A Load Of Bullock
The Blind Side, where feisty Sandra Bullock adopts a big black kid and helps him become a football star (or something like that--I've only seen the trailer) came out yesterday. I've written about this sort of film (sorta), and it's not exactly my favorite genre.
Still, I think the LA Weekly goes a bit far:
...The Blind Side’s Michael “Big Mike” Oher (Quinton Aaron) is mute, docile and ever-grateful to the white folks who took him in. Directed by John Lee Hancock and based on a true story recounted in Michael Lewis’ 2006 book of the same name, The Blind Side peddles the most insidious kind of racism, one in which whiteys are virtuous saviors, coming to the rescue of African-Americans who become superfluous in narratives that are supposed to be about them.
Really now, racist? Even better--the most insidious kind of racism? ("Insidious" is a great word--it allows you to claim something is even worse if it's hardly there at all.)
This sort of movie is usually filled with tiresome uplift, and, especially when the racial angle is added, can come across as condescending. But the Weekly's review is just kneejerk name-calling. "Racist" should really be reserved for actual racism.
PS Here's a conservative claiming the film is okay in Hollywood because it takes a gratuitous shot at George W. Bush:
Hollywood is not money or profit-driven. This is an industry engaged in an ideological war with traditional conservative America that doesn’t mind making a profit, but never will at the expense of the cause. Everyone involved in the making of “Blind Side” knew an unnecessary partisan shot at Bush would turn people off. They all knew they were insulting the very audience the film was marketed at for no reason other than to insult them. But there was absolutely no way in hell this thing was going to see the light of day without something for the Hollywood bigots to snicker over.
I think this guy's thought about it a lot more than the filmmakers did.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:07 AM
3 Comments:
"thought about: does not connote "thoughtful" in this instance
I don't endorse this guy's review. But there certainly does exist a certain "kind of racism, one in which whiteys are virtuous saviors".
Watch the intro to the early seasons of Diff'rent Strokes. Forget the words; what story do the pictures tell you?
(Actually, the white-patronizing-racist story may be the most innocuous tale that could be suggested by this video....)
So. this is a true story. Were the people who actually adopted this kid racist in doing so? If not how could the story be unless it tells a different story? I am pretty sure (knowing others who have adopted kids of various ethnicities) that the couple did not see themselves as saviors at all. they saw a kid in need and helped. Are people more color blind than critics?
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