Pisaries Creator

Many of us watched the movie adaptation of the book about Michael Oher and the Tuohy family called The Blind Side. We watched Sandra Bullock earn an Oscar for her role as the “adoptive mother” of Michael Oher. While movies take creative liberties to make them better for screen adaptation, this movie took great liberties to make the actual people appear radically different from reality. In other words, Michael Oher was portrayed as mentally challenged in his studies and the Tuohy’s whom he called his mom and dad never officially adopted him. These differences made Michael question the intentions and motives of his relationship with them years later.

Blindsided offers us a different picture of Michael Oher. He wasn’t homeless before staying with the Tuohy’s. He was athletic and understood the sport of football and what each player should be doing in a game before meeting the Tuohy’s as well. There is no doubt the Tuohy’s most likely had good intentions for Michael, but to learn of their conservatorship over him and going into his adult life obviously raises questions. What was the reason for doing this in the first place if not for their benefit? The second being what they supposedly said to him (verbally) was not what was done (action). As the documentary commented on, marketing yourself as the adoptive parent of Michael when you know legally there is no such thing, well that constitutes a lie.

While there are, at least, two sides to every story, the former relationship between the Tuohy’s and Michael is being handled in the court of law. It’s good that Michael is free from the conservatorship, but the who knows what would have happened had this movie adaptation never been made. Could he have played longer as a professional football player? Then again, this sport is hard on their bodies and brains. As the credits rolled for Blindsided, I kept going back to one thought that deals with human reaction and psychology. When someone promises you something that means the world to you and then never does it, everything that person did prior out of kindness tends not to matter anymore. Sometimes Hollywood fairytales you see on the screen are actually ugly realties and that’s the meaning and purpose of this documentary.

I rate Blindsided FOUR FINGERS and ONE THUMB AT 100%