Oller's Second Thoughts: Hollywood showed its blind spot when producing 'The Blind Side'
Movies are not real life. Say it with me. Movies. Are. Not. Real. Life.
So if movies are not real, and "The Blind Side" is a movie, it must follow that 'The Blind Side' is not real.
And it’s not. Sandra Bullock is not Leigh Anne Tuohy, as much as Hollywood wants us to think otherwise. And Quinton Aaron is not Michael Oher, as Oher most definitely wants us to know. The retired NFL lineman, who is Black, does not like the way he is portrayed in the 2009 movie, as a mentally challenged and helpless victim “saved” by the Tuohys, who are white.
I want to talk about the movie here, not the current controversy that began with Oher accusing the Tuohys of lying about having adopted him and tricking him into signing a document making them his conservators, which gave them legal authority to make business deals in – and get rich off of – his name. The Tuohys fired back by saying Oher is shaking them down for $15 million.
The lawsuit is messy on both sides. Oher says one thing. The Tuohys say another. My bet is the truth lies somewhere in the middle. One thing for certain, the total truth is not found in the movie.
Before eye-rolling a "No kidding," know this: Thousands who have seen the movie think the real story is the one they saw on the big screen or on streaming. Just like they think Kate Winslet kept Leo from joining her on that floating piece of debris in "Titanic." (Note: Jack likely would have died from hypothermia anyway).
The mistake often made when watching movies is we totally believe what the director and actors are selling, because we want to believe. We want happy endings, like "The Blind Side," when real life is much more nuanced. And nuance does not fit the feel-good narrative we choose to believe.
The current uproar over "The Blind Side" flows from a “false-positive,” of being spoon fed only the simplest forms of good and evil, Black and white, woke or asleep. The middle ground has been lost.
Imagine if Hollywood would have made the movie more like the book on which it was based, and if the book had been an exact reflection of the Oher-Tuohy relationship. But of course it could not have been. Nothing non-fictional moves onto the page perfectly intact.
"The Blind Side," as both book and movie, aims to entertain. It is not a documentary, which usually has a goal of enlightening. But even documentaries take liberties.
Take sides in the Oher vs. Tuohy cage fight if you wish, but be careful not to base your reasoning on one night of passing the popcorn.
Lionel Messi is a marvel. Is MLS a comic book?
A dilemma: I want to believe MLS is moving up in the world, that a league once not worthy of being ranked in the top 20 in the world now deserves to be included in the top 10.
It has to be, right? I mean, MLS has Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest soccer player in history, who would never lower himself to play in a minor league.
But there's the rub. Playing for Inter Miami, Messi is scoring goals so easily – nine goals in six games – against MLS teams in Leagues Cup play that it raises a chicken or egg question: is Messi this brilliant or is MLS this bad?
I’m giving the league the benefit of the doubt, largely because Messi is talking big about MLS.
Speaking to U.S. media for the first time since joining Inter Miami last month as a free agent, Messi said MLS is poised to reach the same level as Europe’s top leagues.
“It has every opportunity to do so,” he said. “It’s time for the league to make that leap and finish growing, finish looking for what it's been seeking for a while. Everything is in place here to witness top-level football because of the country, the structure, a bunch of things.”
I’ll take his word for it, but it would be nice to see some proof, like Nashville keeping Messi from scoring in Saturday’s Leagues Cup final?
Listening in
“I think Phil (Mickelson) should be removed from the Hall of Fame. I don’t think he has any business being in the Hall of Fame. He’s caused irreparable damage to the game.” – Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee
Off-topic
In-laws are great people. Wonderful people. I just don’t understand them. And they don’t get me. Can anyone else relate? Example: My extended family all love science. Can’t get enough of it. Thus, a recent visit to COSI blew their minds. Rightfully so. COSI is super cool. I like science, but it doesn’t do it for me like golf does. So sue me.
Anyway, my sense is that my in-laws, who are not huge sports fans, fail to understand how I cannot be obsessed with learning how molecules stick together, yada, yada.
My retort? “The few times you attend a baseball game you mostly enjoy the hot dog and beer, right? The game is just something happening in the background, right?”
Them: Yes.
“Well, that’s me with science. I marvel at a beautiful sunset without wondering how the light refraction made it possible.”
Different strokes for different folks. Love my fam.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: The Blind Side is a happy Hollywood ending that dabbles in fiction
