Over the past few weeks Bully hysteria has taken hold across America. Sadly the hysteria has less to do with the film’s goal of ending bullying and more to do with the amount of swearing and the rating that follows. In an ironic twist of fate The Weinstein Company who is releasing Bully and the MPAA Rating Board have been locked in a bullying match of their own as each tries to browbeat the other into submission. After weeks of the MPAA trying to protect the ears and tender sensibilities of America’s youth and the Weinstein’s and their anti-bullying partners lobbying for a rating that would allow kids to see the film without parental supervision a compromise was reached… cut some of the language and receive a lower rating. Now the question is whether the hoopla over the rating was worth it or was it just a clever smokescreen designed to increase ticket sales?
Documentary filmmaker Lee Hirsch follows the lives of five students and their families that are victims of bullying. The film examines effects bullying can have on kids from all different backgrounds and the repercussions it can take not only on the victims but also their families when the bullying ends in suicide.
The main focus of Bully is on 11 year old Alex who is bullied just about everywhere he goes. Alex is awkward physically, seems emotionally stunted, and is called “Fish-face” by his peers. You can’t help but feel bad for the kid as everyone in his life seems to victimize him either through direct torment or by unintentional neglect. Making him the poster child for bullying however doesn’t seem like a brilliant idea. Even if the film helps keep him from being bullied in the short-term, will he forever be associated with being a victim by appearing in this film?
Other stories include a young lesbian being ostracized in her small Oklahoma town, an African-American girl who took a gun on her school bus to confront her bullies, and several families that had children that allegedly committed suicide due to bullying. Unlike Alex’s story there’s not much footage (or proof) of how much bullying is going on in either of these girl’s lives. The same goes for the families that had recently lost children to suicide due to alleged bullying. While tragic and saddening that these kids felt that suicide was their best alternative very little proof is provided that bullying was the main cause of what led them to take their own lives.
The topic of proof leads to what I find to be the most disingenuous aspect of Bully. As a kid I was on the receiving end of a lot of bullying and once I heard about the film I thought it might touch a chord with me. Unfortunately that chord was rarely played; instead I felt that Lee Hirsch took advantage of some of his subjects especially Alex.
Repeatedly Alex’s parents state how they don’t know how bad the bullying is for him; logic would suggest if your son is “starring” in a documentary about bullying it must be pretty bad otherwise they’d find another kid to follow around. Hirsch documents Alex being abused by his classmates both physically and verbally. After what seems to be an eternity the film’s producers decide that the bullying has gotten to a point where the it’s now a danger to Alex so they show the footage to his parents who are surprised and appalled at what their son has been enduring. Sounds somewhat reasonable right? After that his parents decide to speak with Alex’s Vice Principal about the bullying with the film crew in tow but they don’t bring the footage of the bullying with them. Instead they just talk with the principal who assures them that it’s not nearly as bad as what they think. In essence the Vice Principal got setup to look like a fool (which she does) and in the end nothing gets done for Alex. Did it make more compelling filmmaking with better sound bites? Absolutely, but it didn’t help the victim of the bullying which is what I thought this whole film was about.
That’s a recurring theme throughout Bully; you’re treated to the horror stories of bullying which can be heartbreaking but that’s not a shock to anyone but a few people in this world that have never experienced it. Not once does Hirsch sit down with a bully or a bully’s parent to discuss why they’re doing what they’re doing. Nor does he present any ideas on how to stop bullying or help the victims. What you get is ninety-nine minutes of hearing about the horrors of bullying which many of us, especially this film’s core audience, already know about. You’re just repeatedly told that bullying must be stopped and that there will be people that will stop at nothing to bully bullying out of existence.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a wonderful point in this past week’s episode of South Park concerning the rating of Bully and their claim that it’s an important film that kids need to see regardless of its language. In typically subtle South Park fashion they simply asked, “If you really think that every kid in America needs to see your anti-bullying movie why don’t you just put it on the internet for free?” South Park’s on point criticism, the self-serving promotional fight against the MPAA, and the film’s inherent flaws has soured my opinion of Bully.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I believe Lee Hirsch set out to help victims of bullying and in the short term Bully might do some good. I think its backers will find the results short lived however as the film offers no foundation to actually help stop bullying. Once the hype dies down I expect some people may see Bully for what it is; a middling film that had the best of intentions that got drawn into a fight between two bullies itself.
Check out my review of The Cabin in the Woods at Movies Hate You Too.
