Bully [Blu-ray] [2011] [US Import]

Not sure why Amazon lists this as "The Bully Project", but we are talking indeed about the documentary "Bully", whose initial R rating by the MPAA Caused such an outcry (more on that later).

"Bully" (90 min.) is the self-explanatory title of this documentary, directed by Lee Hirsch (who he himself was a victim of bullying when growing up, reason for wanting to make this film). The movie basically follows 5 students in schools in Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Mississippi and Oklahoma as they deal with bullying in an almost daily basis, some with tragic results. There is a lot of footage from school buses, which appears to be ground zero for bullying. I assume Hirsch was able to mount some cameras in the bus unbeknowst to the kids. What we see is sometimes shocking. In the case of 12 yr. old Alex, the bullying becomes so violent that in the middle of the movie, we are informed that the film producers were so concerned with Alex's safety that they decided to share the school bus footage with Alex's parents and also with his school principal. Next we see the parents meeting with the school's Assistant Principal, who informs the parents that she is familiar with bus 54 (the bus Alex takes) and has done that route herself on occasion and "these kids are good as gold" (as you cam imagine, the theatre audience I was watching this with let out a huge moan at that point). Indeed, throughout the film, school administrations seemingly do little or nothing, or are in complete denial, or both. Just outrageous. Back to the rating of the movie: the MPAA simply made itself look like a buffoon by giving this movie an R rating, when in reality this movie should be watched by every single kid in America 10 years and older. The movie's rating eventually was given a PG-13 rating (in contrast, in Canada the movie was rated PG).

I saw this movie this weekend at the Esquire Theatre here in Cincinnati, at a private screening by the Council on Child Abuse (COCA). Kudos for the great work they do in spreading the awareness that bullying is a serious issue in today's society. Meanwhile, "Bully" is HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommended!

My mom recently gave me a bag of papers, report cards and mementos from my school days. She meant it to be a nice thing for me to have in adulthood to remember my school days. People who want me to put the past behind me seem to also be the same people who won't let me forget it. I had to stuff that bag in the closet. I can't look at it without crying. Why were they so mean to me? Why was I such a bad person? Why did they hate me so much? I graduated high school in 1989, and the bullying I endured still hurts.

If you're an adult survivor of the kind of heinous treatment the kids in this movie endure, it may trigger a PTSD episode. If it never happened to you, you will be absolutely stunned at what goes on. They don't sugar-coat anything. Some of the footage is raw and disturbing. These kids know that the cameras are there; they've been recorded since before they were born. They know they are being watched, and they still behave like animals. It makes you really wonder what they do when they know no one is looking.

It is kind of limited in scope. They never interview the bullies, so we never know why they think it's OK to treat other kids that way. It doesn't get much into cyber bullying. All of the stories are from small towns. I don't think they intentionally tried to smear small town America, but having one story from a major metropolitan school system would have been helpful. Where are school administrators who fight bullying? They're certainly not in this film, and after I watched it, I'm convinced they don't even exist.

Alex stands out because they followed him around the most, yet they neglected to mention that he has Asperger Syndrome. With Kelby they mentioned she was gay almost every chance they had, but Alex's autism was never mentioned. Autistic people across the spectrum run a very high risk of being bullied, taken advantage of and being victim to criminal activity. Keeping autism cloaked in this movie was a horrendous disservice to Alex and to autistic people everywhere.

Everyone is giving Alex a hard time. The kids literally pummel him with fists and words. The school administrators insist that he must have some part in how the other kids are treating him. He must have done something to provoke them. Even Alex's own parents blame him for not doing something about it, but they never explain WHAT he is supposed to do. Their only concern seems to be that his younger sister not be teased for having him as a brother. Alex is treated as a sub-standard human, as though he is less than anyone else, and it's sickening to watch.

You'll be outraged at the other cases, too. Ja'Meya was bullied so much that she brought a gun on her school bus. The sheriff gets some kind of sick pleasure out of stacking as many felonies onto a bullied black girl as he can. I can only speculate what unspeakable things a man like this does in his patrol car back seat while flashing his emergency lights and watching re-runs of Beretta.

Kids in a mini-van ran over Kelby because she is gay, and they call it bullying. She's not welcome at church, and her teachers openly participate in the bullying and hate. She wanted to stay and try to make a difference and change the status quo, but even the strongest among us have their limits. After another humiliating incident, Kelby can't take any more, and decides it's time to go to another school.

The film also discusses two boys who were bullied so badly they killed themselves. It's gut-wrenching to watch those parents grieve. The movie tries to end on a hopeful note, but it's really not enough. Letting balloons go into the sky won't stop bullying or cure the incompetence of the adults who are supposed to protect these kids. This movie's website doesn't do much, either. They sell DVDs, "educator toolkits" and ask visitors to take pledges against bullying. We are encouraged to throw money at the problem rather than solve it, because it's the American way. Everyone needs to see it, but thanks to the way they're distributing it, not everyone will. The bullied kids not just in this film but everywhere deserve better.

