The Blind Side Movie Review: Thankfully, not the Mississippi Burning of Sports Movies.

Ill attempt to my best Dave Zirin impersonation here.

The night before Thanksgiving Katy and I saw The Blind Side.

I had been familiar with the story when I read this New York Times Magazine profile of Michael Oher a few years ago.   After reading the article I bought the book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game.

The book was great but the posters for the movie version of The Blind Side looked horrible.  It seemed to me that this was going to be a sports movie version of Mississippi Burning .  Or might qualify for a recent blog post titled “The Five Most Unintentionally Racist Movies about Racism. Anyways, here is a nice summary of the criticism about Mississippi Burning:

[Missisippi Burning] been criticized by many, including historian Howard Zinn, for its fictionalization of history. According to Zinn: while FBI agents are portrayed as heroes who descend upon the town by the hundreds, in reality the FBI and the Justice Department only reluctantly protected civil rights workers and protesters and reportedly witnessed beatings without intervening.^[1] It was also criticized due to its portrayal of southern African-Americans as passive victims. The image of African-Americans as being passive also shapes the film’s reenactment of the assassinations;^[2] New York Times film reviewer wrote that the film’s alleged distortions amounted to a “cinematic lynching” of history.

See, The Blind Side takes place in Memphis and essentially a rich white woman comes to the rescue of a homeless black kid with an NFL body.  Hollywood could have very easily taken the very powerful story of Michael Oher and Leigh Anne Tuohy and turned into a Disnified, racial fantasy.

Never mind the fact that  Memphis might be one of the most racially polarized cities in the country and the place where Martin Luther kIng was assassinated. And the University of Missisippi?  It’s racial history is just as brutal. And “Ole Miss,”– the college’s nickname?  That is what slaves called the slave master’s wife.

Overall,  the book was better and the movie is far from being perfect.  The Border’s commercial that breaks out in the middle of the movie also might be the most annoying product placement I have ever experienced.

But still, the movie made me cry.  (The last time I cried in a movie might have been in Top Gun when Goose died.)

And I cried, I think, because I grew up around families like the Tuohy’s.  Rich. White. Christian. Republican.  I never once met someone from that background who would have opened the car door for a homeless black teenager, even if he had NFL tackle written all over his body.

And that is why I loved the movie–because if you are rich and white and powerful, it means nothing if you don’t open the door for others.

P.S. I also thought it was interesting that at the end of the movie when they were showing newspaper clippings of Michael Oher’s career the other story that appeared on the “newspaper” was about Darfur.  I think the movie producer’s were trying to make a point….

 

Filed under: Africa, movie review , Blind side, Borders, Darfur, Dave Zirin, evolution of a game, film, Howard Zinn, left tackle, martin luther king, Memphis, Michael Lewis, MIchael Oher, Mississippi Burning, movie review, movies about racism, nfl, Ole Miss, product placement, republican, Sandra Bulluck, slavery, The Blind Side, University of Missisippi, white

The Deep tradition of Prayer with Libation

At our All Saints Day worship service last night, we at Lockerbie Central United Methodist used an Africana Prayer with Libation.   On a day when we celebrate those who have walked the journey before us and with, this prayer connected our church with the deep tradition of our faith.  

It was an emotionally powerful exprience. 

 According to Wikipedia,  “A libation is a ritual pouring of a drink as an offering to a god. It was common in the religions of  antiquity, including Judiasm.”    Last night after reading through this prayer, people came up to a bowl in th middle of worship semi circle  and poured out a small amount of water as they called out the name of a loved one, a personal hero,  or prayed in silence. 

Such a simple act allowed our faith community to connect deeply with the best traditions of our church.  It is a prayer that most of us won’t forget.

Filed under: Africa, all saints day, church, emergent church, prayer, worship , Africana, all saints day, emergent, emergent prayer, judaism, lockerbie central, lockerbie central united methodist, methodist, prayer, prayer with libation, saints, tradition

5 Thoughts on District 9

Katy and I saw District 9 last night. It might not be a perfect movie but could go down as of the best science-fiction movies ever made.  And if not, its way better than Transformers 2.

1.  This is the movie that post-colonial writers like Edwidge Danicat, Chinua Achebe, or Edward Said might make if they only had gone to a few more Gen Cons.  The idea of home and homeland is at the middle of postcolonial literature and some of the most arresting images from the movie are about not being able to go home.  Christopher Johnson, the alien hero of the movie, tells his son that they won’t make it back to their home planet, where they have nine moons, but they might get a nice tent in the new relocation camp concentration camp at District 10.

2.  Where are the District 9 action figures?  It looks like a customized figure is going for big dollars on ebay! And what kid wouldn’t want a District 9 slum for Christmas?

3.  I thought the ending sucked.  It goes  E.T. on us.   It also sets us up for a sequel, which weakens the original movie.

4.  I don’t remember ever seeing an alien movie that lets you see from the point of view of the alien.  It happens in District 9 and is a bit disconcerting.  This tact allows you to explore the viewpoint of the “other.”

5.  Too bad these slums aren’t sci-fi.  They exist and that might be the scariest part of the movie. By 2030, 1 out of every 3 humans may live in a slum.

Filed under: Africa , action figures, aliens, chinua achebe, District 9, E.T., edward said, edwidge danicat, film, movie review, post colonial, postcolonial, postcolonial literature, prawn, science ficion, slums, south africa, transformers, transformers 2