The Blind Side – We Really are Blind

What do you want more in a movie?

Today, it seems that all we want is vulgarity, profanity, and sexuality (oh, I mean “romance“).

I was able to see The Blind Side a few days ago with Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, and Quinton Aaron. It’s an inspirational story of a poor African-American teenager that’s taken in by a conservative, rich Caucasian family.

I made an observation when I saw this movie. I walked out of the movie, and I actually liked it. I didn’t walk out with mixed feelings as I had the past few movies I’d seen. The truth is, the reasoning behind that is that though all the other movies may have had the happy ending, triumphant hero, and other elements, but it still contained one element that I would’ve liked kept out: the profanity.

It seems that just to keep the attention of the audiences, filmmakers have to add in the occasional (or very frequent) curse words, the scene that parents would cover their kids’ eyes for, and even the gore worse than war itself.

Perhaps it’s just what sells, and perhaps it’s just become a part of our American culture. Though, I still cringe when I see it happening, and I cringe even worse when I see audiences raving over it.

Though, with this movie, I was exposed to the blind side of movies. The side we don’t usually get to see. Michael is a youth from a violent background, with probably a dozen siblings, some of which he hasn’t met, dealing with an addicted and drunken mother, and yet, he speaks no foul words. He walks, and doesn’t bother anyone. He’s patient, and keeps living.

Then, there’s the somewhat pushy white woman that tries to reach out and help this young man she knows nothing about. She’s a “fine Christian lady” as said in the movie. Their family adapts and grows to love Michael. Even despite the expectations of their uptight, conservative, rich, haughty and obviously fake friends and colleagues.

We’ve become blind to a feel-good family movie. Ideally, in my world, all movies would be be at the most PG-13. Don’t take what I say wrong, as I am actually a video and filmmaker and plan to pursue the field in some way.

I realize that what sells sells, and the concept of “give the people what they want”. Though, I want to speak to a different audience. Why would I talk to a set of foul-mouthed, vulgar individuals, when I could appeal to a higher standard of movie-goers?

What I realize from The Blind Side is that the movie does chronicle a Christian family (maybe not orthodox, but they at least keep their basic manners). I’m a Muslim, and the basic etiquette of everyday living is pretty much the same in both the faith of Islam and Christianity.

Though, maybe there is still some people out there who wouldn’t be disappointed with a nice movie like this albeit the lack of excessive vices showcased.

Hey, according to hollywoodinsider, for Thanksgiving, The Blind Side ”jumped to the number one spot with $9.5 million”, leaving Twilight: New Moon in “second place” with only “$9.2 million for the day”.

Who knows what will be made of this? Leave a comment if you agree (or disagree).

For a more in-depth article on this, check this out, “Deterioration Inside Out”.