When We Were Bullies

And mine is one of them. This film was manipulative and dishonest. Much like bullies themselves. It is revealing that the director did not choose to actually talk with anyone about schoolyard bullying. Avoidance of responsibility and consequences color this project throughout.

There was no deep meaning to be gleaned from this story. The ego of the filmmaker and those who participated were dismissive of their own actions while trying to shift blame away from these animals.

There was one woman (with a c) interviewed who claimed to feel guilty while smiling and laughing through her entire interview. She seemed particularly proud of herself.

You can easily sum up this very bad movie when at the end of the film the director says..."felt bad for the way you were treated" instead of "felt bad for the way WE treated you." What a joke.

Edit: killercola suggested that my review was disingenuous because I was a victim of bullying. Since they are reviewing the reviewers, I feel inclined to comment.

You are damn right I'm angry. But that doesn't make my experience watching this film any less honest. And just because I disagree with point of the film, doesn't mean I don't understand it.

It is shameful that the film maker made a documentary that heavily involved a person, but failed to seek comment from that person. If he was genuinely concerned it would trigger him, he wouldn't release the film without his permission in the first place.

If you feel this is a 9 out of 10, good for you. I'm not going to suggest your experience was dishonest, please lend others the same courtesy.

Original review:

Guy suddenly remembers he bullied someone, and makes the story all about himself, and makes a career from it.

No genuine remorse comes across to me.

Tries to justify his actions, to the point it becomes propaganda... 'boys will be boys'.. 'hardwired to attack the vulnerable'

Plus, so BORING. There's no real insight, and I don't include 'we kids were cruel cos we were kids'.

How it got an Oscar nomination is beyond me.

This documentary is an affront to victims of bullying and the following explains why: The filmmaker himself is the bully from the past, which would still be okay if he approached the matter in a self-reflective manner. But he doesn't do that, instead he draws an explanation for his actions that could hardly be cheaper and more mendacious. Because towards the end of the short documentary he explains that he does not contact the victim of bullying, as allegedly originally wanted, and ask for an interview, but rather writes a letter. The reason is that he does not want to bring people into a new forced situation and did not want to end up clichéd with the strength of those who lead a successful life despite being bullied. In truth, however, he does not find out what consequences his bullying had on the victim. His letter is the height of spiritual poverty. There he justifies his actions with the pain he had in himself because his brother died in the fourth grade. This pain specifically made him bully and torment this other boy. His reading of these events is that everyone carries pain within themselves and that then connects everyone - including him and his victim of bullying. This is outrageous and rightly provokes anger for viewers. Because it would even be possible that the bullied person also experienced pain from a loss, just not bullying others because of it. The emotional pain of both is just not comparable, because the bully reduces the pain of the bullied to what he did to him. What the bully did, however, he supposedly did out of an equal pain ... and, in the opinion of the poor filmmaker, that connects the two. Aha. In fact, the bully seems to be looking for an excuse for himself. Today, as a grown man, he prefers to talk about his pain and he does this by not only comparing his pain with the pain of his victim, but even equating it. It's disgusting and so weak that looking at it doesn't squeeze your tear gland, but instead the food comes up again.

Contrary to most on this network, I don't think we should only listen the victims. I think that to solve any problem, especially something endless and something that happened to so many, we need to try to understand it as a society.

Now, I have some issues with the tone of this one. The music selected was weird and doesn't seem the right one for the moment. It doesn't seem to take the issue strongly and seriously enough, even if in the end the messages are mostly right. I like what it tries to do and tell, but I have some issues in how it tell us that.