Movies, In-Flight Movies, and The Blind Side

This New Year’s Eve, our family did something we seldom do. We went to see a movie in a movie theater. While the movie was great, the experience reinforced one of the reasons we seldom visit the theater.

There was an article written a while ago in which the author observed that movie going had become less civilized as a result of movie goers acting as though they were in their living rooms watching television. Babies cry. Cell phones ring. Conversations are carried out over the movie dialogue. Anyone who has experienced a text screen flashing on and off in the seat next to you can verify that is also an annoying experience. From the condition of the floors and the seats, I would not want to visit the living rooms of some moviegoers. With the price of tickets and concessions pushing the family visit to the theater to the $50 and up range, why should a sane person subject themselves to it?

We also have a problem in our family with regards to our tastes in movies. Let’s just say that I am a Marx Brother fan and my wife doesn’t seem to appreciate their brilliance. She looks for movies with social relevance and a meaningful story line. I view movies as sheer entertainment, escapism. Brain candy. We seldom agree on what is a good movie.

We do have a loose knit system of finding movies which we both will enjoy. Since I travel out of country at least once a year, I get to view my share of in-flight movies. I can then return home and suggest movies I am pretty sure we both will like, tell her of movies I liked but am pretty sure she won’t, and movies I could not sit through again. Here are some examples. Over her reluctance, I convinced my wife to rent The Illusionist. We both liked it. I told her that I enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife, but I didn’t think it was a movie she would like. So, we will wait until it is on cable and maybe watch it then. After watching The Hours, I told her how the flight attendant became annoyed with my constant requests for a parachute. If she wants to watch that one, it will be alone.

On New Year’s Eve, without the aid of an in-flight movie screening, we went to see The Blind Side. This is what I call a journey movie. You know how the movie is going to end before you enter the theater. You go to see it so you can experience how the characters arrive at the end. The entire family enjoyed this movie.

Since the movie is setting box office records, most of you have probably seen it and the ending is known. I won’t then bore you with the details about what makes this a great movie. The muse that prompted me to write today arose from some of the criticisms of the movie. Criticisms with more bite than my co-worker’s complaint regarding the film adjustment of the 2004 Clemson vs. Tennessee score.

One criticism is actually brought up as part of the story line in the movie. Did the Tuohy family specifically select a large homeless kid with some athletic ability for the purpose of grooming him to become a star football player for their alma mater, Ole Miss? I am not exactly sure how you can ask that question with a straight face. Taking a homeless teenage boy into your home is risky business, at best. To have the forethought that you are doing this with the eventual goal of helping a college succeed in football is even more absurd. How detractors even came up with this game plan is hard for me to comprehend
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Chances are excellent that the Tuohy family took in a kid who at best would have probably become a gang enforcer, at worst would probably be dead, but with support and love his ultimate destination turned out to be an NFL star. Let’s just explore the worst scenario when considering the Tuohy family. Let’s say they somehow did have the foresight to seek and groom a football star for their favorite college. Would saving one person’s life through opportunistic motives then become a bad thing for that one person?

This of course leads to the next big criticism: This movie reinforces the stereotype that black people can’t make it unless rich white folks step in to help them. The Tuohy family ends up being demonized as racists for being rich, white, and compassionate. In the minds of the critics, I am sure this makes sense. As far as they are concerned, personal involvement outside of your race and social sphere is an incomprehensible concept. It is common knowledge that the only correct way to help poor people is for rich, mostly white, mostly male Congressmen and Senators to steer tax monies from regular Joe Americans into such life-enhancing projects such as Cabrini-Green or, perhaps, Hurt Village, which is where our football hero was being nurtured.

If you haven’t seen The Blind Side, see it now. Let’s just hope that the critics are ignored and the movie prompts us all to lend a helping hand out of love toward those who are less fortunate but every bit as valuable as ourselves.