Misuse of Censorship in the US

There is no exact translation in French for the word bully. The English term is both a noun referring to a person who uses force and intimidation to boss others around, and a verb, to bully, which means to bring on suffering to one’s victims by use of intimidation, vexation and harassment.

Now there’s the film, “Bully” (nothing to do with the film of the same name directed by Larry Clark in 2001). This documentary by Lee Hirsch follows the lives of youth suffering from persecution in a school setting, to the point that two of them commit suicide. The director, himself a victim of bullying, wanted to make parents and educators aware of the lot of these children and teenagers who live a daily hell. He incidentally set off a storm in online social networks, calling into question Hollywood’s censorship system once again.

Despite the absence of violent images, “Bully” was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, the corporate organization responsible for rating the films shown in most commercial cinemas. The R rating prevents those who are under 17 and unaccompanied by an adult from seeing it, depriving the target audience.

So why does “Bully” have an R rating? Because the “F-word” can be heard six times; this is more than the two allowed by the MPAA. For the director, who filmed during the 2009-2010 school year in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Iowa, Montana and Georgia, “The small amount of language in the film that’s responsible for the R rating is there because it’s real. It’s what the children who are victims of bullying face on most days.”

Coming out of a screening organized in Washington by the MPAA, Lee Hirsch shouted at its president, former Senator Christopher Dodd, “(People) believe in the system, but the system is letting them down.”

The decision was also contested by the Weinstein Company, the distributor of “Bully,” whose president, Harvey Weinstein, has long been considered one of the worst bullies of the movie industry. It is partly a sign of repentance that Harvey Weinstein is making “Bully” a personal fight. The distributor of “The Artist” in the United States decided to release the film without a rating, making it susceptible to boycotts from numerous cinema owners and certain media that refuse to advertise “NR” or non-rated films.

Petitions

The film has received support from public figures as diverse as Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, Justin Bieber and Hugh Jackman. Microsoft is using its search engine, Bing, to promote the documentary. This “R” has above all launched a large movement in online social networks. Katy Butler, a high school student from Michigan, started a petition for “Bully” to be rated PG-13, which would allow the admission of unaccompanied teenagers. To date, more than 520,000 signatures have been collected.

ArcLight Cinema on Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, is one of the five American movie theaters where “Bully” premiered without a rating on Mar. 30. The film is being handled as if it were rated PG-13. In the two AMC movie theaters (the second largest cinema chain in the U.S.) that are showing “Bully,” teenagers can see it, provided they have a note from their parents. During the same weekend, being at least 13 years old was enough to see “The Hunger Games” without a hindrance, a film in which teenagers kill each other.