THE BLIND SIDE
The movie was mostly accurate except for the portrayal of Michael Oher's personalty. The movie made him to seem shy and timid all of the time, but Michael knew how to stand up for himself. He did not let others take advantage of him and would not let it continue. He also had a bad GPA, but Michael was not as stupid as the movie made it. He was smart, but just did not try in school for so long that his GPA dropped. Every other character I think was portrayed well and the events were pretty accurate. The only major part was how Michael learned football from the Tuohy's when in reality, he already knew the game.
Tuohy Interview
Michael Oher's Side
Micheal wrote a memoir called I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness to The Blind Side and Beyond. In his book he explains the real facts about his life. He is known in the movie to have been super quiet and scared, but he actually has a very outgoing personality. In the book Micheal wrote, "I felt like it portrayed me as dumb instead of as a kid who had never had consistent academic instruction and ended up thriving once he got it. Quinton Aaron did a great job acting the part, but I could not figure out why the director chose to show me as someone who had to be taught the game of football. Whether it was S.J. moving around ketchup bottles or Leigh Anne explaining to me what blocking is about, I watched those scenes thinking, 'No, that's not me at all! I've been studying — really studying — the game since I was a kid!' That was my main hang-up with the film." His views on the book are so strong in this short paragraph. The little things are just wrong to him. He felt the need to write a book to fix the mistakes in the movie.
The movie brought Micheal Oher a lot of fame that he was not ready for. While being asked about the movie before a game he once said to the reporters, "I’m tired of the movie. I’m here to play football." This just shows how annoyed he was from the reporters. They only focused on the movie right before he had a hug football game. The movie took away a lot of his sucess he made on his own and it just focuses on the character from the movie rather than himself.
Book for Sale
HISTORICAL ACCURACY
This movie receives 3 out of 5 stars. They did a very good job of getting the general story out to the public in an entertaining film, but it was not all correct. The characters all look like the real people, so they did a good job of making the movie seem realistic. There are too many situations in the movie that the real Micheal Oher does not approve on. For him to go as far as publishing an entire memoir on it really makes the movie look bad. Not many people know this because it was a surprise for many to hear. It is noted in the beginning of the film that is “based off a true story”. These terms are technically correct but the word based should be extremely emphasized. The producers changed the entire portrayal of Michael. They gave him a very timid personality rather than a strong smart individual who was looking to succeed. In the movie he is also taught how to play football or to tackle by his adoptive mother, Leigh, but in real life she never taught him that. In real life that whole scene never even happened.
