TOW #28

The documentary that I watched, called Bully, was about bullying in schools across the country, and the negative effects that it can have on the lives of many children. The people who made the film, the Weinstein Company, wanted to do a documentary about something that was important to the American people to try to make a change, and this was the exact way that they decided to go about it. The documentary features first-person accounts of people who have dealt with bullying and who have been negatively affected by bullying, including parents who have lost their kids to suicide because of bullying in school. Their stories and personal accounts make the documentary heartfelt, sincere, and beneficial as far as knowing how far bullying reaches to the hearts and minds of the kids and families affected.

The purpose of this documentary was to highlight bullying and the trauma that it can cause for everyone involved. People who are bullied have different negative reactions, ranging from suicide attempts, both failed and succeeded, self harm, or bringing a gun to school buses to protect themselves from the bullies. Families of bullying victims have to sit by and watch their children suffer, helpless to do anything but take them out of the school they were bullied in and move elsewhere. For families where this is not an option, they may lose their child to suicide or watch their child be thrown into juvenile detention centers for finally striking back against the bullies.

The most useful device in this documentary to highlight the main idea of the film were the personal testimonies of children who had been bullied or who were being bullied, or of parents who had lost their children to suicide. Truly heartbreaking scenes where parents break down because of the loss of their child made a very strong emotional appeal to the audience and made them understand the need for a change in how school systems approach and deal with bullying. The serious consequences of being a bully or having been bullied need to be more at the forefront of our minds when we think about the education system, and the documentary wanted to make that point.