Introduction to Michael Oher's Journey
Based on a book ‘The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game’, the movie I am going to talk about in this paper is based on a true story. Michael Oher, lonely boy, left away to the streets has now entered school, no money, no family, started sleeping at the school’s gym during winter as it was warming, then one day, the most amazing thing was going to happen to him, he was about to discover true love, respect and protection. Walking on a rainy night, the Tuohy family, a privileged family noticed Michael, and this when Leigh Anne, mother of the family believed that she had to do something for him, she took him in, he slept on her couch for a few days, which turned out to weeks, and even though this family already had two children, SJ (youngest son) and Collin (the big sister), they directly felt like Michael belonged and had to be part of their family.
Born in Hurt Village, younger, he used to live with his mother which was battling drugs and alcohol addiction. Being in and out of foster care, always running back to his biological mother, he never believed that he would find a family where he would perfectly fit in it. Black American, big and tall, Michael Oher seems to fit all stereotype that one has regarding race, started out as a burden to the eyes of the society, but with the help of the right woman and family he blossomed and turned out to be the most amazing person. Leigh Anne (Sandra Bullock) protected him, developed her defensive side when people started to talk about Michael, she got attached to him and he always protected his family no matter what. At first, everyone was afraid of Michael, felt like he would rape Leigh Anne’s daughter, or steal from their home, but later on, Leigh Anne proved that he has the biggest heart and one of his only purposes in life was to protect his loved one: “He scored 98% of protective instinct”. And this is where Michael became an example that showed the importance of acceptance that our society has to be embarking on.
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Cinematography and Visual Storytelling
First started with a medium to long shot to introduce Michael Oher in his real village, using a telephone lens to portray the fact the Michael was way bigger than the people in the blurred background behind him. Dark, sad and walking alone we can see that Michael’s life wasn’t easy at all. Not showing any of his emotions, you can already know what he is thinking of himself, like he has no self-esteem and doesn’t believe in himself at all. At the beginning of the movie, they showed a small part of the end of the movie, when the NCCA where investigating Michael, but we didn’t know why was that. At the beginning of the movie, all of the shots were medium to long shot, either showing all of Michael’s body or only from his waist up, but mostly long shot to show where he used to live as a child and then the environment he was going to live in, big nice city and a big school. Usually using eye-level-shot, the clearest view of an object, to portray Michael or any other character that starred in this movie. We then see, the high-angle mostly used when the coach first saw Michael’s athletic abilities. Talking and defending him to get him into school even though his grades were low. But the most used combination was the eye-level-shot while using the medium shot, mostly to put us in the character’s position, like we were at his place, living his life and fears.
First part of the movie, showing us the city where Michael grew up in, was portrayed in a fast film-stock, grainy sensitive to light, but at the end to the middle of the movie it changed and started to turn out as a slow film-stock, polished like Michael’s life. When he met his new family, mostly all of the shot were close-shots, mostly his new mother and him, to show that they are creating a bond, something that both couldn’t get rid of, an unconditional love as well as a mother-son relationship that would be an unbreakable bond.
The most two equally dominant characters are Michael Oher and his future mother by adoption is Leigh Anne Tuohy. Of course, Michael would be one of the most dominant as he is the biggest one, his skin color is different which drags our eyes directly to him. The contrast between both dominant characters is noticeable, both are always centered because they are the important elements in this whole movie. Sometimes Leigh Anne would be place near the top are of the frame, where she would be considered as a woman with pure power and authority. Started out with a dark grey to brown shirt, Michael Oher, wearing the same color palette, this dark, sad color, like he wanted not to be noticed, not to be looked at, shy, didn’t want to talk with anybody because he knew that everybody was going to be afraid of him. But later you see him chose his clothes. Leigh Anne saw that he didn’t have any other clothes than the one he was wearing already, washing them every day. She wanted to go and chose clothes that fits his personality, she let him chose his first outfit which was directly a bright orange with a navy-blue strip t-shirt. Wearing bright yellow, red and orange colors mostly, like he is a rise on sunshine, always smiling. You can now notice him and pay attention to him, like after being taken care of by the Tuohy family he wanted to show everyone that he isn’t bad, that he loves to help and protect the people around him and this all because he has discovered love.
Character Development and Costume Design
Then you have Leigh Anne, the mother, the blond beautiful and strong character mom. Her first appearance was her wearing white, like an angel falling from the sky, she was noticeable from miles away. You can feel that when you first look at her that she was going to change something in this movie, enhance Michael’s life, like she was an angel falling from the sky. She’s most of the time wearing white throughout the movie, this color suits her personality, she is pure, giving and a respectable woman. When focusing on Leigh Anne the lighting is always bright, high key lighting showing all of her beautiful aspects and her pure soul, whereas Michael at the beginning of the movie was portrayed as only a big shadow. Low key lighting with nearly no sight of light on him, eventually, he resembles well to his clothes, he didn’t want to be noticeable, nor from his dress code. When looking at the shadows on Michael’s body, you don’t feel that those shadows are here to portray that he is dangerous but in the contrary to show how ashamed of himself he is. He doesn’t want to talk nor express his feeling, especially at school, he knew nearly all of the material discussed but didn’t want to show them that he was able to understand, he thought that he was going to get kicked out of the school like all the other 9 schools he went to, he didn’t know that this one was different, that he was about to create the most beautiful career in his life. He didn’t believe in himself.
