Before, during, and evidently after its release, The Blind Side has always been regarded as one of the most contentious and polarizing winners of the biggest acting prize in all of Hollywood.
The inspiring tale of how Michael Oher ended up being taken in by Leigh Anne Tuohy and husband Sean before ultimately realizing his undoubted potential in both the classroom and on the football field sounded like prime Academy Awards bait on paper, and it lived up to those expectations by snagging a nomination for Best Picture following its release and netting Sandra Bullock the Best Actress gong, despite reviews that were hardly unanimously positive, never mind the criticisms that came in from academics, scholars, critics, and even occasionally Oher himself.
Nonetheless, it hauled in $309 million at the box office in amidst is awards season run, before becoming a relic of a forgotten time after being anointed as the single most-rented DVD in Netflix’s history, a record that will never be broken now that the company has officially shuttered its mail-order business.
And yet, The Blind Side is back in the headlines once again after Oher launched legal action, with the subject of the smash hit claiming that he was never legally adopted by the Tuohy family, and he was misled into signing his own rights away via a conservatorship, allowing them to earn millions while he ended up with almost nothing.
The story is still in its infancy and constantly developing, but it’s merely the latest dark cloud to hang over a movie – and its true story – that you would have never expected given its unquestionable box office and awards season success close to a decade and a half ago.