Bully (I) (2011)

A documentary on peer-to-peer bullying in schools across America.

Director:

Lee Hirsch

Writers:

Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen

Stars:

Ja'Meya Jackson, Kelby Johnson, Lona Johnson

6 wins & 7 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ja'Meya Jackson	...	Herself
Kelby Johnson	...	Herself
Lona Johnson	...	Herself
Bob Johnson	...	Himself
Alex Libby	...	Himself
Jackie Libby	...	Herself
Philip Libby	...	Himself
Maya Libby	...	Herself
Jada Libby	...	Herself
Ethan Libby	...	Himself
Logan Libby	...	Himself
Kim Lockwood	...	Herself
David Long	...	Himself
Tina Long	...	Herself
Teryn Long	...	Herself

Storyline

This year, over 13 million American kids will be bullied at school, online, on the bus, at home, through their cell phones and on the streets of their towns, making it the most common form of violence young people in this country experience. BULLY is the first feature documentary film to show how we've all been affected by bullying, whether we've been victims, perpetrators or stood silent witness. The world we inhabit as adults begins on the playground. BULLY opens on the first day of school. For the more than 13 million kids who'll be bullied this year in the United States, it's a day filled with more anxiety and foreboding than excitement. As the sun rises and school busses across the country overflow with backpacks, brass instruments and the rambunctious sounds of raging hormones, this is a ride into the unknown. For a lot of kids, the only thing that's certain is that this year, like every other, bullying will be a big part of whatever meets them at their school's front doors. ...

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Plot Keywords:

school | bully | bullying | victim | backpack | 

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Taglines:

Be a Hero. Take a Stand.

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, disturbing content, and some strong language - all involving kids

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 April 2012 (Iceland)

Also Known As:

The Bully Project

Filming Locations:

Georgia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,100,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$116,472 (USA) (30 March 2012)

Gross:

$3,483,795 (USA) (15 June 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bully Project, The, Where We Live Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Anderson Cooper is a strong advocate of this documentary and the movement against bullying that it has stimulated. It was featured on Anderson Cooper 360° in October 2011, at the "Bullying: It Stops Here" town hall program special. Kelly Ripa, Rosalind Wiseman and Phil McGraw also shared their reactions to and support of the movie.

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Quotes

Bullied Student: I've never had real friends that would stick around and help me.

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Connections

References Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Kapsburger"
Written by Padma Newsome and Bryce Dessner
Performed by Clogs
Courtesy of Brassland

User Reviews

Didn't go deep or far enough into the entire problem

Good pictorial of victimized kids in a slice of life film on the results of intense and unrelenting bullying, primarily in school and on school buses. As the film showed very well these kids being bullied, the results of bullying and the bullied kids' commentaries on the frustrations they felt about themselves and others as a result, it is a success. However, on the minus side, it gave no suggestions for solutions or possibilities for control, no statements of judgment regarding incompetence or inadequacy of school officials and parents toward ending the bullying, thus I became less involved as the film progressed, as there was no progress made toward anything other than progressively showcasing the bullied kids and what can result if nothing is done about it.

A few things I saw that were consistent in the bullied boys were that all their fathers were nice, quiet and perhaps weak men who did not take any action themselves toward ending the bullying, but left it up to the mothers. The kids' mothers were shown to be much stronger than their fathers were in their attempts to protect their children. Pro-action by both parents must be undertaken immediately upon being informed of any bullying for best chances of ending the problem.

Only one child, the boy from Iowa, had his back story examined in the least as to possible reasons behind his being bullied. He was born premature at 26 weeks and had unattractive facial features as a result, thus these were the obvious things other kids picked on. Nothing in the other bullied kids' pre-natal pasts were mentioned as possible reasons leading to their being bullied. I perceived this as imbalanced background research, and a failure of the film's intent. Perhaps there was nothing, but perhaps also there may have been drugs in the other parent's pasts, or genetic or mental illnesses, or whatever? Nothing was stated or explained so we were left in the dark to speculate. Kids typically pick on something mentally, physically or behaviorally "different" in those they bully, reasons for any of which should have been shown if known. My grammar school nurse required complete backgrounds of all student's health histories, thus school officials then could not claim ignorance if later bullying resulted. Why has all that changed?

The school officials shown should be immediately terminated for their apathy and unconcern and "what can I do about it?" do-nothing approach to the problem. Also, the school bus scenes showed that adult supervision on board was nonexistent, with rampant rowdy student behavior constant and leading to obvious bullying situations. Wouldn't anyone seeing those scenes, even those moronic and lazy school officials, think something was wrong and needed immediate and serious correction?

Overall, the film was a pretty good slice of life of this serious problem but a pretty bad suggester of possible solutions to it. No in-control schools or good parental examples were shown where bullying was not accepted and was non-existent due to immediate and pro-active parental and school responses to it, as it was in my school. As a result, I give this film a grade of "incomplete", and suggest that it take a make-up test(a sequel covering my above suggestions).