Eng225 Final Paper Film Critique

Running Head:  Film Critique Critique of The Blind Side Tabitha Teasley Eng. 225 Introduction to Film Deborah Cunningham July 13, 2012 Critique of The Blind Side The way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become. The Blind Side is based on Micheal Lewis book called, The Blind Side:  Evolution of a game. In this film this young man had a bad life at first. His talents and give him opportunity to had a good ending in life. It do not matter what a person had to go through in life, because it only that one opportunity to make a life time change.
This movie involved a boy who was poor and uneducated. He had a bad beginning, but a recruited seen his talents and gave him the chance. Sometime it take someone else to see the talent another person is working with in life. In this film it takes the film director the props, and the lighting to tell this story. As this paper take the story one scene at a time, it will show who it take all element together and it will show that it do not matter how a person start in life. Storytelling is very important in the film world today. Each movie has to start with a story.
A story is “a  narrative; all the elements and events that characters experience, whether before, during, or after the plot that is depicted in a book or a movie” (Film: From Watching to Seeing, 2011) Sometimes the person who wrote the script, will be the director also. If this do not happen, “it take the writers, producers, the director, and the actors, to put the story into action” (Film: From Watching to Seeing). The storytelling has to have a good story for it to make it to the film world. The director for  this movie is John Lee Hancock. The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who become an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family” (The Internet Movie Database). The storyteller for the  book “The Blind Side” is Michael Lewis. Critique of The Blind Side “Lewis today might be the most insider-ish outsider writer alive”(Maine Living, 2011 ). He was raised in New Orleans. He learn is life the “success and happiness are very different things, never become a lawyer, and you do not need a come from a bookish environment to know how to spin a helluva story” (Maine Living, 2011). The Blind Side expresses a similar theme of how value often is misjudged and overlooked. The improbable true story of how a young, African-American athlete born to a crack-addicted mother was adopted by a rich, evangelical Christian family, it was turned into a popular film featuring an Oscar-winning performance by Sandra Bullock”( Maine Living, 2011). This is a true story about Michael Oher. “He play for the Baltimore Ravens now” (NPR). He had a very hard childhood. He was a black male who had to start from scratch after being adopt by a family, who had a daughter” (NPR).

He had no identifying documents, school records, or anything that would demonstrate on paper that he existed. “His whole life changed when his adoptive mom gave him responsibility”(NPR). When a person is bought into a environment that they are not accompany with, it is hard to adopt to the change. For example when the family took him shopping for some clothes, he did not know how to receive them, because he was not used to someone going shopping just for him. Acting is what make the movie come to life. In the textbook, Film: From Watching to Seeing, it states, “Acting is all about honesty.
If you can fake that, you’ve got it made”. The actor job is to act. They pretends to be the character in the movie. They have to learn their lines and they have to connect with the character they are pretending to be in the film. The starting actor in the movie “Blind Side” is Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, and Tim McGraw. Critique of The Blind Side Aaron was born on August 15, 1984 in Bronx, New York (IMDB). “His acting began with a Christmas play”(IMDB). He played the character of Michael Oher. He stated that to get ready for this character he had to “work out twice a day, seven days a week, and he had to loss weight” (IMDB).
Sometime actors had to change their appearance to fit the character they got to play. The actors are very important to the movie world. When the movie first came on  it told the story about  Micheal Oher. This allowed the audience to know about the role the character (Quinton Aaron) played. It was on a football field and the point the director wanted the audience focus on was light and the background was dark. When the narrator wanted the audience to focus on a scene the scene stopped while the narrator talked about the scene.
The way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become. “Cinematography is the process of photographing motion”( Film: From Watching To Seeing). “The cinematographer’s job is to translate the director’s vision for the film, to capture what the director wants to see and to say, and to physically make that happen” (Film: From Watching To Seeing). This is what determines how the audience sees the movie. In the movie “The Blind Side” the cinematographer used medium long shots and medium close ups. In the scene called “sleep tight” this  is the shots they used.
In this scene the lady was making him a place to sleep at for over night. Medium Long Shot is “human figures are visible between head-to-toe and head-to-knee in the frame”. Medium close- up is “human figures are visible head to neck”(Film: From Watching To Seeing). The lighting had a dark background. The lighting was lighter on the area that audiences needed the focus to be on. Critique of The Blind Side Editing is what “controls what views will see and when the will see it and can profoundly affect how they will interpret a film. It establishes and can manipulate the pacing of s story on the screen.
