Movie Review: Bully (2012)

I recently saw the movie Bully which came out the beginning of last year but is now streaming on Netflix.  It is a movie that really sticks with you and makes you think.  So, after reading  I wanted to share my review and hope everyone is able to see the movie.

Bully was a difficult movie for me to watch for a number of reasons.  First having a young son it was hard to watch parents deal with the death of their child.  The other factor that made it hard to watch was that it brought back a lot of bad memories from my middle school years.  Having been picked on a lot in middle school I could relate to the psychological impact of bullying. 

Bully is a documentary that shows how bullying affects the lives of five families.  The central subject is Alex a 12 year old boy from Sioux City, Iowa.  In his first year of middle school he is the target of bullying everyday on the bus.  The movie follows him throughout the year and we get to see the bullying intensify.  Also featured in the movie is Kelby a 16 year old girl from Tuttle, Oklahoma who after coming out as a lesbian her whole family has been ostracized from the community.  Not only does she endure insults from classmates but also from teachers.  In Yazoo County, Mississippi we meet Ja’Meya a 14 year old girl who after being constantly bullied on the bus she brought a loaded gun on the bus and ended up in juvenile detention. The last two families are the Long’s and Smalley’s both had sons who committed suicide after being bullied. Tyler Long was 17 and Ty Smalley was 11. 

The thing that blew me away about this movie was the fact that they even capture the bullying at all.  They were allowed in the school but there were no hidden cameras so the filmmakers were very visible. It amazes me that the kids wouldn’t want to be on their best behavior.  It goes to show how brazen these kids are and how much they think they can get away with anything. 

One of the topics the movie brings up is how schools seem to have no idea how to stop bullying.  There is one scene where the vice principal in a school make two kids shake hands.  The vice principal reprimands the kid being bullied for not trying to get along and even ask him why he hangs around the other kid.  When he tries to explain to her that this kid has been bullying him for a long time and seeks him out she dismisses it saying that it has all be taken care of.  It’s scenes like this that show how schools are not able to deal with bullying.  These are the things that make kids reluctant to tell anyone about being bullied.  Either nothing is done to stop it or it only gets worse. 

The other scene that stood out to me was an interview with a cop.  After Ja’Meya was arrested for pulling a gun out on a bus the cop says that unless someone was physically hitting her that there is no amount of bullying that should make someone bring a gun on a bus. I think this shows a complete lack of understanding of the psychological toll of verbal abuse.  To the cop only physical abuse counts as bullying but that is not the case. I hope when people watch this movie they see that verbal abuse can be more damaging to a kid then physical abuse. 

There were a few things I wish the movie did. First, I think it didn’t show enough.  I wish they had interviews the ones doing the bullying and their parents to get their perspective.  Maybe to try and find out why they bully.   It also doesn’t go into why some of these kids were bullied or what it is about certain kids that make them susceptible to bullying.  The last thing I wish the movie did was show more diverse locations.  It focuses on rural America, but bullying goes on in every school.  I wish they showed more suburban and urban schools. 

The movie has been criticized for not providing answers but that was not its purpose.  It was made to bring awareness and discussion about bullying. I hope it succeeds in doing this.  It is something that we need to talk to our children about and something that parents need to make sure the school is actively involved in stopping. I know a middle school teacher that took her class to see the movie and she said it was eye opening for some of them to see the effect bullying has on people.  I think this is great.  The more people understand the more quickly we can come up with solutions.