Yes, the Tuehy’s were Old Miss fans living in Memphis, which made the families hatred of UTenn even funnier. The tutor was also a die hard Old Miss fan which is why she was pulling the “dead Bodies” stunt when he was conidering Tenneesee as his first choice.
The one interesting thing I have heard is the Michael Oher was upset at how he was portrayed as he was a fairly accomplished football player before he went to the private school.
Does anyone know if the accident was based on a real event? I know it was put in to highlight the “protective instincts” and to demonstrate his reaction speed as he put arm between the air bag and SJ as it went off.
AS I said, I haven’t seen the movie. But there is kind of a funny scene in the book when the Tuehy’s are using the online education facilities of the Church of Latter Day Saints to help Oher get enough credits for college. One of them says “the Mormons are going to hell for their wrong religious beliefs, but they sure have a good educational system online”.
There is also a scene in the book where they send our Christmas cards with the family and Michaael Oher is included. A few months later, they get a response from someone who got the card “I give up trying to figure it out. Just who is the n***** in the photo with you?”
There is also in the book a good history on how left guards (The Blind Side) ended up as the second highest paid players in the NFL. Think Joe Theisman/Lawrence Taylor on Monday Night Football. But since the book is by Michael Lewis who did a shoddy job with “Moneyball” (little mention of steroids, Hudson, Muldur and Zito as the real reasons for the A’s success), I have wondered about the book’s veracity.
I agree with all of this. What is it about sports movies, that they have to portray the sports to us as we’re idiots? Even if most people can’t tell what a good block is, do they have to show it so over the top as carrying the player over a fence. And instead of showing him instantly becoming good because of the magic words from Bullock, couldn’t they show him working hard to become better?
Watched this on DVD last night and generally liked it. I agree Sandra Bullock gave a good performance (Oscar worthy? Eh… too qualitative a matter I suppose.)
My main beef was that they hired a full-time private tutor for this kid not so that he could progress in school (one he never should have been allowed into to begin with if he had a 0.16 GPA) but so that he could pull his GPA up enough to play on the football team. The implication, right or wrong, was that if he’d been a 98 pound weakling kid from the projects they’d have said “to hell with it, it’s not like he’s going to get a job conjugating sentences or talking about Napoleon somewhere- D’s as good as a C”.
There must be kids in the projects who do well in school and would love to have the opportunity of going to a private school but who don’t play sports. Sean probably wouldn’t have to look any further than the families of some of his fast food employees to find them.
Then they hire his tutor to move to Ole Miss with him and even rent her an apartment. I found that a disgusting statement on the emphasis on sports in SEC schools- this guy doesn’t have a prayer without a full-time tutor, so why’s he in college?
Plus I didn’t see SJ so much as a spunky mischievous kid as a little spoiled entitled brat I wanted to slap.
The lawsuit is new, but he has balked at the depictions in the movie since it was out. This is my first time seeing him speak badly of the Tuohys, though.
I caught the movie on TV a few months ago. I remember watching the scene where the evil investigator breaks down all the reasons why they think Oher was adopted just to get sent to the Tuohy’s college. All I could think was “Wow, this breaks it down really well. They are definitely guilty.”
Michael Oher wrote a book, or ghost writers did, “When Your Back’s Against the Wall,” released last week. That is all it really is, selling his new book.
From what I saw today, he just discovered in February that the conservatorship he agreed to when he turned 18 never made him a part of the family. I guess he was led to believe it constituted an adoption of sorts.
Oher is reputedly suing the family for an accounting of the money they made off of him; if they were operating a conservatorship, they were supposed to do it in his best interests. He’s claiming he saw no royalties from this movie.
I’m only vaguely familiar with this story, but is Oher entitled to any royalties from the movie? I certainly hope he was paid for playing football, or anything else he took an active role in. Did he participate in creating the movie in any way, other than living the original story? If someone writes a true story of events that I took part in, do I automatically get royalties from it?
I am observing that 15 years after the movie came out, and 2 weeks after his new book came out, he is currently on a book tour to promote said book, that it looks like a money grab.
We will see if his accusations are found to have merit in time. Right now I see a book promotion.