The Blind Side vs. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
Prior to Sandra Bullock winning eight different awards, including the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, for her part in The Blind Side, Michael Lewis wrote a New York Times Best Seller, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. While Bullock captured hearts alongside supporting actors Tim McGraw and Quinton Aaron, Lewis’ novel told the same story yet unfolded so much more. Both book and film deal with the upbringing of Michael Oher and his rags to riches story, but in entirely different ways. In the book Lewis explains why Oher’s position at left tackle is the most crucial in the NFL. Also, Lewis explains how the NFL has evolved significantly over the past two decades and what has caused such dramatic changes, where the film tells nothing of this. In order to make the film appeal to a much wider crowd, director John Lee Hancock not only downplays most of Oher’s hardships, but also cuts out about half of the book, while explaining nothing about the game of football. The lack of detail in the film is often over shadowed by Bullock’s performance leaving the viewer satisfied and completely oblivious as to what flaws there are in the film.
Michael Oher, the subject of both book and film, was born in Memphis, Tennessee to an alcohol, crack-cocaine addicted mother and an incarcerated father who eventually was murdered in prison. Oher attended eleven different schools before his freshman year of high school, when he was found wandering the streets in the rain and brought in by an upscale white family, the Tuohys. The Tuohys eventually became his legal guardians and took him through high school, college and all the way to the NFL. John Lee Hancock’s film, although portrayed as a very believable story, leaves out vast detail in both Oher’s and the Tuohy’s lives. Controversies with the NCAA, Oher’s true personality as well as Michael Lewis’ explanations of the NFL’s evolution, are completely left out of the film. This is viewed by film critiques as a benefit, but for people who are looking for more on football, it is perceived rather negatively.
The Homework on The Blind Side 4
Taken in by a well-to-do family and offered a second chance at life, a homeless teen grows to become the star athlete projected to be the first pick at the NFL draft in this sports-themed comedy drama inspired by author Michael Lewis’ best-seller The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game. Michael Oher was living on the streets when he was welcomed into the home of a conservative suburban family, ...
What the film completely leaves out is explaining why the left tackle position is so important, and how the game has evolved and now needs a player like Michael Oher to fill that spot. As Lewis begins his book before even introducing Michael Oher, he explains how the speed of defenses, especially in one player Lawrence Taylor, changed the game. Bill Parcells, Lawrence Taylor’s head coach, explains how Taylor was the first player in the NFL to combine enormous size and blazing speed, which obligated offensive lineman to not only be colossal in size but also have speed as well. “Taylor’s incredible speed put offensive coordinators into confusion every game. How is it possible to stop someone so big but so fast? When Coach Bill Parcells moved him to the backside of the defense so quarterbacks couldn’t see him injuries were occurring, and at a fast rate. Something needed to change and fast” (Lewis 19).
The whole first chapter of the book is an introduction to Michael Oher’s story which is not at all covered in the movie, and non football fans like Jane Sommars, a book reviewer from Yahoo.com, found that introduction very helpful. “I am not much of a football fan, and there is plenty of football in this book! Lewis alternates telling Michael’s story with chapters discussing the development of the left tackle position, which, according to Lewis, few people understand or notice while watching the game. The left tackle doesn’t make plays or score points; he makes it possible for the rest of the team to do so” (Sommars).
Sommars goes on to say that after she watched the movie it would have probably helped to put more of an introduction as to why Michael Oher fit the position so much better than previous left tackles before launching into Oher’s story.
The Essay on "Thirteen Days": Comparing And Contrasting The Book And The Movie
“Thirteen Days”, written by Robert F. Kennedy, is an account of the Cuban Missile Crisis based on the view of Robert F. Kennedy. This book contains Kennedy’s thoughts about the Cuban Missile Crisis and the actions that he and the rest of the United States cabinet took to prevent a nuclear disaster and World War III. There is also a movie based on the book starring Kevin Costner. ...
As the movie and book both progress, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game introduces a character never talked about in the movie, Tom Lemming. Lemming was the man in nineteen seventy-eight that created a book which ranked the top one hundred high school football players. It is at this point in the book that Michael Oher was introduced. The author tells how Lemming wanted to fly out to Tennessee to see Oher; however there is no information about him: no address, no phone number, nothing. The movie starts at about this point in the book when Michael Oher gets taken to nearby Briarcrest High School by a man simply named “Big Tony”. “Tony” thinks Michael will help out their sports programs due to his size. It is made clear in the movie that Oher has trouble with academics, but in reality, according to the book, Oher has no idea what to even do with a book. “Principal Steve Simpson wanted to help Michael but with his lack of attendance and very poor grades the only option available for Michael was a Christian home study program…Michael can’t do this by himself Big Tony tells Principal Simpson, the books, he will pick them up skim through them and not say a word he doesn’t know what to do.” (Lewis 59).
