“The Blind Side,” a film directed by John Lee Hancock and based on Michael Lewis’s book, has left a lasting impression on audiences worldwide.
In this touching sports drama, Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw play wealthy white parents who take in a homeless black kid and change his life. It made more than $300 million in the end, and Bullock won Best Actress at the 2010 Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture.
The heartwarming narrative of Michael Oher, a talented yet underprivileged high school football player, and the Tuohy family who takes him in raises questions about the authenticity of the story.
In this article, we delve into the true story behind “The Blind Side” to uncover the real-life events that inspired the film.
What is The Blind Side About?
The film was initially based on Michael Lewis’s 2006 book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. The book was divided into two halves. It focused on how professional football is changing, with Lawrence Taylor dominating NFL quarterbacks with his ability to rush from the ‘Blind Side.’
This effectively means that Taylor would rush from the right, and because most quarterbacks are right-handed, they wouldn’t have a clear vision of him approaching them. As a result, the film used the title ‘Blind Side’ to elicit emotional responses to the word while also connecting it to football.
Michael Oher played left tackle, bringing him into direct contact with rushing defenders on the blind side. His assignment was to guard the quarterback’s blind spot, and the video also examined his protective instincts for his adopted family.
Oher’s life was the sole focus of the film. It didn’t focus as much on the NFL as the first book did. As a boy, Oher was moved from foster home to foster home while his father was incarcerated and his mother battled a crippling drug addiction.
Collins and Sean Tuohy, who went to high school with Big Mike, were members of the Tuohy family. They became friends, and after observing Oher’s terrible existence, the Tuohy family decided to formally adopt him after his father died in prison.
Is The Blind Side Based on a True Story?
The movie “The Blind Side” is based on the real-life of Oher. The Baltimore Ravens picked him up in the first round of the 2009 NFL draft. Michael Lewis wrote a book with the same name about his journey from being homeless to playing professional football. Many Hollywood movies, though, make up details to make them more dramatic.
For example, Oher had a problem with how the movie showed how much he knew about sports. When the Tuohy family took Oher under their wing, he was already on the football, basketball, and track and field teams. In the movie, they teach him to play football.
Oher wrote in his autobiography I Beat the Odds, “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 how to play football.”
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“Every scene I watched, whether it was S.J. moving ketchup bottles around or Leigh Anne telling me what blocking is, I thought, ‘No, that’s not me at all!'” I’ve really been learning the game since I was a kid! That was the biggest thing that bothered me about the movie.”