In the bio-pic focused on the senior year of now veteran NFL player Michael Oher it definitely lives by its title. This movie completely caught me off guard by it's humanistic characters and the feel good plot as it continues to unfold throughout the movie. I have to admit that when I first learned of the plot of this story before seeing the movie I assumed that I would be offended. The story of the white woman saving the life of a poor black soul and blah blah blah. I've heard this type of story too many times. I think it started with Dangerous Minds with Michelle Pfeiffer when she played a high school teacher who helped build charcter and book smarts for a class of ignorant and underprivaledged southern California teens. Then it happened again in the same type of movie with Hillary Swank called Freedom Writers. It happened in the movie Losing Isaiah when an abandoned black baby is taken under the wing of a suburban, caucasian hospital nurse. Even friends' star Matthew Perry starred in a movie raising the academic culture of a New York slumlike middle school.
Even though these movies are typically cinematically appealing; this theme of a white middle class person playing the part of savior for a misguided black soul is becoming redundant. I'm not saying I'm against white people helping blacks, that's not the case whatsoever. Good people doing good for others is a great samaritan act. Yet, are there no stories of actual black people uplifting their race? Or does Hollywood choose not to present our Nation with those stories?
That being said... I loved The Blind Side. Sandra Bullock performed well as the mother of a couple kids. She notices Michael Oher stranded on the road after a school event and immediately takes a shining to him. Her compassion and love for a young stranger passed his adolescence and from a culture adverse from hers is very compelling. She treats this young man like a child of her owns and ultimately gives him a chance at a better life. A life with a stable family, promises of college, and millions in a professional athletic career. By the end of the movie I felt no offense and furthermore left the theater with a smile. This movie taught me that although there are many diffences between cultures it is not always black and white.
-Achmone
