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The PG-13-rated documentary “Bully,” which has been subjected to much debate over the past couple of months due to its initial R rating, sheds light on what has now become a prominent issue in our country – the impact peer-to-peer bullying is having on America’s school systems as well as its diverse communities.
Director Lee Hirsch (“Act of Honor”) and producer-writer Cynthia Lowen concentrate their collective efforts around the movie’s tagline “It’s Time to Take a Stand,” portraying the plight of several children and families of children nationwide, who have been harmed, sometimes fatally, through bullying in schools, on buses and throughout communities.
While excavating these stories from small town America, Hirsch and Lowen have produced a sensitive and eye-opening film that is certain to enrage most audience members, especially in a few disturbing scenes with school guidance counselors and physciatrists trying to justify certain students’ actions as well as blatantly ignoring a parent’s cry for something to be done.
However, “Bully” stresses this theme of standing your ground so much, the filmmakers forget to provide the audience with a necessary solution to the issue at hand, nor do they pin-point exactly who, or what, is to blame for the spread of bullying within our domestic boundaries. Rather, the documentary simply compiles a diverse batch of stories to demonstrate larger defects, plaguing our country internally.
While there are plenty of international problems to be concerned about, it’s hard to walk out of “Bully” and not place this subject at the front of the line in terms of domestic issues.
The audience may not come away with a definite answer; however, there is hope provided towards the film’s ending as parents David and Tina Long and Kirk Smalley begin to create a national push against bullying in remembrance of their deceased sons, victims of the nationwide epidemic.
As for Alex, the documentary’s main subject, there isn’t as much hope toward the conclusion of his story. The boy nicknamed “Fish Face” continues to fight an uphill battle against a school riddled with inept adults, who not only miss the point of what’s going on with a lack of understanding and compassion, but most importantly, justify their own actions, or non-actions, in their individual pursuits to stop bullying.
It’s these types of people, like Alex’s guidance counselor, who need to be removed from the country and exiled. And the audience feels nothing toward them but blood-curdling fury.
As for the controversy surrounding the film’s rating, it’s blatant, less than 10 minutes into the documentary, that this is a film that must, without question, be seen by as many teenagers as possible.
However, teenagers, or potential bullies, are only the tip of the iceberg. “Bully” captures the feelings of alienation and isolation amongst the bullied as well as gross negligence on the administrative side of the issue. With an array of potent clips at the ready, “Bully” suggests that there is a much bigger and unseen problem in America – children, parents, teachers, bullies, administrators, bus drivers, etc. have allowed this to happen, turning their backs on thousands to millions of students desperate for help, or for someone to hear their story. To put it simply, we have become a nation that lacks moral fortitude, electing to care more about our own issues as opposed to those of others.
This negative characteristic is entrenched under the surface of the American faCB’ade, but “Bully” digs it up, yet does nothing with it. Hirsch never calls for a change in how we interact; rather, he proclaims we need stand our ground, but fails to provide us a blueprint as to how that will change anything.
The solution is hazy at this moment in our history; however, a lot more than standing has to be done. The first step is to change who we are morally, if that is at all possible.
“Bully” puts our nation’s collective humanity to the test, and right now, like in a lot of subjects, we are failing to make the grade.
