“The Blind Side” is an excellent movie that shows story of a black boy. The movie is directed by John L. Hancock, and was released in the year 2009. The movie is primarily based on the real life of Michael Oher and also portrays sports and drama significantly. The movie portrays a real life story in a realistic manner. Audiences feel very familiar with the story while watching the movie. The movie shows viewers that embracing the blind side can also be very good time. This paper proposes to discuss the first impression of lead characters that they had about each other and further analyses how that impression is changed throughout the movie.
In the movie, Michael Oher is an offensive football player in Baltimore Ravens. The movie starts with the opening scene when Joe Theismann was sacked by the Taylor and Michael decided to follow the footsteps of Taylor. Michael decides to become a professional football player. The movie shows how Michael adoption by Tuohy family helped him in achieving his dream of becoming a football player. The two leading characters, shown in the movie, are Leigh Anne Tuohy, played by Sandra Bullock and Michael, played by Quinton Aaron (Aaron, Quinton and Bullock, Sandra).
The first interaction between two characters occurred when Anne sees Michael walking on the street in rain, aimlessly looking here and there and shivering due to cold in the night. Anne asks Michael to spend night at her home after she came to know that Michael is going to spend his night outside the school gym. Anne asks Michael to spend thanksgiving holiday when he was quietly leaving her house next morning. In their first meeting, Michael thinks that she is a crazy lady who is inviting a stranger into her home. On the other hand, Anne thinks that Michael is a homeless, poor but good teenager who needs and deserves her help.
Certainly the first impression that both characters had on each other was governed by the beliefs, perceptions, values, experiences, and attitude. Anne is a wealthy white woman while Michael is a young black boy. Presence of a strange black boy in Anne’s society was not less than peculiar. Michael was unable to understand why Anne is helping him. The moviemaker suggests that when people communicate and interact first time with any person they have certain perception. They also have some preformed beliefs that are generally associated with race, religion, culture, economic background, gender and lifestyle. The same was displayed in the movie. Anne Tuohy, being a wealthy white woman, should not have invited Michael in her house.
The movie describes the importance of human behaviour and communication. It suggests how communication and interaction affects the behaviour of human beings in significant manner. When people do not know each other, they have certain reservations about them. These reservations may be positive or negative but they are clear only when people interact and communicate with each other. Communication among people helps each party to understand their behaviour, attitude towards different things, their feelings about different races, religions and other demographical characteristics.
The movie is an excellent example that shows how relationships change due to communications between people. In the movie, both lead characters had impression about each other that change throughout the movie. Communication between Anne and Michael helped them in understanding each other’s feelings and their attitude towards life. It also changed the way they used to think, their aspirations and what they want to achieve. Anne extends all her support to Michael and he soon becomes a member of her family when Anne adopted him. The movie portrayed the importance of communication in a realistic way. Two people, who were not only strangers but also belonged to different races, became very close due to communication and interaction between them.
When Anne Tuohy comes to know about life and sufferings of Michael, she develops a sense of compassion for him. A number of things work as uncertainty reduction strategy in the movie. All these factors including the emotions, sympathy, circumstances, behaviour and humanity play significant role in the changing perceptions of the leading characters of the movie. Usually there are a lot of misconceptions about black people among whites and such perceptions create a gap between these two communities. However, when people of these two communities interact with each other and come to know about them, their negative perception changed considerably.
Considering various aspects of the movie, characters and their behaviour, it can be concluded that the movie presents the story in a well organised manner. The movie scores well in every aspect of film making on the basis of story, acting and messages. Certain ideas and basic traits of human behaviour, that affect human life, are portrayed in a realistic manner. The film provides a good opportunity for people who are interested in studying the communication. Due to its realistic portrayal, the movie has an emotional appeal on audiences and gives some significant messages to them.
Work Cited
The Blind Side. Dir. John Lee Hancock. Aaron, Quinton and Bullock, Sandra. 2009.