Family Dynamics and Supportive Characters
As we all know the subsidiary contrasts character that comes right after Leigh Anne is SJ, his son, but also a great role model to Michael, in fact, SJ (Leigh Anne’s biological son) helped Michael achieve his goals, wanted him to be the best football player on the field, he knew how to coach and talk to him. And he always says: “Michael Oher is my brother”, encouraging him to become a better player and to open up his beautiful heart to everyone. And finally, Collins (Leigh Anne’s daughter) and Sean (husband) also helped Michael to become what he is now, who are also on the third level supporting contrasting characters.
Camera Techniques and Emotional Engagement
All of the shots through out the movie were very dense, but mostly at the beginning of the movie, every shot where Michael was portrayed in are so dense as it makes you feel that you are in his mind. He overthinks too much and most of the time he feels lost and overwhelmed with people, but later on you can feel a more harmonic density, the shots are dense but more homogeneous. Like everything in his mind is now focused on one thing, to make his new family proud and to achieve goals he never though he would be able to achieve. Everything composition at the start of the movie were in diagonal, which would suggest tension and anxiety regarding Michael’s case, then later on everything became so horizontal, like he has now a new and a fixed path in order to succeed, everything was so clear to him now that he only had one chose to do, make his family proud.
But there is also a binary feel between both dominant characters, they are in perfect synchronization and harmony. Closed form was used when Michael thought that he was going to be like his ‘gang’ of Hurt Village, drug dealer, alcoholic, everything was so confusing for him, he didn’t want to follow this path but thought that he was forced to do it as it was the only path to follow for his ‘kind’ of people, exactly the same road that his biological mother’s. Later on, the introduction of open form, you feel that because he was introduced to a new way of living, he would choose his own path, but this changed only after Leigh Anne confronted him, in fact, throughout the movie, his new family had a plan for him, that he was going to be an amazing football star, but they never asked Michael whether he wanted to be this star or no. Only after their first fight, Michael though that the Tuohy family only let him in because he was going to be a star and go to Ole Miss University, but they made him clear to him that it was going to be his choice whether he wanted to go to Ole Miss or Tennessee University. Michael was always in a tight frame, as his way of life was going to be the same, thinking that he would die because of drugs or a murder. Depth of field was always used whether it was as the start or end of the movie, mostly at the start feeling like he was drowning in his old life.
Never looking directly at the camera, Michael emotions are always hidden, but then later on, he looks at Leigh Anne directly in the eyes, he isn’t ashamed of himself anymore, he wants to protect her. There was this scene where he went back to see his biological mother, and he saw his old gang that started talking about how fine is his new family, pretty daughter and mother. He went crazy, wanted to kill everybody because they talked this way about someone dear to his heart.
Last but not least, Leigh Anne and Michael always had an intimate distance, showing that they are comfortable with each other in contrary to others, fearing Michael (Leigh Anne’s friends mostly), always wanted to have a public distance with him in fear that he would hurt them.
The major camera movements used in this movie where the handheld and dolly. Mostly, Handheld was used when Michael was walking and playing on the football field. To show the pure emotion, like we are exactly in his shoes. Having the same fear and emotions, at the first bulk of the movie, handheld was so used that it felt like I was in the movie. Then comes the dolly part where everything started to be so fixed and perfect, life his future life.
Diegetic as well as non-diegetic sound are used in this movie, most non-diegetic where they used many songs to describe the emotions that Michael was fearing mostly. No Foley sound has been used, maybe only the sound on the football field when there were running on the grass and beating each other. Mostly non-diegetic sound was used to show the sweet spot of Michael, showing that he is indeed sweet and doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He would prefer hurt himself than someone else.
Last but not least, editing. As for editing I am going to talk about the major points I saw throughout the movie, the editing techniques that strikes me the most in relation to the theme above, which are: cut, establishing shot, matched cut and jump cut. Cut, of course used as a transition between two different shots, it still led to a sense of continuity in a way, following each step. It was simple and straightforward. The establishing shot, mostly shown 2 times, when where Michael was shown in his original village followed by the one used to show his new school and new family. The establishing shot for the school and the house was used with a bird’s eye view shot, showing it from up there, to enhance and have a total view of what his new life is going to be about and where it will take place. Of course, matched cut, where it is joining two shots but having the same elements in the composition. And the editing technique that I preferred the most was the jump cut, and this occurred at the end of the movie, Michael Oher started to be recognized as a football player, every big university wanted him, they wanted him to be part of their league. And you saw every coach entering his house to have a talk with him, to convince him to attend their university. So, you see the same scene being repeated over and over, like a time lapse, Leigh Anne opening the door to 20 different coaches and saying: “Michael, it’s for you”.
Conclusion: The Impact of Kindness and Family
In conclusion, ‘The Blind Side’ is indeed my favorite movie as I love how because of the kindness of a family, the life of a man changed. It shows how love and respect can push a man’s true nature. Michael always and will forever protect his family no matter what. Leigh Anne directly knew that Michael would be a great leader and a protector. Michael said: “I will always have your back, mama” and this was one of the most beautiful intentions knowing that Michael doesn’t show his emotions. Michael and Leigh Anne are perfectly complementary as both don’t like to show their emotions but learned how to do so.
Reference
- Tawanda, L. (n.d.). The Blind Side Eng 225: Introduction to Film. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/9339551/The_Blind_Side_Eng_225_Introduction_to_Film
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