There is some really exciting news coming out of the MPAA's refusal to lower the rating of Bully, a documentary about the epidemic of bullying in schools. AMC has agreed to carry the film, unrated, in their theaters nationwide. Not only that, children under 17 will be able to get in with a signed permission slip from their parent or guardian. The decision was made yesterday to release director Lee Hirsch's Bully without MPAA certification by The Weinstein Company. The MPAA have very strict guidelines about the use of profanity. They refused to budge from an R rating after an appeal because the high school students in the film curse. In order to protect the film's target audience from the language they hear every day, the MPAA wanted to stop the target from attending without a parent or guardian at all.
The decision really messes with a great opportunity to educate young people about the ramifications of unchecked bullying. With an R rating, schools would not be able to send students on a field trip to see Bully in theaters. They would not be allowed to play the DVD in classrooms or, most likely, even discuss the trailer. Instead of giving children the opportunity to experience real life stories of bullying and anti-bullying activism in schools just like their own, the MPAA wants to protect their precious little ears from language used all the time in schools.
I work with high school students a lot in theater programs. The language they use would make your hair curl. We constantly have to remind students that profanity is not acceptable in an academic environment and that they are embarrassing their parents who are diligently building sets and sewing costumes while they rehearse. Little Johnny isn't going to magically start using these words because Bully shows other students using them. Little Johnny is already talking like that with his friends between classes, at the mall, and in the locker room.
AMC Theatres is doing a great thing in making a documentary like Bully accessible to young people. You can access the permission slip here. I have students who want to see the film but don't want to go with their parents. The children who are old enough to be interested in Bully on their own are most likely the ones who don't think it's cool to hang out with Mom or Dad in public anymore.
Unfortunately, other theater chains are not as accommodating. Cinemark will not release the film at all without a rating--even under the typical "no rating = NC-17 = no one under 18 can go, period" release strategy. Regal Cinemas, the nation's largest chain, has not released a statement or responded to questions about the release of Bully.
This isn't a matter of a pig-headed director unwilling to compromise on his vision. Lee Hirsch understands that if you're making a documentary about bullying, you're going to hear certain slurs and profanity. That's what bullying is. Censoring out the words that the MPAA believes will upset children defeats the entire purpose of exposing the behavior. A neutered film about bullying won't feel real enough to make an impact on the people who need a wake-up call about the severity of the problem.
Bully opens in limited release on Friday, 30 March. Hopefully, it does well enough to expand. The more people who can see a film like this and understand how messed up the response to bullying in schools is, the better.
I know first hand how eager schools are to sweep these attacks under the rug. I have the training certificates to prove it. Non-staff need to know what's really going on. Children need to see what their "fooling around" can lead to with actual people, actual consequences, and actual lives. The MPAA's stand is so driven by strict adherence to rules that they perfectly illustrate the failing of anti-bullying legislation and polices for schools.
Thoughts? Love to hear them.