It's been awhile since I recommended a movie. The last one was INVICTUS, and I still say that it's a picture whose time has come. South Africa needs to shake of its overdose of affirmative action and get serious about inter-racial collaboration.
It’s always nice when Hollywood awards a movie for portrayal of virtue, instead of vice (which probably sell more pictures). My favorite movie of all time, come to think of it, is just one of those – Tender Mercies. It won Best Picture in 1982. It is a better conversion story than any Billy Graham film! Here comes another one…
Oscar-winner
The Blind Side won a Best Leading Actress award for Sandra Bullock. She plays Leigh Anne Touhy, in a true story about Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick.
“Big Mike” was taken in by this caring woman and her family. It takes place in Memphis, Tennessee, the only city in America which is fully half black. The Touhy family is white and the movie shows just how radical this kind of action still is.
For example, the movie shows Collins Tuohy and Michael Oher studying together at home and school. In real life, Collins was an A student, who rearranged her schedules, and dropped out of several advanced placement classes, to share more classes with Michael - to help him graduate.
Here is one of the most poignant scenes in the film, when the family invites “Big Mike” to stay with them permanently, after he has been sleeping on the couch for awhile:
Leigh Anne Touhy: Find some time to figure out another bedroom for you.
Michael Oher: This is mine?
Leigh Anne Touhy: Yes, sir.
Michael Oher: I never had one before.
Leigh Anne Touhy: What, a room to yourself?
Michael Oher: A bed.
I have to admit to choking up at this point. Two Bible verses came to mind: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” and “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
I have visited Memphis. I brought back a poster of Martin Luther King which hangs in the buffet area at C4L. Two of his speeches are framed and hang in the C4L Board room (I Had a Dream and I Have Been to the Mountaintop). So it is refreshing to see racial harmony right there, on the doorstep of the Human Rights Museum, which is housed in the former motel where MLK was assassinated.
I have also tasted Southern hospitality in Memphis, and remember it fondly.
The role of Leigh Anne Touhy, portrayed by Sandra Bullock, reminded me of someone who both in our home and at our workplace has advocated unrelentlessly for the best interests of children and youth. Alas, she is no longer at home or at work with me, but this film is a tribute to specially gifted people like her, who love their neighbour as themselves - no matter what colour, age, creed, gender or background.
Not everyone has this spiritual gifting, as God gives different gifts to different children in his family. But one thing we do all have, without exception – a blind side.
The film begins with a narrative of the game in which Lawrence Taylor broke Joe Theismann's leg. According to Michael Lewis, who wrote the book that this movie is based on, that hit - more than any other moment in football history - heightened the need for a strong, left tackle to protect the quarterback's blind side. “Big Mike” had incredible protective instincts and turned these into a shining role on the sports field.
Heather’s protective instincts have caused her to perform with distinction, not in sports but in social work. Part of the role that we have in compassionate ministry is to make others see their blind side. In one scene in the movie, while having lunch with her peers, the socialite banter crosses the line of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. Leigh Anne Touhy responds with all the politeness of a Southern dame: “Shame on you”. That’s what Dorothy Day meant when she said that our remit is “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable”!
The South African Story
By the way, speaking of cinema... Desmond Tutu has just finished filming a documentary series – the brainchild of former journalist Roger Friedman, who said: “He is really one of the proudest, most patriotic people we have. He went to places he had never been before, like walking down Government Avenue. We could have given the script to someone like David Attenborough, but who better than the Arch?”
Tutu said he hoped people would be inspired by the documentary. “I hope it will be something that says, ‘We have come this long, long journey. We have been given a fantastic country and we have the capacity to make it one of the most remarkable places in the world. Now when am I getting my Oscar?”
Endgame
Also, look out for a new release next month, a movie made in Britain about the top-secret talks that were held between the apartheid regime and the ANC when Botha was still president, and which then continued when De Klerk took over. These have only come to light in recent years, they were kept under wraps lest they should detract from the follow-on efforts of the Mandela and Mbeki governments.
“The most notable feature of Endgame is that, unlike so many other films on this subject, it is not a self-righteous denunciation of the evils of apartheid, with saintly revolutionaries triumphing over fascist bigots. Milne’s incisive script shows that the negotiations were much subtler, and that both parties wanted the same thing – a peaceful transition to a new dispensation.” War was averted in South Africa, but so far, the peace dividend has been diminished by too much acrimony and not enough lenience. This is because all people - of all colours - have a blind side.
