The American dream is not only a myth or a common motif , but a real chance this country offers someone that deserves it.
“The Blind Side” is a movie inspired by a real story which reflects perfectly the American atmosphere and the dream that even a guy owning nothing but a plastic bag with an extra t-shirt inside can become one of the greatest football players in the whole league and the US are all about facts like this one.
But how can it happen? The movie may explain it better but the two key words are: trust and faith.
In this movie Sandra Bullock made a great job, made an “Oscar job” actually, coming back after several years of total inactivity, and putting a new spirit in her acting.”I stopped working because I wasn’t happy with my work anymore” she tells when interviewed by Barbara Walters, but she ran the risk with “The Blind Side” and she won her bet, and not only that.
The actress interpreted Leigh Anne Tuohy, a wealthy woman who accepts this guy as a member of her family, after seeing him walking alone along a street and looking for a place to spend the night. And after that, Big Mike’s life, this is the name of the protagonist of the movie, will change for ever. He starts going to a private school and joins the football team. At the end of the season it is only a matter of choosing one of the thousands scholarships that the best colleges from all around the United States offered him. Every coach wants him in his football team, from the University of Tennessee to the University of Mississippi.
Big Mike’s story moved everyone who could see in this big guy the American dream becoming true.
The success of the movie is due to Sandra Bullock’s acting too, an effort awarded with the most wanted prize in the world of the cinema: the Oscar, in her case for best actress in a leading role.
The candidates were Meryl Streep for “Julie and Julia”, Helen Mirren for “The Last Station”, Carey Mulligan for “An Education”, Gabourey Sidibe for “Precious”, and she was able to win unexpectedly against one of the icons of nowadays cinema: Meryl Streep.
But the Oscar for best actress in a role was not the only award that did not go along with the expectations; in fact, Avatar was supposed to dominate and to become a cult, but it got only the Art Direction, Visual Effects, and Cinematography prizes, because “The hurt locker” won many of the Oscars that Avatar was supposed to win, such as Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Film Editing, Best Pictures, and Directing, thanks to the direction of Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman director winning an Oscar.
“The hurt locker” is a movie that shows the United States from a totally different point of view compared to “The blind side“ but they both show important aspects of this Country, the American dream on one side and the war against terrorism on the other. Kathryn Bigelow’s movie shows the hard life that thousands of young men have to face; many of them have just graduated from high school, and many of them will never see their families again. Maybe it was a day as every day of the year when in the mailbox there is not a mindless envelope or some ads: it is from The Department of the Army of the United States of America.
“The hurt locker” tells the story of these brave guys fighting in Iraq, but the happy ending is not granted.
So, have a look, and dive into both stories : the “explosive warlike movie” or the “Cinderella story”, both grant two hours’ entertainment, with a deep meaning too.
Sofia Carpinteri (4E) – Corrispondente dagli Stati Uniti