Comments on: The Blind Side

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:13:55 +0000

That Rick guy sounds like an amateur critic wh aspires to dazzle people with his reparte. He has failed to convince me that this film is enjoyable. he also speaks like a hateful and embittered liberal espousing the virtues of the poor and helpless and shunning the evils of conservative and wealthy people. I disagree with his assertions about 100%. Worst yet, his diction reads like a bad textbook encrypting flowery words with minimal substance for using them.

By: Gerry Irwin

Gerry Irwin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:16:45 +0000

These reviews — Christian inspired or otherwise– are a joke. The racism of this movie isn’t subtle. It’s frighteningly and horrifyingly blatant. The portrayal of Michael is scary. The human being this movie portrays has accomplished nothing. He has no mind, no intelligence, no ability to think for himself. In a lengthy scene a nine year old child makes his decisions for him regarding his life and career– while he passively grins. I have to ask: is he an idiot? Is this what white people really feel comfortable with? Black imbeciles. He shows a highly developed “protective instinct” Huh? oh, well, Southerners love dogs. Michael is Lassie!! This is a Lassie movie. I would be ashamed of a son of mine who displayed as little self-actualization as this character (and you would be too — except if you’re white and harbor a deep fear of big black men like Michael.)
Talk about stereotypes. EVERY BLACK CHARACTER in this film but for Michael and his father (who appears briefly)_ is living scum who sit around thinking about screwing white women, or spreading race hatred. This sounds vulgar, I know, but I am only stating what’s in the film. The blacks are all sick. This is not a accurate portrait of life in the projects. It’s a frightening one-sided white fantasy. The whites at ole Miss however are benign and occasionally racist (They slip up and say ‘colored’) but their racism is cute. Oh, I learned from this movie that white bigotry is cute.
Sandra Bullock asks “How did you escape that?” (Meaning why isn’t he one of those sweaty dirty blacks who lust after white women) but she seems to have forgotten — he got into the damn school because he could play football! Why doesn’t she ask , Why don’t the folks at Ole Miss work toward a society that values people for their brains not their brawn? She might also give Michale some books about segregation and mention a man named James Meredith. Lucky Might has big black muscles. If Michael was Einstein there would be no ole Miss.
I have never seen a movie in which any human being was portrayed so absolutely as a human animal as this movie. Michal’s education needs to start; at this point he’s a child and everyone loves him that way.
This movie is truly a racial barometer. if you saw it, and liked it, and loved it, then rest assured — yes you are a racist.

By: Brandon Fibbs

Brandon Fibbs — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:29:25 +0000

Wow Rick, to twist a common phrase–you may want to think of quitting your day job (unless your day job is already as a film critic)!

By: rick finholt

rick finholt — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:24:07 +0000

As Alice says, you write beautifully. More important, you get things right.

This film is as enjoyable as it is thought provoking. It is moving and genuinely funny (with one egregious exception: Kathy Bates’ nonsense about body parts and Michael’s sqeamish response). The movie addresses not just racial inequality but the hopelessness that Dickensian poverty breeds in the African-American community. Emboldened by the fact that this Cinderella story, as improbable as a teenage-vampire-love saga, just happens to be true, the filmmakers are not afraid to put on full display, with no apologies, the wretched excess of the regal wealth enjoyed by Leigh Anne’s “Republican” family, and this they artfully balance against the scenes in which she boldly, naively drives her BMW into the projects. Though stretching verisimilitude to the breaking point, this bit still works, at least in part because the film is not afraid to show life in the projects as it truly is (“nasty, brutish and short”), both for Michael’s natural mother and for the gangbangers. Surely it is no coincidence that this particular housing project is so visually reminiscent of the Baltimore projects depicted in “The Wire.” Against this ugly reality, we see two mothers, one helpless and the other ludicrously empowered, bound together by an instinctive maternal yearning to save her own lost lamb.

By: Alice

Alice — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:08:49 +0000

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I really want to see it! thanks for the review…you write so beautifully!