Director John Lee Hancock downplays how demanding it is for Michael to do school work, making it seem like he still has a chance to make something out of himself. But author Michael Lewis tells how “Big Mike (Oher) as a fifteen year old had the intelligence of a second grader; it saddened almost the entire staff at Briarcrest” (Lewis 65).
Oher eventually gets accepted into Briarcrest and finally gets onto the football field his junior year. In Lewis’ book, Oher is described as “just a monster standing at six foot five inches tall and weighing three hundred and fifty pounds (and) he has all the potential in the world on the defensive line” (Lewis 93).
At this point in Oher’s story according to the movie, he was already living with the Tuohy’s and they were the reason he was playing football on the offensive side of the ball, never having mentioned Oher as a defensive lineman. Halfway through his junior year, Oher is switched to the offensive side of the ball and begins to dominate the competition. However, after a hand injury that sends him to the hospital with broken bones, the Tuohys actually come into Oher’s life to both pay for his medical bills and take him in to live with them. Another aspect left out of the film is how Tom Lemming comes back once the Tuohy’s contact him. With Lemming’s help, Oher’s name gets to many of the top ten football schools in the country. It is here that Oher’s football career starts to take off.
The Essay on Sir Henry Movie Book Stapleton
Imagine if you had to read about the Titanic, instead having the pleasure of watching it. Wouldn t it be boring That s why movies are preferred over books. Movies have everything. A s ance, romance and suspense are all parts of a good movie. Books can only help the reader imagine the plot, but the movie actually takes the reader there. The movie version of The Hound of the Baskervilles starring ...
As Oher’s senior year is coming up, director John Lee Hancock portrays in his film that everything is falling into place and looking positive for Oher to have a stellar year and graduate; to go on smoothly to the collegiate football program of his choice. This point in the story, however, is where the movie and book disperse into much different directions. The movie shows how Oher works with a tutor, which is true, however what the movie doesn’t show is how Oher’s grade point average is around a 1.0. Oher didn’t graduate from high school with the rest of his class as the movie showed. He had to do a significant number of online classes with a tutor to make up for all of the classes that he had failed. Many of the colleges that were interested in Oher were very skeptical that he would even qualify for a scholarship, due to the fact that the minimum grade point average to be eligible is a 2.0, well above what Michael had or what he was capable of. Oher did have a great senior year and the movie accurately shows how many colleges wanted him; although they did not all come into his home back to back to back like the film shows. This time was extremely stressful for Oher since he had no idea what this was all about with different people pressuring him to go to a variety of different schools. The film disguises Oher’s choice to go to Ole Miss as simple, and conveniently leaves out any of the controversy, which was plentiful.
Both Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy are Ole Miss Alumni as well as Sue Mitchell, Oher’s tutor. The fact that the Tuohy’s were not Oher’s legal parents was perceived very negatively. A rich white couple whom were both Ole Miss Alum taking in a starting player who has interest in their alma mater was strongly frowned upon. At the same time, Oher’s high school coach was offered a job at the University of Tennessee and Ole Miss. One of Oher’s few friends was wanted by the University of Alabama. New York Times sports writer Robert Siegel talks about Oher’s recruitment back in two thousand six saying “Extremely talented LT Michael Oher considers Ole Miss, Louisiana State, University of Alabama, and LSU, but interestingly enough Oher was taken off the streets by Ole Miss alum, and high school coach Hugh Freeze was offered a recent job at school. I’m all for people doing good deeds, hey it is the holiday season, but in this case something seems a little fishy…” (Siegel).
The Essay on Miss Hannigan Annie Movie Dance
Dazzle wizz le When thinking of musicals the first one that came to mind was Annie. Annie, starring Albert Finney, Carol Burnett, and Aileen Quinn as Annie s one of many versions of musical and was released in 1982 and although the box numbers didn't show it it became an instant classic. I chose Annie because it was the very first musical i have ever seen. I grew up watching the plucky red haired ...
