their privileges. In one scene, Leigh Ann denounces the ignorance of her friends, a coven of wealthy southern beauties.
The real Michael Oher has mixed feelings about being portrayed as a «stupid kid» who «needs to be taught how to play football». Oher has been playing the game since he was a child. While Lewis's book also describes Oher as being clueless in training, this has more to do with the fact that he has not yet been put in the position of the left catch is the real secret of revealing his football talent.
As in real life, Oher ends up receiving a scholarship to the University of Mississippi, Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy's alma mater. was a sleeper hit. It faced stiff opposition from Twilight: New Moon, but The Blind Side boosted the box office the following week thanks to word of mouth and fired the Twilight sequel from number one in its third week.
The Los Angeles Times reviewed the success of The Blind Side, calling it «a showbiz phenomenon driven by South and Midwest audiences taking the Christian charity and football film by storm.» It's certainly conservative. Bullock's character warns street vendors that she's a proud NRA member («And I'm always packing»), and after Tuohy hired a liberal tutor (Kathy Bates) for Michael, Tuohy jokes, «We had a black son before we have a friend-democrat. — a line straight out of Lewis's book. Bullock admitted that she was apprehensive about the religious «banner-waving» at first.Michael Oher with Sean Tuohy Jr. and Lee Ann Tuohy in 2008. Photo: Getty
The film was a big hit in theaters in Dallas, Texas, Birmingham, Alabama, and Nashville, Tennessee. It was profitable everywhere, but it was especially successful in small communities. “It seems the smaller the city, the higher the demand for the film,” wrote the Los Angeles Times. Writer/director John Lee Hancock credited the film's success in part, in which the Tuohys are portrayed not as Southern Christian stereotypes but as ordinary people (albeit the kind of ordinary people who can buy their newly adopted son a pickup truck in the blink of an eye). and then laugh it off when, a few scenes later, he crashes the car).
The Blind Side was liked by some critics, but the backlash against racial issues was swift. The Daily Beast accused the film of turning Oher into a «black saint». African-American critic Wesley Morris, reviewing the film for the Boston Globe, wrote that «commercial American films seem to be interested in stories about young black men being saved from god knows what by nice white people or sports. It's both this and that.» He added: “The life of another is meant to make us feel good, and basically it is. But how well we feel about his story is proportional to how blind we are to the way it is told.”
Erin Ash noted that in an interview about the film, Hancock talked about the real Tuohys, but never spoke — and he was never asked about the real Michael Oher.
This week's petition is certainly not the first time Oher has taken issue with the narrative in and around the film. As he wrote in the foreword to his book, “Recently I read some newspaper articles that quoted Leigh Ann Tuohy as saying that I would have either been killed in a shootout or by some gang leader’s bodyguard if I hadn’t been captured. . in your family. I think this must have been a misquote, because despite the sensational things that make the story more dramatic, my family and I know that I would somehow find my way out of the ghetto. I couldn't fail.»
The Tuohy family in The Blind Side. Author: Alami
His autobiography also touched upon—perhaps naively—the question of whether he was actually adopted. «Because I was already 18 years old and considered an adult in the state of Tennessee, Sean and Lee Ann were appointed as my 'legal guardians'. They explained to me that this meant almost the same as 'adopted parents, but that the laws simply written in such a way as to take into account my age. Honestly, I didn't care what it was called. I was just happy that no one could argue that we weren't legally what we already knew was real: we were a family.»
Oher seems to have realized just this year what that really means: that they are not a family. “Michael Oher discovered this lie, to his chagrin and embarrassment, in February 2023, when he learned that the Conservatory, which he accepted on the basis that it would make him a member of the Tuohy family, did not actually give him any family relations. with The Tuohys,» the petition reads.
Oher's petition seeks to end the guardianship and ban the use of his name and likeness. Oher also wants a fair share of the profits; Tuohy's attorney, Marty Singer, described Oher's petition as an «extortion attempt.»
Sean Tuohy, speaking to the Daily Memphian, denied that they made any money from the film — and how much money they made. d, made from a book, was divided equally among the family, including Oher. According to Tuohy, the guardianship was done simply to appease the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). “We are devastated,” Tuohy said. “It's sad to think that we will make money from any of our children. But we will love Michael at 37 as much as we loved him at 16.»
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