Bully

Let's address an important issue. The MPAA "R" rating on this film (for six F-words spewed by school children in hate-filled diatribes) would have made it impossible for school children to see the tragic results of their venom. Filmmakers Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen hoped to create a teaching moment and generate public outrage about unchecked bullying which turns schools into torture chambers for the underdogs who are targeted. Make no mistake, bullying has gone on since time eternal, but the vile that erupts from today's bullies is an eye-opener (those notorious F-words are the least of it!).

Hollywood's movie rating board consistently yields to the deep pockets of the big studios; allowing students to attend violent, bloody, profane films, because they are blockbusters, while this worthwhile little documentary lacks those big deep pockets...more bullying?

This time the little guy fought back. Instead of releasing this film unrated, which would have forced theater owners to treat it like a PG-17, canny Distributor Harvey Weinstein and theater owners have negotiated a truce with the MPAA, removed a token offensive word or two and the film will be treated like a PG-13!

I beg anyone in the education system to PLEASE watch this movie. I realize that bullying is as old as time. I was stoned on my way home from school after our family moved to a new town, so I know from personal experience what it feels like. However, I was never subjected to the unrelenting humiliation children experience today. If you can watch how his classmates treat "Fish Face" and not cringe, you have a heart of stone. And in my opinion, that sheriff who arrested the anguished girl with the gun was probably the biggest bully on the playground when HE was a boy! We examine the lives of five victims, two of whom are already dead, suicides as a result of bullying.

Most of us have personally been confronted by the issue: many of us were bullied; many of us were witnesses; few escaped unscathed. To me, the most unsettling thing was to see (and hear) just how truly vile the school children are in today's schools. And our screening audience groaned aloud as we watched inept teachers and principals sweep it under the rug.

Yes, yes. I am aware of the "helicopter parents," who hover over their darlings, aided and abetted by lawyers, always trolling for lawsuits. This system has stripped bus drivers of the authority to eject a bully from a bus and turned school administrators into wimps.

In my opinion, schools should teach children to automatically shun a bully, making it clear that his behavior is neither acceptable nor admired. If a bully doesn't have an audience, he will probably lose his motivation to dominate a classmate. The BULLY should be the pariah in school, not the poor kid who has always been the target. And yes, I've left parents out of the equation. If they were doing a decent job, bullying wouldn't exist!

My thanks to Harvey Weinstein for standing his ground. Now please do your part and see this film.

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Here is a link to a preview:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1081188633/
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