The film portrays this series of events rather briefly, showing that the NCAA does send someone out to the Tuohy household to investigate, but through the Tuohy’s persuasion and Oher telling the investigator that the Tuohy’s being alum had nothing to do with his decision, it all went away. Oher did make his final decision to go to Ole Miss but throughout the investigation the film shows Oher staying rather calm, where the book shows Oher exploding multiple times and being rather outspoken in the meetings. With the gathering of the coaches, the book says Oher was basically running the show, not the Tuohy’s young son S.J. (Sean Tuohy Jr.).
Perri Nemiroff from cinemablend.com writes, “The rather outspoken Oher in real life was portrayed as almost a huge teddy bear in the movie. I don’t know whether it was Quinton Aaron (playing Oher in the film) and his inexperienced acting, or if the director didn’t want to give him many lines, but Hancock really misrepresented the real Michael Oher” (Nemiroff).
It is interesting how movies can make one believe a character to be a certain way when in actuality the movie industry misrepresents peoples’ thoughts and personalities, changing them to make them more appealing to a broader crowd in order to make more money.
Oher ends up committing to Ole Miss despite the controversy. The book explains that he had wanted to go to Ole Miss all along but just really enjoyed the attention that he was receiving from all the other schools. In the movie, John Lee Hancock makes it seem as if the Tuohy’s son, S.J., was Oher’s only friend and that he was making all the decisions about college instead of Oher himself. The only truth about that according to Michael Lewis’ book is that the Ole Miss Coach Ed Oregon did notice that Oher and S.J. were close and offered S.J. an all access field-pass for as long as Oher was attending Ole Miss.
The Essay on Michael Jackson 6
Decades in the business and only 5 major albums to show for, each one has bulleted to the top of the charts and made recording history. From his mysterious demeanor, to his moonwalk and non-threatening voice, he became an icon to music lovers and fashion critics all over the world. His singing touched millions, and he left a profound impact towards everyone on Earth. In two words, he is summarized ...
As Oher’s story continues on, the movie begins to wrap up showing clips from Oher’s graduation and a slideshow of pictures with Oher and the Tuohys in many different settings. As the credits begin to role, a clip of Michael Oher being selected to the Baltimore Ravens is shown at the NFL draft. The concluding scene in the film shows pictures of the real Tuohy family with Oher and tells how all of the Tuohys are doing today. It concludes by showing that the Tuohys and Oher remain very close to this day. However the book still carries on Oher’s story through Ole Miss and has much more explanation about how the position of the left tackle has evolved. Kim Martinez directly reviews the film compared to the book and tells how Michael Lewis’ explanations of the left tackle’s evolution really connected well and made the story make more sense. “The connections that Lewis makes to the ‘Evolution of a Game’ explain so well why Oher is such a vital part of a modern day NFL offensive. The way Lewis went back and forth between Michael Oher’s upcoming and the changes in football, interests of football fans and others were simultaneously kept” (Martinez).
Michael Lewis gives examples of previous NFL tackles that were the first of their kind, the same type of player as Michael Oher who combined both immense size and incredible speed. Lewis also tells how the left tackle, starting in nineteen ninety three, became one of the highest paid positions in the National Football League, second only to quarterbacks. One specific example of this that Lewis talks about is Will Woford, a left tackle for the Colts in the mid nineties. In Wolford’s contract it guarantees him to be the highest paid player on the Colts for as long as he is on the team, also meaning that if they were to draft the highest paid player in the league, Woford’s salary would rise accordingly. Another example that Lewis uses is Jonathan Ogden, the left tackle for the Ravens prior to Oher who won the Super Bowl. Ogden was being paid eight times the amount of the quarterback whom he was assigned to protect.
The Essay on Michael Jackson People One Life
Many people would pass up listening to the styles of the new / old Michael Jackson, but do you know why? Why do people absolutely refuse to claim they have ever heard his music? Why do parents ban their children's CD selection from some of his greatest hits, like Bad, or Thriller? Why do people hate him? Many reasons of course, some lies, some true, some public. And some private. Michael was very ...
