The Blind Side

The Blind Side Movie Poster Arguments

                           A picture is worth a thousand words. This English idiom refers to the idea that a single picture can portray a story or complex meaning far better than a description does. A movie poster should do the same. It needs to give the public a reason to watch the film just by glancing at the poster. The movie poster for The Blind Side is a perfect example. It genuinely depicts what the film will be about. The Blind Side’s movie poster also convinces the public to see the film by clearly displaying the visual implications of ethos and pathos.

              The poster is a picture of a petite mom guiding a massive football player. Sandra Bullock as “Leigh Anne Tuohy” is the woman in the picture and Quinton Aaron as “Michael Oher” is the man in the picture. By no surprise, Leigh Anne and Michael are the only people on the film poster because they are the major characters. Sandra Bullock is portrayed as a motherly figure in this poster. She is a skinny blonde, wearing heels and an expensive looking outfit. Sandra Bullock is an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award winner. She stars in many award winning films, most of those being comedies. However, The Blind Side was a drama based on a true story.  In this film, she is a confident woman and mother to Michael Oher. Her confidence is shown in the poster by her stance. Her shoulders are back and head is up. Sandra Bullock’s poise and motherly figure persuaded audiences around the world to watch this film.

Sandra Bullock’s head is at a slight tilt facing the football player standing beside her. The giant African-American football player walking beside Sandra Bullock is Quinton Aaron. He is wide in the hips and broad in the shoulders. Quinton Aaron is not nearly as famous of an actor as Sandra Bullock which can confuse the targeted audience.

 The character confusion of the different appearances of these two actors serves as a persuasive factor in this movie poster. Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron come from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. This confuses the audience and makes them wonder what is the connection between these two people. Ethos is clearly the visual implication used heavily in this poster.  The poster displays a broad African-American football player and a skinny blonder mother making this poster questioning yet interesting. The targeted audience then becomes intrigued by the characters and the ethical situation displayed in the movie poster.  

The movie poster also incorporated pathos as a visual implication. The emotion of the motherly figure walking beside the heavier set football player is a key persuasive factor in this movie poster. By glancing at the movie poster, one could easily feel the emotion of Leigh Anne guiding Michael Oher to his high school football game. She is glancing up at Michael in an endearing and caring manner, as if she had raised him his whole life. This feeling of kindness and love leads the targeted audience to believe The Blind Side to be a drama. The movie poster is an accurate representation for what genre the film is.

The Blind Side movie poster did an outstanding job in persuading the targeted audience to watch this film, while accurately representing the main characters. However, the movie poster still left room for the audience to wonder about the plot of The Blind Side. This image was both powerful and persuasive which ultimately sold this film. The Blind Side is currently ranked number 1 in Sports Drama and Sports Football. Its worldwide gross product totaled $309,208,309 (boxofficemojo.com).