BULLY is a powerful, disturbing documentary feature from director Lee Hirsch that sparked a national movement that rallied people to stand up to school bullying, hate and intolerance.

This is a difficult film to watch, as the camera captures the emotionally painful lives of five families whose children were victims of school bullying. Two of the kids committed suicide, while another in a desperate effort to get her fellow students to leave her alone, threatened then with a gun and wound up in jail.

However, what is truly distressing about BULLY is the "kids will be kids" and "there's not really much that we can do" attitude of the idiotic school administrators and local police who seem to prefer to ignore the issue.

Perhaps if officials like these had addressed the bullying problems in their school, a tragedy like Columbine would not have occurred.

BULLY is not "entertainment," but it is a film that every kid, parent and school official should watch.

The DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment contains many deleted scenes, featurettes and other extras.

© Michael B. Druxman

I was very eager to get this film and watch it . It was carefully produced and very well done.
It really asks you to look at this pandemic bullying. It does what voices cant it makes you look at what is going on in schools everyday. A situation that has morphed into an extreme form a grotesque torture of our children everyday. When the film visited the parents of children who had committed suicide I broke down. It just makes me so sad that these children were in such a dark place emotionally and that the school district would not take responsibility for not protecting these children. Schools are always screaming that they are De Facto parents while children attend their schools . Alleluia then what happens when our children are bulled? they look the other way and feel no shame for it . There is no other way to tell this story people make light of it and then get perplexed when these children take their own lives because of this relentless bullying . Our society better take a stand as a whole . I was reading a blog another mom wrote about this and she quoted Hillary Clinton, "It takes a village to raise a child". I have one better than and its by a prophet who I adore Rev. Martin Luther King "Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way." That said it all as a woman, a mother , and as a human we cant let our children put up with this. Some kids can take it but some cant and there is another beast to tackle the internet which pretty much feels like the whole entire world to a child who is breaking down day by day . This needs to be our first lady, Michele Obama's priority . One child even brought a gun on the bus to protect herself. She spent time in jail a straight A student who could not longer bear the everyday consistent pain of being bullied ,cursed at , taunted and ignored by school officials who just do not want to get involved. I wish this movie could be part of every schools First day making it a pre- requisite to attend every school . But our society is to worried about the rights of the perpetrators and think nothing about the victims. Tyler Long, hung himself in the closet of his room . He is one of the many children who are dead because of bullying. What just happened in Connecticut, scares and has scarred us all. But was the work of someone who was deranged and cut off so emotionally to take the lives of innocent children. Bullies do the same and walk away they destroy a child's life . We have just heard a report from the Harvard School of Medicine stating that bullying changes a child's DNA. I could have told them that without the study as a victim and a fighter my memories of school are sad. If not for wonderful parents and a dad who taught me how to fight I don't know if I could have gotten through it. Being called a spic everyday cursed at and closing the locker on my hands . Until one day I lost it and beat someone to the point of blood curling cries for someone to get me off of her. That was the beginning of my freedom kids were afraid and I kept up the chin brought a heavy linked chain to school and meant it. NO one and I mean No one dared to wake up that devil inside of me again. As my own son was bullied in 4th grade the feeling came back and I went up to the school and fought that fight . I realized it was not worth it and pulled him out and put him in a private school were he is adored . I thank God everyday for that decision . And for the job I have to make it happen . Life does not have to be that hard for an innocent child cant we all stand together and make life wonderful for them all?. I pray everyday that all our villages start to take Hillary to heart like her or not and my beloved Doctor King,always stand up for what is right you would want someone to do the same.

All the reviewers keep saying that all kids need to see this. I think all adults need to see this and get lessons along that way on how to deal with these situations. There were so many points in this where the adults fail, even the parents. Specifically Alex's parents. His own sister calls him names and the parents do nothing. At one point his dad worries that his sister will now be bullied because Alex has not come forward with the situation. When the sister says she's going to get bullied because all the kids at her school think he is creepy, the dad says nothing! When the mother sees footage of Alex being bullied on the bus and then talks with him about it, she does a poor job. It's almost like she blames him for accepting it and asks if he likes it. She should be modeling empathy and validating his feelings. It's very sad to watch.

Don't even get me started on the school officials. They were worse.

And, watching the way the bullies act and speak made me wonder where they learned that behavior. Probably from their parents!

It's too much to put this on the kids (bullies or victims). Bullying lays mainly on the shoulders of adults - parents, teachers, school staff, community members, etc....