The Blind Side (film)
This article is about the 2009 feature film about an American football player. For the 1993 made-for-TV thriller, see Blind Side (film).
| The Blind Side | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | John Lee Hancock |
| Produced by | Broderick Johnson Andrew Kosove Gil Netter |
| Written by | Story: Michael Lewis Screenplay: John Lee Hancock |
| Starring | Sandra Bullock Quinton Aaron Tim McGraw Jae Head Kathy Bates |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
| Cinematography | Alar Kivilo |
| Editing by | Mark Livolsi |
| Studio | Alcon Entertainment |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | November 20, 2009 |
| Running time | 129 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $29 million |
| Gross revenue | $301,575,361 |
The Blind Side is a 2009 American drama–sports film written and directed by John Lee Hancock, and based on the 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis. The storyline features Michael Oher, an offensive lineman who plays for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL. The film follows Oher from his impoverished upbringing, through his years at Wingate Christian School (a fictional representation of Briarcrest Christian School in the suburbs of Memphis, Tennessee), his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy, and on to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football. For her performance, Sandra Bullock won the Academy Award for Best Actress, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. The film itself also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
Beside Bullock, the film stars Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, and Kathy Bates as Miss Sue The movie also features appearances by several current and former NCAA coaches, including SEC coaches Houston Nutt and Ed Orgeron (Oher's coaches in college, though Nutt represented Arkansas at the time and therefore does so in the film) and Nick Saban (who was at LSU at the time and represents them in the film), former coaches Lou Holtz, Tommy Tuberville, Phillip Fulmer, as well as recruiting analyst Tom Lemming.
Plot
For 17 years, Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) has been in foster care with different families. Every time he is sent to a new home, he runs away. One of his friend's fathers, whose couch Mike had been sleeping on, enrolls him into a Christian school, after the father convinces the coach that "Big Mike" is a natural athlete, yet he refuses to beat people to the ground. The coach convinces the school principal to enroll him in the school.
After school one day, Michael meets Sean "SJ" Jr. (Jae Head), who quickly befriends Michael. Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is a fiery interior designer, mother to SJ and Collins (Lily Collins), and wife to Sean Tuohy (Tim McGraw). After a pre-holiday Thanksgiving school festival, Leigh Anne notices Michael walking on the road, shivering in the freezing cold; she pities his situation and offers him a place to spend the night. The next morning, much to her dismay, she finds Michael leaving their driveway and asks him to spend Thanksgiving with her family. Slowly, Michael starts becoming a part of the Tuohy family, even as Leigh Anne's friends warn her that Michael could affect SJ and Collins' social life. Nonetheless, SJ and Michael become buddies. Leigh Anne goes to the school about Michael's academic performance and is surprised to learn that even though he has scored low in essentially every aspect, he scored in the 98th percentile in 'protective instincts'. Sean also talks to Michael and lists the Tuohys as his emergency contact and talks to the school coach to get Michael enrolled in the football team.
Possessed of enormous stature and titanic strength, Michael performs exceptionally on the field and catches the eye of many college coaches from around the state. SJ tells Michael that his mother cannot stand Tennessee. Leigh Anne discovers that to get a NCAA Division I Scholarship, Michael needs a 2.5 GPA. His current GPA is too low, so they hire a private tutor, Miss Sue (Kathy Bates), to raise his grades. The school teachers also take a special interest and start giving his tests orally rather than in written format. During one of his private tutor classes, Miss Sue, a University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss") alumna, tells him that the FBI bury the body parts of unidentified dead people under the University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium. Michael's heart aches and this is shown as a possible reason for Michael opting to join University of Mississippi. Michael ends up with a GPA of 2.52. Subsequently, Michael receives a call from the NCAA, who suspects that the Tuohys forced Michael to select Mississippi, rather than Tennessee, his home-state team. The investigator also tells him that the Tuohys were from Mississippi and his high school coach got a better job at Ole Miss after Michael chose 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.
The film ends with the 2009 NFL Draft, showing the real Michael Oher being drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. The end credits include a dedication to director John Lee Hancock's father, a football player and coach who died in 2009.
Cast
- Quinton Aaron as Michael "Big Mike" Oher
- Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy
- Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy
- Kathy Bates as Miss Sue
- Lily Collins as Collins Tuohy
- Jae Head as Sean "S.J." Tuohy, Jr.
- Ray McKinnon as Coach Cotton
- Kim Dickens as Mrs. Boswell
- Adriane Lenox as Denise Oher
Production
The Blind Side was produced by Alcon Entertainment and released by Warner Bros. Filming for the school scenes took place at Atlanta International School and The Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, and it 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.
Reception
Accolades
The Blind Side has earned numerous awards and nominations for the lead performance of the film's star, Sandra Bullock.
| Awards and Nominations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Category | Nominee | Result |
| Academy Award | Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | Sandra Bullock | Won |
| Best Motion Picture | Film | Nominated | |
| Critics’ Choice Award | Best Actress | Sandra Bullock | Won (tied with Meryl Streep) |
| Golden Globe | Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama | Sandra Bullock | Won |
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role | Sandra Bullock | Won |
| People's Choice Award | Favorite Movie Actress | Sandra Bullock | Won |
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award | Best Actress | Sandra Bullock | Nominated |
| Teen Choice Awards | Favorite Drama Movie | Film | Pending |
| Teen Choice Awards | Breakout Male Actor | Quinton Aaron | Pending |
Critical reception
The film received mixed to generally positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that, as of May 1, 2010, 67% of 174 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.1 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. The Blind Side ended its domestic theatrical run on June 4, 2010 (nearly 7 months after it opened), earning a total of $255,959,475.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack consisting of the songs played in this movie was not released, however the score soundtrack by Carter Burwell was. The movie consisted of 23 songs with artists including Young MC, Lucy Woodward, The Books, Canned Heat, Five for Fighting.
Home media
The Blind Side was released on DVD and Blu-ray March 23, 2010. The Blind Side was available exclusively for rental from Blockbuster for 28 days.
Redbox and Netflix customers had to wait 28 days before they were able to rent the movie. This stems from the settlement of a lawsuit brought by Redbox against 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 February 16, 2010, Redbox settled the lawsuit and agreed to a 28-day window past the street date.
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