Other complaints of the movie talk about how John Lee Hancock should have shown Oher’s final chapter with the Tuohys being his playing time at Ole Miss prior to being drafted. But understandably Hancock left it out due to more controversial issues that he wished to avoid for the film’s benefit. Oher had an awful freshman season at Ole Miss; the plays and blocking schemes were much too complicated and many levels above Briarcrest’s standards. During the classic rivalry game between Mississippi State University and Ole Miss, Michael was benched for the second half of the game due to his poor performance. Also, Ole Miss being in the south and once being associated with the Confederate Army had with a resounding reputation for treating African-American athletes much more poorly than their white Caucasian peers. When word gets out that Michael lives with an all white family, two negative effects occur. First, the Tuohys are looked at rather negatively by the white community involved with Ole Miss, and secondly, even worse, African-Americans attending Ole Miss view Oher as a traitor. They became extremely jealous of not only his football skill, but also the luck he acquired when he was invited into a rich white family’s home.
This hatred reaches a peak according to author Michael Lewis when the Tuohys had Oher and some of his lineman teammates and families over for a big dinner one night. Another player continued to talk and make jokes about Oher’s white family, especially the Tuohys daughter, Collins, who was a cheerleader at Ole Miss. Oher attacked the teammate inside of the Tuohy’s home, pummeling him into receiving stitches on his face as well as injuring a small boy who got caught between the two three hundred pounders. When Oher saw the injured child he panicked and ran away from the Tuohy’s home. Although the experience is very traumatic for Oher due to the fact that the child’s parents try to press charges, Sean Tuohy ends up using his personal connections to get Michael’s felony down to just ten hours of community service. Oher was free to continue his normal life.
The chapters of the book go into parts of Oher’s life completely untouched by the movie such as why Oher ended up on the streets as a teen and the experiences that caused this to happen. Author Michael Lewis gives his readers background information into the childhood life of Oher and his family issues growing up. Lewis explains how Oher’s mother, Dee Dee, saw her father murdered right in front of her before she was even ten years old. Dee Dee had five children, all boys from five different men in the span of six years. Oher’s uncle, Dee Dee’s brother Robert, was living a normal life until he and his wife had problems. Before they could finalize their divorce, Robert ended up murdering his wife. By Oher’s fifth birthday, he had nine brothers and sisters all from different fathers. Dee Dee would spend her welfare check she got on the first of each month entirely on crack-cocaine, leaving her children unattended and without food for days. Child services eventually takes Oher. After being picked on frequently in his foster home, he runs away only to get caught again by child services. This particular time, he is sent to Saint Jude’s Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. Oher loved the hospital; it was the first time that he had a bed with a mattress and free hot meals daily.
Another interesting fact is that in this point of Oher’s life, he was obsessed with basketball, playing ten to twelve hours every day. Finally on his fifteenth birthday, Oher meets Big Tony after he runs away from the hospital, and it’s here when his career starts at Briarcrest High School. The book wraps up with yet another part left out of the movie that is somewhat controversial. Oher’s sophomore year at Ole Miss was nothing less than spectacular, as he became a nationally known name and also placed on many NFL top ten best colleges players list. People from Oher’s past life saw these achievements and suspiciously started coming back. People he knew growing up would see his name in the papers and try to contact him asking for help and money. They didn’t even understand that Michael was not yet being paid to play. Oher felt as if he was the only one taking advantage of his opportunities, and that every one else was using him. On a final note of what was left out in the movie, many African-American kids began to apply not only to Briarcrest High School but also many other usually predominantly white schools to try and give themselves more opportunities. After a young athlete in Memphis’ death, Sean and Leigh Ann Tuohy ended up creating a foundation to give athletes with promising futures the abilities to attend schools and get their names out for people to see.
Although The Blind Side film received outstanding reviews and Sandra Bullock received an Academy Award, in a sense the presence of the movie took away from all the dramatic details that Oher went through in his life. Some critics even say that director John Lee Hancock had no real passion for the film; it was just a good story and Hancock knew that if done well enough it would bring in promising revenue. A reviewer for the Washington Post, Ann Hornaday, said “Hancock did a good job with this film, but is it wrong to think that maybe this was a convenient time to release it right after the motion picture Precious? Essentially the same concept, just making people feel sorry for an underprivileged African-American child, then they make it in the world so the audience is happy” (Hornaday).
The book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game just goes into much more detail of every situation and gives its readers not only a greater knowledge of football, but what Oher has really been through. Michael Lewis’ book explains the concept of Michael Oher’s blindside more deeply. Lewis gives detail to the reader on how Oher protects the quarterbacks blindside but without directly stating it, Lewis also explains how the Tuohys protect Oher’s blindside by giving him an education and other opportunities that Oher never otherwise would have discovered.
