'The Blind Side' drama just proves the cheap, meaningless hope of white savior films

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/ [login to see] /the-blind-side-michael-oher-white-savior
For nearly 15 years, two things have been unquestionably true about The Blind Side, the 2009 blockbuster inspired by the early life of ex-NFL star Michael Oher: It won Sandra Bullock her best actress Oscar for playing Leigh Anne Tuohy, and it's become a poster child for Hollywood's "white savior" narratives, nestled comfortably alongside maudlin peers like Dangerous Minds and The Help.

But everything else relating to this story is far more complicated. While the movie and Michael Lewis's book of the same name claim Tuohy and her family legally adopted Oher at 18, he recently filed a petition alleging he was unknowingly coerced into a conservatorship, one he's still under to this day. (He's now 37.) He also claims the Tuohy family profited off the movie while he received nothing; in response, Leigh Anne and her husband Sean accuse Oher of a "shakedown" and deny making money off the film. Somehow, The Blind Side now seems even ickier.