The movie “The Blind Side” came out over 15 years ago. The Blind Side was a box office success in 2009. It was based on Michael Oher, a former NFL player. His mother has a drug misuse issue, and his father passed away when he was a small boy. He was hopping around, according to Santul Nerkar, a sports and business reporter for the New York Times. Oher has faithfully reread the novel on which the movie is based. The rich white family, the “Tuohys,” who offered Oher, a boy with considerable athletic talents, a place to live, is the inspiration for both the movie and the novel. He competed in the NFL and at Ole Miss. Football is popular in Alabama, where he was raised.
Despite being an economic success, most felt the movie to be cringe-worthy. 15 years from now, it might be considerably worse. The Blind Side is a fairly neat story that is now widely read. Mr. Oher had thought of himself as adopted. He was a longtime admirer of Michael Lewis, the author of the book on which the movie is based, and a former equity analyst. The way the book and movie present Oher’s narrative fits to unintentional preconceptions about black athletes and adoptions of black children by white parents.
The ones he considers his family are the ones he is suing over, along with some other possible ways to convey his narrative. “Oher eventually engaged a lawyer who assisted him in learning more about the movie agreement and his legal relationship to the individuals he believed to be his parents when he was a child. Oher learned the unpleasant truth that the Tuohys had never adopted him when his lawyer discovered the conservatorship form in February, according to Michael A. Fletcher of ESPN. Although it appears to be about money, the truth revealed a profound and unsettling uncertainty about what is actually happening. The legal filing makes the Hollywood Story more challenging. According to Touhys, it is “hurtful and absurd!” He allegedly claimed that he was coerced into signing when he was 18 years old in 2004.
Sources: Nerkar, Santul. 2023. “The Unusual Legal Agreement Behind ‘The Blind Side.’” The New York Times, August 24, 2023.
Mannie, Kathryn. 2023. “’Blind Side’ family accuses Michael Oher of $20M ‘shakedown’ attempt – National | Globalnews.ca.” Global News, August 16, 2023.