Bully

The issue of bullying has started to get seriously discussed in the past few years, mainly due to suicides, often due to anti-gay bullying. "Bully" looks at bullying in general. Much of it consists of interviews with the bullied students and their parents. One of the important points that the documentary makes is that there is that the reaction to bullying is often "boys will be boys". "Bully" makes the point that these things will continue until we as a society say that it's not acceptable for anyone to let this to happen to people, especially in settings where children expect to be safe. Are we ready to say "Enough is enough" and prevent bullying before it starts?

You'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel for the victims in Bully. Lee Hirsch's documentary follows five families as they struggle with the effects of schoolyard bullying. But while apparently inarguable and straightforward, the film's subtle skewing obscures a number of nagging questions.

To its credit, the film lets its subjects speak for themselves. A broad range of impacts are represented: two of the families are recovering from the suicides of their sons who preferred to take their own lives rather than face another day of torture at school. One girl is facing 46 felony charges after she confronted her tormentors with her mother's handgun. Another girl  (an honor's student and star athlete) has dropped out of school after suffering abuse from both teachers and students when she came out as a lesbian. And the fifth example shows the bullying in progress, a young boy with Asperger's Syndrome who gets picked on practically every moment of his life.

This last example is the most squirm-inducing...and highly impressive film-making. You have to wonder how the film-makers got this footage of the wanton sadism of children. Was the camera hidden? Or were the kids just blithely, flagrantly monstrous, heedless of the consequences of being observed? Sadly, the latter scenario is all too plausible. It's the pervasiveness of such cruelty that chills the blood. The movie depicts not only the overt brutality of schoolmates, but the subtler meanness of parents, siblings, teachers, bus drivers and principals. If anything, the statistics the film-makers give out must low-ball the extent of the problem. Isn't everyone involved at some level?

Which leads to one of my criticisms. The five stories the film examines all take place in the south and mid west, and happened in rural areas and small towns (Sioux City is the biggest population center represented). This might imply that bullying is unique to those regions. But, as we all know, the problem is universal – there is just as much of it (if not more) in the north and in urban areas. (The case of Tyler Clementi springs to mind).

And there are some omissions in the depth of the film's probing. One of the kids (an eleven year old) killed himself with a gun. Another brought a gun to school; had it gone off, she would have been a school shooter, crossing the line from victim to monster. Bullying is a subset of the larger problem of human violence, which extends far beyond the school grounds. Contrary to what the film seems to imply, it will take far more than a "Stop Bullying" campaign to stop bullying  -- it will take a miraculous revolution in every human heart. But the film shines a light on one finite manifestation of the problem, and awakens our sympathy and concern, and that's a start.

Bully is a film that needed to be made. I believe at one point in time we were bullied, some of us were bullies, and most of us were been a bystander to bullying. For years, we've seen fictional characters be bullied in many Hollywood productions, that provided audiences with simple, relatable, and moderately effective entertainment. The characters were familiar, the plots were conventional, but we laughed, liked the characters, and wanted them to succeed more often than not. Never have we seen bullying in its rawest form, and capturing that on film is one of the hardest, most emotion-testing things one could do with the art form.

In the documentary, we follow around five people from all across the U.S. who have encountered bullying in some way or shape in their school. In Oklahoma, we meet openly gay Kelby Johnson, a down to earth youth who has been outcast for her sexual orientation. She has a tight bond with her friends, including her girlfriend, but personal feelings of inferiority and the looming thought that she'll never be like everyone else has lead her to try to take her life three times. It is a bit sad her story couldn't have been elaborated more. The subject of gay bullying could've been a documentary on its own.

In Mississippi, teenager Ja'Meya Jackson pulled a loaded gun on a bus full of students, enraged and hurt at the fact that she had been bullied for months and not a single person had taken action. She didn't kill anyone, but her life has changed greatly since the event. In Iowa, we meet Alex Libby, a socially awkward loner, victim to verbal and physical abuse on his school bus for a face resembling a fish. He is a quiet soul, bottling up his rage and hatred for people and coldly tells the camera "sometimes I want to become the bully." The other two children's stories are told through their parents, because they committed suicide for continuing arrogance to the problem. Kirk and Laura Smalley, parents of their late son Ty who took his life at the tender age of eleven, have started an organization called "Stand for the Silent" in hopes that people will speak out for those who aren't. The fifth boy is the deceased Tyler Long, who killed himself at seventeen because of ongoing torment for his weak appearance and uninvolved athletic status.

As a documentary, Bully is a surface-scratcher, going for an expansive view on the issue, rather than a deep, moving one. It manages to pull in a number of different souls who have been victim to harsh, uncalled for treatment, but never seems to explore them to the level of depth that we'd like. We also, never get a look at the other side of the road, from a bully's perspective. Why does one bully? Why does one take pride in hurting other people? And does their homelife really have anything to do with it, or do they just enjoy the pain and torment his victim feels? Bully paints the issue as one with no feasible solution other than to police the grounds carefully and intricately.

