The Blind Side (2010) Movie

My colleague recommended this movie to my boss and me and by sheer co-incidence I had bought the DVD but hadn't watched it yet. My colleague said that the movie was a must-watch and was about the power of helping others. I lent the DVD to my boss who opined later that the movie was not quite believable. Surprised by the differing views from the 2 legal birds, I decided to watch the movie this weekend.

For the reason behind the movie's title and a really good and concise summary of what the movie is about, click here.

The Slog Reviews: 8.5/10. I'd known that Sandra Bullock had swept a number of prestigious acting awards for her role in this movie so I was watching out for her acting and even I, a layman, was blown away by her protrayal of a plucky wealthy upper-class white woman with a heart big enough to take in a large young black man who hadn't a place to call home. The film contrasted the "haves" and the "haves-not" with the protrayal of a wealthy white family living in a palatial home and being a real family in every sense of the word where the parents are involved actively in the children's lives and the family is shown to spend quality family time together. On the other hand, Big Mike never even had his own bed till he moves in with this family, he was taken away from his drug-using mother and moved from foster home to foster home where he ran away each time to look for his mother. He sleeps on friends' couches for the nights as his mother has been evicted out of the housing projects, and has no clothes except for those that he has in a small plastic bag. When Sandra Bullock's character first meets Mike, he is trudging in the rain heading for the school gym because there is heating there. It truely is heartbreaking to know, that this is the reality for some people out there - that they do not even have a bed, a place, a family, all the basics we have taken and still take forgranted or worse, as if we were entitled ( a sense of entitlement) to all that we have. With this show which is based on a true story, one is reminded of how rich one is (not in terms of wealth alone but in relationships, families) and how we should be reaching out to those whom fate has dealt a harsher hand from birth.

And this part of the movie, an essay written by Michael Oher, stayed me long after I'd finished watching the movie.

"Courage is a hard thing to figure. You can have courage based on a dumb idea or mistake, but you're not supposed to question adults, or your coach or your teacher, because they make the rules. Maybe they know best, but maybe they don't. It all depends on who you are, where you come from....That's why courage it's tricky. Should you always do what others tell you to do? Sometimes you might not even know why you're doing something. I mean any fool can have courage. But honor, that's the real reason for you either do something or you don't. It's who you are and maybe who you want to be. If you die trying for something important, then you have both honor and courage, and that's pretty good. I think that's what the writer was saying, that you should hope for courage and try for honor. And maybe even pray that the people telling you what to do have some, too. "