#THE BLIND SIDE MOVIE#
#THE BLIND SIDE FREE#

In fact after the prologue, football disappears from the movie for the next 50-minutes, which is no insignificant chunk of time for a two-hour movie that marketed itself on being a story about high school football. Theismann’s horrific injury leads to the richness that Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) brings to Tuohy’s life. The initial point of the scene is to illustrate the importance of the position of the left tackle, which protects a right-handed quarterback’s blind side from the defense, but the focus immediately shifts from football to the unpredictable ways that relationships take hold in our lives. The movie begins with the promise of similar insights as Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) provides the voice over for Lawrence Taylor snapping Joe Theismann’s leg yet again. (He also wrote Moneyball, a film of which is allegedly in the works by Steven Soderbergh, and most recently he penned The Big Short, which is about the financial crisis and which, seriously, may soon be starring Brad Pitt.) I’ve not read The Blind Side, but from what I understand from people who have, Lewis is not shy about digging into some of the finer points of football: the history, the strategy, the relationships between positions. The movie is based on a book of the same name by Michael Lewis, who has quietly emerged as a major force in pop culture. I don’t think it deserved to win, but I don’t mind that it was allowed to compete. Now that I have seen it, I still don’t begrudge it the nod. I thought it deserved a seat at the table. Even when I hadn’t seen it and never expected to, I was pleased that The Blind Side received a Best Picture nomination. More and more, I find the end-of-year prestige films too cloying, and I believe that room ought to be cleared for well made, crowd-pleasing offerings like Up and District 9. That said, much to the chagrin of my even snobbier friends, I was of the camp that cheered the Academy’s decision to expand the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten. I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste a Friday night on a big budget after-school special when I still haven’t seen Sorority Row.

There are simply too many unwatched movies and too few nights anymore to watch them all. This qualifies me as some kind of a cinematic snob, I realize, but so be it. When I opened the package that included The Blind Side I thought, “Huh.”īased on the reviews, the previews, the word of mouth, and frankly, the money it pulled in at the box office, I never would have watched The Blind Side had it not landed in my lap. When, however, two days after the Academy Awards, I opened a package that included The Blind Side I did not roll my eyes. Sadly, I’ve grown accustomed to opening these packages and rolling my eyes. What started as a cool treat during the middle of the day (“What? A DVD for me?”) has turned into a bit of a nuisance (“What? Another DVD for me?”). To throw them away just seems wasteful, but I don’t really know to whom to give them. Instead, they collect in a drawer at work. I don’t want them to contaminate my otherwise smart collection ( Ace Venture: Pet Detective anyone?). I’m vain enough that I keep these freebies off of my shelf at home.

The list I am on scores courtesy copies of Ninja Assassin, Imax Under the Sea (narrated by Jim Carrey), and Free Willy: Escape from Pirate’s Cove. I’m sure such a list exists that nets you such fare as The Complete Criterion Collection, Hitchcock’s Early Masterpieces, and Great Films of the French New Wave. I received the disc, unbidden, as the result of one of the perks we receive for writing for a site such as PopMatters: Once you get on a certain list, publicists send you unsolicited movies in the hopes that they will land a review. I was asked to review The Blind Side by accident.

#THE BLIND SIDE FREE#

The blind side