Bully has also been garnering a plethora of controversy surrounding the MPAA's decision to stamp the film with an R-rating. Director Lee Hirsch stated by doing that, the film would then be out of reach to children who the movie is directly made for. This is another move by the MPAA, made by completely tuning out the impact a film like this could have, in exchange for sticking to old, worn, outdated policies from an organization far too biased in their decision-making. The film was released for two weeks with an "Unrated" rating, rejecting the MPAA's suggested rating, before the edited cut, the one now in theaters, was released moderately theatrical with a few of f-words subtracted to try and garner more revenue and viewership.

With that being said, the documentary is definitely worthy of recognition and is almost required viewing for not only young children, but parents as well. It gives hope to the unlikely outcasts, which I have always enjoyed seeing, and it provides people with the feeling that things are being done. For one, we are seeing a documentary on the issue and organizations are being created to stop it. Things are getting done, but will the problem be eliminated, is my question. Last year, I watched an ABC Family movie called Cyberbully, about a teen girl who was being harassed and attacked viciously on the web. Throughout the showing, commercials aired stating "stomp the bullying" and "delete the drama," but who really was paying attention? Are bullies going to look at a Television film and thing "what I'm doing is wrong, I should stop?" Most likely no. They will embrace it with a cold shoulder, ignoring its messages and its morals.

I'm optimistic about the response for Bully, but as far as eliminating the degrading act, that would have to mean taking away peoples' feelings of inferiority and superiority to one another. That just can't be done. It's the painful side of the world and human nature. Bully is the first documentary I have had the pleasure of seeing in theaters, and despite noticeable restrictions, it is a brave film with a lot of heart, humanity, and soul. A bold and daring exercise that could change the way documentaries are produced. The MPAA should've debated that before seeking out the rubric for their tired policies.

Starring: Alex Libby, Je'Maya Jackson, Kelby Johnson, Kirk Smalley, Laura Smalley, and Kim Lockwood. Directed by: Lee Hirsch.

The most powerful documentaries are those that speak for themselves. They let their subjects do the talking and lead the film. This is, by far, Bully's greatest strength. This powerful doc. tells the story of several different families who encounter bullying in different ways. We follow a few families dealing with suicides as a result of bullying, one family whose son is dealing with bullying on an everyday basis, and one family whose daughter is in youth behavioral detention from having brought a gun onto a bus. Each story is a different, powerful facet of bullying and the journey is moving and heart breaking. At the center, however, is the main argument that not enough is being done by the adults to prevent bullying.

As stated, the film is told by it's subjects. We witness the bullying that occurs first hand, follow the subjects in their everyday lives, and see first hand the divide between the kids who are bullied and the adults who either do nothing or are unaware of the problem. Other parents deal with the loss of their child through suicide stemmed from bullying and their efforts to change the school systems and law enforcement that ignore the problem. Like any good film, and documentary for that matter, we have our heroic underdogs and our villains. In this case, our heroes are the bullied and our villains are those behind the broken system that allows bullying to continue. One woman in particular displays aptly the real problem and does so with finesse. I will say, by the end of the movie, you'll want to punch her in the face for being such a....well, I can't use that word in this review.

The tragedies in this film are supplemented by a handful of moments that really grab at you. From hearing a man who lost his son use politics as an example to a confrontation in the aforementioned woman's office, the film has a good arc about it. We root for change to happen and for these kids lives to improve, for there to be hope, and there is. Even though the tragedies are rough and even a bit tough to watch at times, we are rewarded with the hope of better days and an improvement. As someone who was a victim of bullying and has known many others to also be victims of bullying, it's refreshing to see that people are standing up all over the world and attempting to do something about it. To say that this film is important is just touching on what it means for this doc to be made.

That isn't to say the film is perfect. Far from it, there's a lot that could have been done. First, the film isn't especially well rounded. We don't get the opposite point of view. Having some of the bullies interviewed would have been a bit interesting I think. It would have also been nice to see some bullies and bullied as adults and what they think. The film also doesn't really look at anything beyond the immediate situation. We don't get any statistical data about bullies or a big variation on the kinds of bullying that occurs. We are simply presented with a few not so unique victims. Perhaps it was simply the filmmakers intention to show us a broken system and those trying to change it, but I would have preferred more variety, however, in the presentation of this problem.

Beyond this, the film is truly great. I can't stress the importance enough of this documentary. With all that goes on in this country these days, it's easy to overlook how important this matter is and how vital it is for the adults involved to put an end to bullying. Especially powerful are the numerous stories of child suicides which reinforce the importance of the issue. I'd even go so far as to say this documentary should be mandated watching for schools. If you have children, find a way for them to see this film. It is one of the most important films of our time.

I HOPE AND PRAY this women was fired after this documentary!! She literally does NOTHING to the bullies. During one scene she even pulled the child that was being bullied aside and let the bully go!!! It is disgusting, suspend and expell these children and I guarantee their parents or guardians will then do something about there children bullying others. Get rid of ALL staff that is not disciplining children each and everytime they are bullying a child!!! I swear I hope and pray this principal or assistant was fired!!! That poor baby thought it was okay because you as a school and district failed him!