It's impossible to rationally address the issue of bullying. Every time someone is trying to make a point about it someone drops in their tear-jerking personal experience, ignoring the goal of the discussion at hand. Truth is, everybody has their own bullying story to share and very little are cast at the bully in it. I'm not saying it's not an important issue, that it isn't perhaps getting worse. Only that there's been a lot of discussion about the symptoms and not the disease here. The documentary BULLY isn't avoiding the pitfalls of the whole bullying argument. Its heart is in the right place and it makes a couple good points that aren't usually highlighted in discussions about the issue, but it can't help coming off as a little disengenuous and manipulative.
So, BULLY is following the situation of 5 different bullied kid at different stages of their relationship to their respective tormentors: Kelby Johnson, a homosexual young student is at the crossroads, having to decide how to deal with the growing adversity. Alex Libby is slowly drifting into alienation and isolation from the lack of adequate support. Ja'Meya Jackson is in juvenile detention after pulling her mother's gun in the school bus and both Tyler Long and Ty Smalley decided to take extreme measures in order to cut their suffering and killed themselves. Smalley was only 11 years old. If BULLY makes any concrete point at all, it's that bullying is a bona fide social issue and that maybe its gotten worse since the days we were in high school.
My problem with BULLY is the following: I understand it's a problem, but the documentary didn't help me understand what are the sources and, to a certain point refuses to offer perspective by actually interviewing bullies. They barely get any airtime in the movie and when they do, it's almost by accident. There isn't a simple explanation to this issue. Kids aren't mean for the sake of being mean, and the answer doesn't only lie in policing them. If it was the case, every single kid would be an absolute devil and going to school would be some kind of Darwinist gauntlet that made victims every day and the job market wouldn't be any different. BULLY's closed look on 5 particular cases sure is moving, but it doesn't serve a bigger purpose than being moving for the sake of it.
My problem with BULLY is the following: I understand it's a problem, but the documentary didn't help me understand what are the sources and, to a certain point refuses to offer perspective by actually interviewing bullies. They barely get any airtime in the movie and when they do, it's almost by accident. There isn't a simple explanation to this issue. Kids aren't mean for the sake of being mean, and the answer doesn't only lie in policing them. If it was the case, every single kid would be an absolute devil and going to school would be some kind of Darwinist gauntlet that made victims every day and the job market wouldn't be any different. BULLY's closed look on 5 particular cases sure is moving, but it doesn't serve a bigger purpose than being moving for the sake of it.
Alex Libby was by far the most engaging character in BULLY. If you're interested in how he turned out, here's an update.
The character I thought illustrated the issue of bullying the best was Alex Libby. It's not because the others weren't pertinent, but Alex was at a critical stage of his relationship to his tormentors where the casual rejection and bullying that most kids have to face at least once in their lives turn into something much sicker. In that regards, BULLY illustrated something most discussions about bullying overlook: isolation and alienation. Seeing Alex wander in the schoolyard aimlessly because nobody wants to talk to him and hearing him tell him mom that he really doesn't feel all that much anymore poked in a few personal dark places. It's not just the violence that hurts. It's the inaction, the inadequate measures and having to face the same problems every day. Most of the cases in BULLY were too extreme to relate too, but Alex's wasn't. We all knew a guy like him.
BULLY wasn't a bad documentary per se, but outside the Alex Libby and Kelby Johnson case, it spends a lot of energy being alarming and not enough looking at the situation for what it is. The main thing it accomplished is showing that many adults in charge hide behind their desk to avoid dealing with extreme bullying cases. Personal involvement with these kids can make all the difference. I don't think the school would've done anything about Alex's case if BULLY's director Lee Hirsch hadn't himself come forward with footage of him being choked and stabbed with pencils in the school bus. We're still a long way (and maybe a politician son's death, unfortunately) from dealing with bullying in a systematic manner. In the meantime, if it means all that much to you, get involved. It might not resolve the issue but to a bullying victim, someone who really cares can make a huge difference because isolation and alienation are as much the enemy as the violence is.
BULLY wasn't a bad documentary per se, but outside the Alex Libby and Kelby Johnson case, it spends a lot of energy being alarming and not enough looking at the situation for what it is. The main thing it accomplished is showing that many adults in charge hide behind their desk to avoid dealing with extreme bullying cases. Personal involvement with these kids can make all the difference. I don't think the school would've done anything about Alex's case if BULLY's director Lee Hirsch hadn't himself come forward with footage of him being choked and stabbed with pencils in the school bus. We're still a long way (and maybe a politician son's death, unfortunately) from dealing with bullying in a systematic manner. In the meantime, if it means all that much to you, get involved. It might not resolve the issue but to a bullying victim, someone who really cares can make a huge difference because isolation and alienation are as much the enemy as the violence is.