Review of Theblind Side, 42 and Hidden Figures

I chose to write about drama films. Drama films are productions or stories lines with settings or life situations that represent realistic characters in conflict with either themselves or others. Drama films are produced more than any genre. Drama films illustrate how society conforms to what the larger population requests. They also represent how society can discriminate and use manipulation to get what it wants. Many individuals find themselves always trying to accommodate a group that isn’t worth it. I chose to “The Blind Side” by John Lee Hancock, “42” by Brian Helgeland and “Hidden Figures” by Theodore Melfi. I chose “The Blind Side” because the main character struggles with many obstacles to reach his goal of being a famous football player. I decided to use “42” because Jackie Robinson makes history by becoming the first African American to reach the Major League Baseball, but of course, suffered through discrimination. Lastly, “Hidden Figures” fights against all odds, it is the complete opposite of what we see in American society. They are three African American women that work for NASA and succeed and overcome all obstacles that they were placed against.

“The Blind Side” is about Michael Oher a homeless black teen, that has been in and out of the school systems for years. Leigh Anne Tuohy and her husband take him and eventually become Michael’s legal guardians. Michael develops a passion for football and with the support from his foster parents and tutor he achieves his goals and makes something of himself. He proves those that doubted him wrong.

In the movie, Michael’s younger brother from his original family used to be a straight-A student but got influenced by the street life and wanted to be in a gang so he dropped out of school, changed himself to be able to fit in and harmonizes with them. His behavior can be best explained by conformity. Conformity is when adjusting one’s behavior or thinking to correspond with a group standard. When the social worker tries to explain to Leigh Anne that Michael was considered a runner because he always ran away from his foster homes and back to his mother because he wanted to be with her. The social worker is using the attribution theory to explain his behavior. The attribution theory is used to explain the cause of behavior, it gathers information in order to form a judgment.

“42” is about Jackie Robinson a Negro League baseball player who never took racism without a fight. He pushes through all the obstacles that are placed in front of him to better himself and family. Rickey recruits Robinson to break the racism chain and have Jackie be the first modern African American Major League player. As both foresee, this proves a major challenge for Robinson and his family as they endure merciless racist resentment on and off the field. As Jackie struggles against his nature to tolerate such abuse without complaint, he finds allies and hopes where he least expects it. There was a scene when Jackie and Ray (his wife) are in the airport getting ready for their flight to Brooklyn, Ray goes into a white only restroom. The flight attendant at the counter watches her do this and knows it is not the right thing to do just because of Ray’s skin color. The flight attendant gives their seats away to a white couple. The flight attendant looks scared and almost nervous, but she feels that because she is white, and Jackie is not, she must give the seats away.

The flight attendant’s behavior falls under conformity because even though she doesn’t want to be part of the racist antics she feels under pressured and behave in a way she is supposed to act. Jackie deal with a lot of aggression from many players and fans. While playing against the Phillies, their manager Ben Chapman verbally abuses Jackie on the field and also threatens to hurt him. Another example of aggression is while playing the Dodgers, Jackie receives many death threats towards him and his family if he doesn’t leave the sport. Aggression is any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy someone.

“Hidden Figures” is about three African-American women that work for NASA. Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson operate as the great minds behind one of the greatest operations in history. They are very brilliant women and defy all the schemas that are in place in that time period. They must work hard to launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a make a great achievement that can restore the nation’s confidence, turn around the Space Race and electrified the world. A representativeness heuristic is when the likeliness of something is judged based on how they seem to fit into different prototypes. Representativeness heuristics can be appearing in the movie because people were shocked that three African American women worked for NASA. People believed the exemplar of a NASA worker was to be white males.

Representativeness heuristics caused them to doubt the fact that black women worked there. There are many representative heuristics across the globe not only in this movie. Society has many stereotypes and schemas on how certain workplaces or environments should be consisted of. Superordinate goals are goals shared by people that cause them to overcome differences by making them work together. The goal in the movie is to launch and land the Redstone Rocket safely. Assets from both groups were required to launch and land the rocket. These two different racial groups must put their differences and tensions aside and work together in order to get the ship to launch and get ahead in the space race.

I chose to write about these three movies because they all had a few things in common. One they were all black American that went against all odds to prove to the world that they are just as good as the whites or even better. The other thing is that they had the struggle to get the respect they earned and sure deserved it. All these characters faced racism, stereotypes, and the white community disparity. These three movies have many sociological scenes that explain how society works and what people face in the real world. People face contradicting views and morals.

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