Horse sense

The film "The Blind Side" based on the true story of Leigh Ann Tuohy, who helped nurture Michael Oher, a homeless African-American high school student, into a star NFL player, pretty much blindsided everyone when it took in over $250 million at the box office and won a Best Actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock. The reason? Maybe it was Warner Brother's strategy of pushing the film to Christian groups. Inspired by this success, according to this article in "The Hollywood Reporter," the Disney people plan to do the same with their new film "Secretariat," in which Diane Lane plays Penny Chenery, who nurtured the title thoroughbred into the Triple Crown winner in 1973. And I can see where they would see the similarities. Apparently they think that Christians love stories in which rich Southern ladies transform athletically gifted dumb brutes into money-making champions. It also puts into perspective the scene in "The Blind Side" in which that loathsome little boy rides the big black guy's back.