The Blind Side (2009) is a critically acclaimed and financially successful film by John Lee Hancock loosely based on the biography of Michael Oher, an outstanding football offensive tackle. The film tells the story of a poor black teenager, Oher, being adopted by a white middle-class family of Tuohys who help him become a prominent athlete and get into university. Although The Blind Side is based on a real-life story, the way it is handled makes the film a classical example of a “white savior” trope (Best), in which benevolent white people save black people from life predicaments. As such, The Blind Side promotes white paternalism, severely and consciously undermines the role of black people in their own success, and portrays them as incapable, helpless, and completely dependent on white people’s good will.
The Blind Side depicts Michael Oher as incompetent and clueless before the Tuohys groom him into a decent student and an outstanding football player through their influence, financial and emotional support, and couching, thus undermining the role of Oher himself in this process. The most remarkable scenes of the film illustrating this situation are the ones where the Tuohys teach Michael Oher to be a football player. For example, in one of the scenes, Leigh Anne Tuohy, an adoptive mother of the teenager, interrupts Oher’s training session at school to explain to him what he is supposed to do on the field. She tells the boy that he should view his teammates as a family he wants to protect the same way he wants to protect the Tuohys. Only after that is Oher capable to play decently, while before this emotional lecture he seemed to be completely lost on the field and perform poorly. Similarly, Oher’s adoptive brother S. J., a child of approximately twelve years old, tends to coach him in football. In one instance, S. J. explains football strategy and tactics to Oher using bottles as substitutes for players of different types.
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The film makes it seem that before this little white boy taught the black athlete about it, Oher had no idea about strategy and tactics in football. In another scene, S. J. is responsible for physical training of Oher. So the film makes it seem that, although the black teenager has talent, the Tuohys essentially make him a football player. It appears that he would not have managed as an athlete without them. Interestingly, these are some of the parts of The Blind Side the real-life Michael Oher criticizes the most (Papadopoulos). The athlete points out that, although the Tuohys provided him with much support in his pursuit of professional football career, he had become very good at football long before he met the family (Papadopoulos). Michael Oher also says that he put a lot of time and effort to achieve such results in football, which the film appears to completely overlook (Papadopoulos). A similar situation occurs in case of Oher’s academic successes.
The film shows Briarcrest Christian School accepting the black teenager after a heartfelt speech from his white coach, despite the former’s poor grades. In reality, Michael Oher says he had to take a number of rigorous tests to prove his academic abilities before he was accepted (Papadopoulos). Similarly, in the film, when Oher tries to improve his grades to be applicable for an athletic scholarship, the focus is on the way the Tuohys and his white tutor do their best to help him, not on the boy’s own efforts and struggle to get better. So The Blind Side does everything to emphasize the role of white people in the improvement of Oher’s situation and to diminish Oher’s role in it. As Melissa Anderson puts it in her article “Saintly White People Do the Saving in The Blind Side,” this situation is typical for a white savior film, “in which whiteys are virtuous saviors, coming to the rescue of African-Americans who become superfluous in narratives that are supposed to be about them.”
To make the situation even worse for black people representation in the film, The Blind Side portrays Michael Oher as having very meek, docile, and inexpressive personality, thus making the expressive Tuohys stand out more and seem more like real people. Oher in the film rarely talks, is very obedient and protective toward the Tuohys, and rarely shows much emotions. This is in strong contrast to the real-life Michael Oher who is rather expressive and emotional (Papadopoulos). The surprising portrayal of his personality in the film is another one of Michael Oher’s complaints about The Blind Side (Papadopoulos). Anderson points out that the athlete’s personality in the film is strangely similar to a pet puppy and that “he is merely . . . the vehicle through which the kind-hearted but imperfect whites surrounding him are made saintlier.” As Matthew Hughey, a sociologist and author of the book The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and Consumption, points out in his interview with Kenneth Best, this is a typical situation for a white savior film, which can pretend to be a story about the struggle of people of color, while in reality only praises a white paternal figure(-s), thus allowing the white audience, which constitutes the majority of moviegoers, to feel better about themselves.
So although The Blind Side (2009) by John Lee Hancock had an opportunity to tell an amazing story of success of a black underprivileged person, emphasizing this person’s efforts and characteristics which made it possible, the film instead focuses on Oher’s white supporters and undermines Oher’s role in his own story. This way The Blind Side enhances and promotes the idea of black people as incapable, incompetent, and helpless without white patrons. The film reinforces the tropes of white paternalism and black dependency, subtly claiming that black people are inferior to white people. This is why The Blind Side is a piece of media that sends a dangerous message to its audience.
- Anderson, Melissa. “Saintly White People Do the Saving in The Blind Side.” The Village Voice, 17 Nov. 2009, www.villagevoice.com/2009/11/17/saintly-white-people-do-the-saving-in-the-blind-side/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2018.
- Best, Kenneth. “The White Savior: Racial Inequality in Film.” UConn Today, 12 July 2016, today.uconn.edu/2016/07/white-savior-racial-inequality-film/#. Accessed 13 Nov. 2018.
- Hancock, John L., director. The Blind Side. Alcon Entertainment, 2009.
- Papadopoulos, Melina. “Michael Oher Tells a Whole Different Story about ‘The Blind Side.’” IcePop, 9 Aug. 2017, www.icepop.com/blind-side-film-facts/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2018.
