HEY, YOU GUYS, LET'S TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH THIS YEAR'S OSCAR NOMS SUCK!

[bookshop]

*Best Picture 2010 nominations list*
- Avatar <-- racist, imperialist white liberal guilt fantasy (everyone, native peoples, mountains, animals, trees and tree-nerve-endings, get exploited by white people, awesome!!)

- The Blind Side <-- i haven't seen this, but true story notwithstanding the trailer just me cringe. It really, really seemed

Comments

[spaggel]

The Blind Side -

So, well, huh this might be well put together but here.

My cousin is married to another player on the Baltimore Ravens, so it was kind of interesting to hear what Michael Oher said to him about the film, which really boiled down to. "They made it seem like I had a learning disability, which wasn't the case I didn't have chances go to school because I was taking care of my mom." but otherwise he said it was pretty accurate for most parts.

Which do make me mad, he was a kid that was given nothing. Had nothing. He spent his teens in and out of homes and in the end he made it happen. He did amazing. But in turning him into a "slow learner" they make it out to be, if given steady guidance and a path laid before him, he will be able to overcome these hurdles in life. That totally wipes out all that Oher went through, who yes, had guidance, but in reality it was him who was able to pull himself out of a life that would probably have either ended in drugs, homelessness, or a million other situations in which a good part of the population lives in. And what Oher did was amazing.

In 2009 Oher was the 4th Offensive tackle picked, the first pick of the Baltimore Ravens. Who he signed a 5 year, $13.8 million contract with.

So, yes it can be about a "smug white liberal guilt fantasy" which may or may not be the reason he was taken in by the Tuohy family. Or what they turned it a bit into with the film, that well, not only is he homeless but he is slow that's the reason we are taking him in.

Otherwise, I enjoyed the movie. It is an amazing story, one that should give many people hope in the worst parts of your life. That if you see that one little thing in your life which could turn everything around, take it and hold on and use it and don't ever let go because this is what can change everything and anything.

[bookshop]

thank you! i do not even know what to think about this. just, wow. that's quite a difference in perspective.

[spaggel]

I do suggest reading this article. It's the author of the books smaller story that was published in the New York Times. It does give you a good insite to what the story is about. It gives a quick peak into the background of it all, like Leigh Anne and her being raised in an extreme racist household.

Leigh Anne Tuohy grew up with a firm set of beliefs about black people but shed them for another - and could not tell you exactly how it happened, except to say, “I married a man who doesn’t know his own color.” Her father, a United States marshal based in Memphis, raised her to fear and loathe blacks as much as he did. The moment the courts ordered the Memphis City Schools integrated in 1973, he pulled her out of public school...

What they show in the previews and the ads for it is really, well, it does put people off. The movie itself is better.

[faith_girl222]

i really did enjoy the blind side because i thought it was a startlingly faithful (ie. in comparison to most) adaptation of the book, but there's no denying it erased a lot of the complexity the book was careful to include. i can't tell from your comment if you've read the book, but my understanding from reading it is that while he doesn't have a learning disability, the level of educational deprivation up until then ultimately presented like one in terms of how they had to accomodate his situation at school. but, iirc when they re-tested his IQ it was measurably higher than on the first testing, which just goes to show how useless IQ tests are if they only function in relation to how much education someone has been privileged enough to receive. the book also juxtaposes michael's personal experience of the journey with what it looks like from the outside, and it's really unfortunate that the movie didn't do a better job valuing that.

also: while i think sandra bullock did do a great job (i would never, ever have picked her, and i was shocked how much she became the role) i don't like how little attention quinton aaron is getting for his performance. it was a challenging role, and he did such a fantastic job showing michael's interiority and the sort of presence the book ascribed to him. and yet people are only talking about sandra bullock.

[spaggel]

No, sadly, I have yet to read the book as I am still on the waiting list at the library, which is just ridiculous but I did read The Ballad of Big Mike by Michael Lewis in The New York times, which is a more, er, compact version of the book.

Yes, yes, yes on your point about education and the IQ test. He didn't get any chance to really learn and to quote the article which is about his tutor

“One night it wasn’t going so well, and I got frustrated,” Mitchell says, “and he said to me, ‘Miss Sue, you have to remember I’ve only been going to school for two years.”’

That they spent 5 days a week, four hours each meeting working on school and got him to where he needed to be. Is amazing, there is 10 years of background course work that he never got and to bring him as up to date as the did is something I don't think a lot of people could do.

And I do agree with you about Sandra Bullock, she did do a great job but this is Quinton's first lead role and he did amazing and you don't hear anyone talking about him. Which is extremely sad, his role was what he movie was about.