Skip to main content
Close

Bully: Nails the Problem, Just No Solution

By Brock Wilbur · April 3, 2012

Lee Hirsch wants his documentary to change the world. It won't.

Bully is a brutal look at the state of bullying in the United States, where the filmmakers say 13 million kids are picked-on every year. It follows a handful of students from around the country, each with different social situations and backgrounds, each facing extreme difficulty. It is not an easy film to watch. Much has been made of it's "R" rating which prevents it from being seen by the intended audience: teenagers. And that is a genuine crime, because this movie may only be useful to them.

Purely as cinema, the production has soaring highs and crushing lows. The constant auto-focusing left me queasy by the mid-point and the sound recording is iffy throughout. Conversely, it has some shots and sequences that are so mind-boggling genius I almost refuse to believe they aren't staged. At one point, a father talks to his son about not letting bullies make him a punching bag, and does so while repeatedly beating a container of BBQ sauce against a table. Later, that same kid has a breakdown and tosses rocks near a railroad track, while behind him a bar is changing their marquee, removing the word "HAPPY" letter by letter. It's a small shot that many might miss, but my God that's crazy to catch.

Production isn't the point, though. Who cares about static in your audio, so long as the message is heard? What does this film have to teach us about bullying?

It's bad. Like real bad.

And that's about it. While pushed as education and prevention, it does little more than show us a collection of undeniably terrible stories. As someone raised with the occasional church-based fire-and-brimstone approach, I can attest to the power of scare tactics on pre-teens. While the film isn't nearly that manipulative, it still seems meant purely for the younger audience, even though I'm sure that's not the only focus Hirsch intended. Because, for teens alone, the actual message they are left with is… kind of awful.

Wait. Before going further let me say this: Bully is an important film, and by the standard of modern documentaries, is pretty excellent. No one in this country makes it through our school system without experiencing some kind of inappropriate treatment at the hands of our peers. Some of us took it much worse than others. If you weren't the constant victim, you remember that kid. And if you were the bully, you probably check in on that kid from time to time, maybe even on Facebook, to make sure something in his life went right. I think we can all agree that bullying is a real, valid, and life changing issue that has been given little to no attention, especially in the world of film. Any and all discussion of bullying helps us move towards a better world, and I wish this movie the best of luck on its journey. You should see it. You should see it if you ever interact with kids in your daily or professional life. And if you have kids, you should bring them to an R-rated movie.

That's a lot of love I'm placing on Bully. Some high praise. But it comes with some complicated caveats.

The one major difference that Bully can reasonably hope to make is a change in public perception. One of the teens focused upon is a 14-year-old African American who responded to taunts by pulling a gun on a school bus. The result being twenty-two counts of kidnapping and twenty-two counts of intent to assault, making for upwards of forty felony counts against her; the possibility of two-hundred years jail time. When they interview the local sheriff, he explains how bullying is not a real thing, or viable motivation for responsive action, unless someone is literally beating said child on a daily basis. In his mind, there is no such thing as bullying. The spectrum is only kids being kids or total physical abuse. If the film can prove to a few million Americans, in positions of power or decision-making, that this spectrum is much wider, then we've all won. Bully wants to make bullying an actionable offense, or at least redefine it as a more threatening term. That's a change I believe it can make.

Can it also teach teenagers not to pick on each other? To maybe be kinder to the weird kid? To understand that consequences have actions in the lives of others? Probably.

But those in positions of power, with direct influence on the issue at hand, are just… There's nothing for you here. Teachers and parents and law enforcement and community leaders, you will find no suggestions. You'll find blame. You'll find anger. You'll find hurt. But no solutions. The film identifies the logic loops that have failed students for years. Moving doesn't work. Telling someone to avoid the bully doesn't work. Mediation may not work. Kids are not just being kids. Turning a blind eye fails everyone. All this is true, but the woman who comes off almost villainous in the film is the vice principal who tries to create change. Her approaches also fail, and in conversation she either comes of as too political or even asinine, but it's clearly not her intention.

This is the danger of the film. Bully demonstrates that the issue is often never communicated to the appropriate people (parents, teachers, authorities), and only when everyone at every level is actively involved, can there be any hope for resolution. But even then– sometimes nothing. All the parent teacher conferences in the world can't fix a child's behavior on the bus or when aggressor and victim are alone in the hallway. The film shows that there is no "fix" for bullying, and points out the massive failings on every level without suggesting a reasonable solution. Is there one? Maybe not. But if the intent is to educate children on this social problem, then isn't it frightening we're teaching the bullies that no one can stop them?

As we left the theater, I watched a family discussing the film with their child: "None of those kids would bully anyone else if they got their ass kicked a little more at home." See? That's what happens when you don't give parents a solution after filling them with anger and despair. Bully did a great job of getting us riled up, but where does America put that?