The Blind Side: John Lee Hancock's Life

How many of us can say we have truly helped someone? How many of us can say that we transformed someone? I bet not many of us have an answer for these two questions. There is people though who truly can say they changed someone's life. In the movie, The Blind Side, director John Lee Hancock paints a perfect picture of of how someone can do this. According to TCM.com,” John Lee Hancock Jr. was born in Longview, Texas in 1956. His all his family ever knew was football. Hancock’s dad, John Lee Hancock Sr.,played football at Baylor University. His brother Joe, played a center at Vanderbilt University. Finally, his brother Kevin played professionally for the Chicago Bears. Growing up, Hancock’s family was not very well off. Many struggles with sending

all the brothers to college and keeping up with all the random motives the brothers had drained money from their parents very quickly. As Hancock's brother, Kevin, climbed through the ranks of football, more and more money started flowing to the family.

Hancock viewed his brother as a very generous person for helping the family out during times of need.This impacted Johns outlook on how generous people should be. ”(par.2-3) Humans are naturally generous. We as a species, are breed to help one another during times of need. When a mother sees a baby crying, instincts kick in and the mother feels responsible for the baby when it may not even be their own child. Hancock noticed this as a young director and wanted his films to describe the emotions behind the people that are willing to help. Iain Blair from PostPerspective states,”Director, writer and producer John Lee Hancock has carved out a successful career with his ability to tell unlikely but true stories and bring them to life on screen”

(par.1).
The movie The Blind Side, is in the genre of drama. Noelle Buffman,from TheScriptLab, describes drama perfectly,” Drama film is a genre that relies on the emotional and relational development of realistic characters. While Drama film relies heavily on this kind of development, dramatic themes play a large role in the plot as well. Often, these dramatic themes are taken from intense, real life issues. Whether heroes or heroines are facing a conflict from the outside or a conflict within themselves, Drama film aims to tell an honest story of human struggles”(par.1). Now comparing the definition which Noelle Buffman states to FilmBug, which states,”A drama movie is a movie that depends that depends mostly on in-depth character development, interaction, and highly emotional themes. In a good drama film, the audience are able to experience what other characters are feeling and identify with someone (par.1), shows that the definition of drama remains the same without different perspectives. Drama is not simply a made up story. In this movie there is examples of this that would even exist today. In the movie The Blind Side, even the theme goes right along with the genre of the movie. One major theme would be that the Tuohys feels a white guilt. This takes place in many instances within this movie and is a prime example of how this film is realistic that these events could have taken place in anyone's life.
The Blind Side took place in Memphis, Tennessee.

The movie starts out with a story told by Leigh Anne Tuohy. The story talks about how in football there was a huge shift in the way recruiters looked for left tackles. Leigh Anne Tuohy gave an example of when Lawrence Taylor in 1985, sacked Joe Theismann, quarterback for the Washington Redskins at the time, and broke Joe’s leg. This caused a huge momentum shift in the National Football League to find huge left guards to cover the “Blind Side”. The “Blind Side” refers to the left side of a right handed quarterbacks body. While in the pocket of the Offensive Line the quarterback’s body is facing toward the right side of the field so he cannot see the left side of the field. Big Tony was a man who loves football in the city of Memphis. He sponsored two players to get them into Briarcrest Christian Academy. The players he sponsered were his son Steven and a kid named Michael Oher. Michael had very low testing scores but despite that the administration at Briarcrest admitted Michael because of his great football potential. Michael's early life at Briarcrest was very difficult. He couldn't even play sports or attend events for football because his grades were so bad. He was also very shy and lonely. Being from the inner city Michael lost a lot of experience that other kids, who grew up in wealthy families, got compared to him. Sean Tuohy was a basketball coach who notices Michael watching the team during practice. He is intrigued

by Michael’s experience in life because it is very similar to his. Growing up in a very poor family he had more experience that any other coach with inner city black kids. After getting to know Michael, Sean started being sympathetic to Michael. His wife Leigh Anne Tuohy was even more kind to Michael when he heard his story. She started buying clothes and food for Michael and hiring a tutor to help Michael out. After noticing that Michael loved the sport of football, Leigh Anne let Michael move in with their family so he could under a different house to play football. After many weeks of Michael playing football he started receiving Scholarship opportunities from Division 1 colleges.Around this time the Tuohys decided to adopt Michael as their own child. Michael was joined by Sean and Leigh Anne’s biological kids,Collins and Sean Junior. Sean Jr. was a huge motivation to Michael because he always told Michael to never give up and gave him pointers on how to be a great offensive linemen. During his Senior year, Michael starts looking at his college options. All of the colleges that interview Michael tell him that he will be in the NFL for sure and so they all are giving him a full ride scholarship. Michael seems to be most interested in Ole miss, partially because the Tuohys have all went to Ole Miss. Michael has a problem though. His GPA is to low for NCAA standards. With the help of Sean and his tutor Sue Mitchell, who also went to Ole Miss, Michael brought up his GPA and committed to Ole Miss. Shortly after Michael chooses Ole Miss there was an investigation by the NCAA of the Tuohys. They were reported to have been bribing Michael to play for Ole Miss by giving him a house and using him to give Ole Miss a great player. Michael doesnt view it as this though and still says he wants to play at Ole Miss. Once freshman at Ole Miss, the Tuohys built a house close to the stadium to watch Michael play football. At the end of the movie it shows the NFL draft and Michael getting selected to play for the Baltimore Ravens.
While at football game at Briarcrest Academy, Leigh Anne overhears a few people talking about Michael. Talking about how he is the first black kid to play on the team in years. You can almost see Leigh Anne feel a realization that white people have only been on this football team for years. She stands up to that individual and tells him that Michael is her child and he needs to tone it down. This is a perfect example of how white guilt can take over people. Another example This is another great example of how Leigh Anne could feel some guilt behind the fact that Michael would be thought of doing stuff as in rapeing her daughter just because of his race. This movie was by far one great movie. How the family took in Michael and made him part of the family was such a great aspect. It made the movie worth watching and definitely I will never forget the story of Michael Oher.