The Blind Side Movie Analysis Essay

The film The Blind Side tells the story of Big Mike’s (Michael Oher) life as an African American teenager who has been in and out of the school system for many years. While walking down the street on a cold night wearing only a tee-shirt and shorts, Leigh Anne Tuohy and her husband stopped their car to take Michael in. The Tuohys take in Michael and soon become his legal guardian which changes Michael’s and the Tuohy’s lives. This act of kindness from the Tuohys transforms Michael’s life in his football and education career. Although The Blind Side is accurate in portraying the challenging upbringing of a young black male in a predominantly wealthy white area, it ultimately is not accurate in portraying Michael Oher's real-life experiences and troubles he faced throughout his life including his NFL career.

The film The Blind Side accurately depicts the life of a young black male who had a rough childhood and severely struggled with homelessness and schooling. Michael Oher grew up in a household with twelve other children, an absent father, and a mother who was a victim of ultra addictive narcotics. Being one of twelve children with an absent father and mother with a drug addiction was extremely difficult on their family. Michael Oher wrote in a 2014 memoir, “When my mother was off drugs and working, she would remember to buy groceries and there would be a mad scramble to grab whatever you could before anyone got it.” However, Oher’s mom, Denise, was rarely ever off drugs or working which left Oher and his siblings homeless and hungry (Zakarin). Without a stable home life and adult supervision, Oher struggled in school with simple topics such as grammar and mathematics. When Oher was in first grade, child protective services removed him and his siblings from their mother’s home from which he then bounced around between foster families, friend’s couches, and wherever else he could find somewhere to sleep. At the age of fifteen, Michael was staying with a local athletic program director, Tony Henderson, and his family. Most schools would not take Oher due to his lack of education but when Tony Henderson brought his son, Steven, to the local Christian Private School, he took Oher with him. Due to his physique, the school’s athletic director pushed to get Oher into the school, but the school had no reason to take him due to his past educational deficiencies. IQ tests showed that Oher had an IQ of 80 and 0.6 GPA but weighing 350 at 6’5 made him a desirable candidate for the school's football team. Michael was given the chance to go to Wingate Christian School but he was once again left homeless as the Henderson family could no longer care for him.

Michael Oher was extremely out of place at his predominantly white Christian School and felt extremely left out. He did not feel as though he fit in with the luxurious lifestyle of his peers. His teachers see him as impossible to teach and unintelligent, except for his science teacher. She adjusts her way of teaching to fit Oher’s needs and finds that he is not as uneducated as he comes off. In the movie The Blind Side, Oher’s science teacher finds a letter he has written in the trash in which he writes, “I look everywhere and I see white everywhere: white walls, white floors, and a lot of white people. The teachers do not know I have no idea of anything they are talking about. I do not wanna listen to anyone, especially the teachers. They are giving me homework and expecting me to do the problems on my own. I have never done homework in my life. I go to the bathroom, look in the mirror and say: ‘This is not Michael Oher.’” Michael unfortunately was not raised like his peers, and he did not have access to such education. His teachers do not understand and he feels like they have no hope for him. With the adjustments made for him by his science teacher he was able to get a C on his test, proving that he is not unintelligent, he just needs extra help and accommodations. Michael is not like the other students. He did not grow up with a proper education or a stable home life. While his peers are getting picked up from school in luxurious European cars he is walking home in the rain looking for anywhere he can spend the night. He is out of place in this new school and he is not used to this lifestyle.

Michael Oher’s life is changed forever one night when he is stopped by the Tuohy family as they are driving home from their son, S.J. 's, play. Mr. and Mrs. Tuohy as well as S.J. are driving home when they see “Big Mike” in shorts and a tee-shirt walking in the freezing rain. Cars drive by but no one stops for Michael except the Tuohy’s. This shows how kind their family was compared to all the other people who drove by ignoring Oher. They stop to talk to Big Mike as he says he is headed to the gym. Mr. Tuohy starts to drive away and Leigh Anne Tuohy immediately tells them to turn the car around as something is not right. She gets out of the car wondering why Big Mike could be going to the gym as it is closed at this time of night. Big Mike says he is going to the gym because it is warm and he has nowhere else to go. Leigh Anne takes Micheal in out of the kindness of her heart and changes Oher’s life from here on out. The Tuohy’s bring Michael back to their home where he realizes even more just how much he does not fit in. Leigh Anne takes Michael to where he grew up to get him some clothes and she sees for the first time what his life is really like. They pull into a poor black community and all of the residents stare at them. Michael goes up to his home where he finds a letter of eviction and breaks down realizing he has no idea where his mother actually is and once again Micahel is all alone. In the movie this is where Michael and Leigh Anne start to form a relationship and bond however, things did not move as quickly in real life. The movie portrays an instant connection between the Tuohy family and Michael but in reality, it was not as perfect. Although the Tuohys saw Michael as an amazing son and sibling to their children, SJ and Collins, it took some time for them to merge as a family and form a true bond. The Tuohys as well as Michael had their doubts about becoming a family and taking Michael in and there was some tension for a while between them.

One of the biggest issues Michael Oher had with the movie, The Blind Side, was the way he was portrayed and how people looked at him differently after because of it. Before the release of the movie, people saw Michael Oher for who he really was, a hardworking athlete who was doing everything he could to pursue his dream of succeeding in the NFL. Oher was very disappointed that people looked at him as to how he was portrayed in the movie rather than the person he really was. In his 2011 book, “I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond,” Oher states, “I watched those scenes thinking, ‘No, that’s not me at all! I’ve been studying - really studying - the game since I was a kid!’ That was my main hang-up with the film.” Oher went on to play for the Baltimore Ravens as a first-round pick for five out of his eight NFL seasons. When the Ravens made it to the Super Bowl in 2013, Oher was asked about the movie and he simply responded that he was “tired” of the movie. “I am here to play football,” he added.” “Football is what got me here and the movie, it wasn’t me.” After numerous attempts of setting the record straight when it came to his real life and The Blind Side, Michael Oher feels as though the film only hurt his football career. In 2015, while playing with the Carolina Panthers, Oher told ESPN, “People look at me, and they take things away from me because of a movie. They don’t really see the skills and kind of player I am.” His story of achieving a seemingly impossible dream of becoming a professional football player in the NFL was challenging enough as it is but since the movie was released, he felt as though people only recognized him because of the movie that was made about him rather than the amazing football player he actually was.