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The Blind Side
The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.
2009 · Directed by John Lee Hancock · 129 min · Drama · Screenplay in the scene database · 16 frames
Tagline
Based on the extraordinary true story
Plot
17-year-old Michael "Big Mike" Oher has been in foster care with different families in Tennessee, due to his biological mother's drug addiction, but every time he is placed in a new home, he runs back to her. His friend's father, on whose couch Michael has been sleeping, asks Burt Cotton, the football coach of Wingate Christian School, to help get his son and Michael enrolled. Impressed by Mike's size and athleticism, Cotton gets him admitted despite his poor academic record. Michael is befriended by a younger student named Sean Tuohy Jr. ("SJ"). SJ's mother, Leigh Anne, is a strong-minded interior designer and the wife of wealthy businessman Sean Sr.
The school staff tells Michael that his father has died, apparently due to an accident. Later, Leigh Anne and Sean watch their daughter Collins playing volleyball. After the game, Sean notices Michael picking up food discarded on the bleachers. On the eve of Thanksgiving, Leigh Anne notices Michael walking alone on the road, shivering in the cold without adequate clothing. When she learns that he plans to spend the night huddled outside the closed school gym, Leigh Anne offers to let him sleep on the couch in the Tuohy home.
The next morning, Leigh Anne notices that Michael has left. Seeing him walking away, she asks him to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with her family. Later, Leigh Anne drives Michael to his biological mother's house. He sees an eviction notice posted on the door, indicating that his mother is gone. Slowly, Michael becomes a member of the Tuohy family; Leigh Anne's friends question this and suggest that Collins might not be safe around him, but Leigh Anne criticizes them. She later asks Collins how she feels about it. Collins replies that they cannot just throw Michael out. When Leigh Anne seeks to become Michael's legal guardian, she learns he was taken from his drug-addict mother when he was seven and that no one knows her whereabouts. She is also told that, although he scored poorly in a career aptitude test, he ranked in the 98th percentile in "protective instincts". Michael eventually improves his grades enough that he can play football at school. However, Michael appears to be hesitant to use his strength and size while practicing, Leigh Anne tells him, as an offensive lineman, he must protect his quarterback. From that moment, Michael improves dramatically, well enough to play at the college level. However, to do that, he must meet the minimum grade point average to get in so the Tuohys hire a private tutor for him, the outspoken and kind Miss Sue.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: John Lee Hancock
- Cinematography: Alar Kivilo
- Edited by: Mark Livolsi
- Music: Carter Burwell
- Production design: Michael Corenblith
- Produced by: Andrew A. Kosove, Gil Netter, Broderick Johnson
Cast
- Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy
- Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy
- Quinton Aaron as Michael Oher
- Jae Head as S.J. Tuohy
- Lily Collins as Collins Tuohy
- Ray McKinnon as Coach Cotton
- Kim Dickens as Mrs. Boswell
- Adriane Lenox as Denise Oher
- Kathy Bates as Miss Sue
- Catherine Dyer as Mrs. Smith
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Alcon Entertainment, Netter Productions
- Budget: $29,000,000
- Box office: $309,231,694
- Themes: sports, american football, adoption, private school, education, based on true story, memphis, tennessee, duringcreditsstinger, christian, high school american football
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