It can assemble a serious of partial details, creating by skillful arrangement the illusion of complete actions and spaces that exist only in the mind of the viewers” (Film: From Watching To Seeing). The movie “The Blind Side was done in Chronological order. Chronological order makes the movie easy to follow. “ It make the scene unfold one after another, from beginning to end” (Film: Watching To Seeing). Editing is very important to the film world. This is what allow them to put the final touch on the film. They clean the film up so the story can be told.
The way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become. The sound is also important to the film world. There are three basic categories of film sound. They are dialogue, sound effects, and music. They all have to have balance between the three. Dialogue is “when the characters talking to one another in the films”. (Film: From Watching To Seeing). Sound effects are used to get the audiences attention. It help draw them into the movie. In the scene “he’s changing Mine”  the sound was low and the music was very soft in the background.
There were four ladies sitting down eating and they were discussing her adopting the boy. The way the music and the low tone voice kept the focus on the characters. In this movie the sound kept the movie on the serious side. This movie had sounds that would show the sadden and the happy point of it. This was very important in this movie. If the sound be off key, then the movie would not get it point across. They did a good job with the sound and music in this film. It help get the point across with the main point of the movie; The way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become.
Critique of The Blind Side Directing and style is very important in the movie world also. Each director has their own styles. Sometimes the styles maybe black and white, back in the days, and modern days films. In “The Blind Side” the style were modern days. The choice of which film making techniques to use, and how and when to use them, can define a director’s personal style” (Film” Watching To Seeing). The genre for the movie “The Bind Side” is drama, comedy, sports. I think this fits the movie well. The genre is important because it lets the audience know what to expect in the movie.
It described the movies and it allowed the main point of the movie, the way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become, to be told on time. Movies can have a positive effect on society or a negative effect. This movie had a positive effect. In the movie The Blind Side the rating from society was good. The movie encourage people. It let society know your dream can come true. It do not matter what you didn’t have in your childhood. Life is what a person make it out to be. Look for opportunity, and expect changes to happen at any giving moment. In the movie the boy was seen as this quiet, fat person.
Each person has gifts in life. Sometime a person need someone to help pull their gift to it full potential. This lady could have turned her nose up at the young boy, like society did. She had a gift for helping other and she seen the opportunity to use her gift. The movie also taught society to look at a person heart and not the outside appearance of a person. He had a big heart and the lady seen that society was robbing the young boy of his dream. It also taught society that dreams are made to come true. Stop focusing on what a person do not have and give opportunity when they are suppose to be giving.
Critique of The Blind Side When her and her friends was having dinner they were making fun of her adopting the young boy. The way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become. A formalist approach is “to analysis is concerned with film form, or how the basic elements are organized to convey certain meaning”. This deals with the narrative elements. (Film: Watching To Seeing). In the text book, Film: From Watching To Seeing, it states “the most important thing to remember about film criticism is that any film can be viewed from a variety of perspectives.
It may succeed at some and fail at others, but cannot be simply dismissed because the viewer does not like one aspect of it”. Each person will have their own personal conclusion on how they rate a movie. What one may like the next person will dislike. Two people can watch a movie together and each person will have their own points about the movie. It will mean this to one and some completely different to the next person. The point did come across in “the Blind Side;  the way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become.
In the movie “The Blind Side” everything the director did to make the movie went in together. It took all part to make the movie a success. This movie set out to encourage people about their dreams. From the director to the shoes the character had on, it took it all. There was a balance in the lighting with the sound to the music. It do not matter how a person started in life or what a person been through, they have gifts and if the right opportunity come, their life can change forever. Look for opportunity and take each one like it is you last.
The way a person start in life, will not determine who or what they will become. REFERENCES Goodykoontz, B. , & Jacobs, C. P. (2011). Film: From Watching to Seeing. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint             Education, Inc. https://content. ashford. edu The Internet Movie Database, Retrieved on November 20, 2011, from http://www. imdb. com/name/nm2466842/bio Maine Living Bangor Daily News, retrieved on November 19, 2011, from http://bangordailynews. com/2011/11/20/living/book-reviews/michael-lewis%E2%80%99-  storytelling-skills-put-more-economic-tales-on-the-bestseller-list/