Bully (Reel) (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	94:25
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (52:17)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Lee Hirsch
Studio Distributor	REEL Corporation Reel DVD	Starring	Ja'Meya Jackson Kelby Johnson Lona Johnson Bob Johnson Alex Libby Jackie Libby Philip Libby Maya Libby Jada Libby Ethan Libby Logan Libby Kim Lockwood David Long
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$26.95	Music	Bishop Allen Michael Furjanic

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Bully is a confronting documentary on the issue of bullying, specifically against adolescent children. We meet various American adolescents who vary in age and gender, across different states. We also get an insight into the impact of the bullying on families. The documentary starts with the grief of a father remembering his son who committed suicide at seventeen over images and home videos comparing him at the age of seven. The question is therefore immediately raised to the audience; could this be my child when he or she becomes a teenager?

    The children whose stories are shared include 12-year-old Alex, an awkward boy who has difficulty making friends, 16-year-old Kelby who has come out as a lesbian and has become an outcast in her school and local community, 14-year-old Ja’Meya who brought a gun onto a school bus and was subsequently sent to a juvenile detention centre and 14-year-old Devon, a classmate of Tyler Long, the same Georgia boy who killed himself after being bullied that we meet at the beginning of the documentary. There is time devoted to the Long family and the family of Ty Smalley, another youngster who committed suicide due to bullying, and his friend Trey.

    The main subject of the film is Alex, who is shown being harassed, especially on the school bus. Despite film footage of Alex being physically and mentally abused on the bus, school administrators are shown as being part of the problem, rather than the solution. In fact, it's quite obvious that the filmmakers have decided to highlight how prevalent and insidious bullying is amongst teenagers, however; little is shown in regards to programs that offer solutions. This lack of counter-balancing these viewpoints on behalf of the filmmakers is possibly the only warranted criticism against this documentary, otherwise, it is a very moving, indeed harrowing, experience to learn about what these kids and their parents go through.

    It could be said that Kelby's, Ja’Meya's and the others' stories are not fleshed out enough, and that the film centres on Alex and what he and his parents have to contend with at school. The younger age of Alex perhaps has influenced Lee Hirsch, the director, producer and cinematographer, to emphasise how bullying is no longer an issue confined to older adolescents, but rather, its impact is been felt in the modern age amongst ever-increasing younger, and more volatile members of our societies.

    Without a doubt, Bully will leave you impacted because when this behaviour is isolated, it becomes difficult to justify and understand. It is also obvious that the film intends to show school administrators who do not want to be involved in dealing with these problems, and that keeping a distance is not helpful. Bully aims to make its audience understand that bullying is personal, I just wish it offered something in the way of solutions.

Video

    There is some video footage of the subjects taken with handheld video cameras which is basic in quality in comparison to the rest of the documentary.

    The aspect ratio is 1:78:1, 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions. The original theatrical ratio was 1:85:1.

  The average bitrate is 7.99 m/b per sec, which is outstanding for a DVD transfer. Fine details are sharp, however, it needs to be noted that cinematographer Lee Hirsch uses focus/de-focus techniques in some scenes which you become used to.

    Colours are natural, there has been no effects added in post-production to the colour timing.

    Apart from occasional low level noise and macro-blocking inherent in the home video footage, there are no video artefacts present in this transfer.

    Subtitles are available in English for the hard of hearing.

    The RSDL change occurs at 56:17, during a scene change, so it's not noticeable.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is quite decent for a low-budget documentary such as this one.

    There are three audio tracks available. The first is a English Dolby Digital 5.1 track encoded at 448 kbps. The second track is an English dts 5.1 track encoded at 754 kbps. The final track is an English Descriptive Audio 2.0 stereo track encoded at 224 kbps. It is quite rare, in this era of Blu-ray technology, to find a DVD with a dts and Dolby Digital soundtrack. This was much more common when DVD was first produced in the late 1990s. As per the majority of these releases, the dts soundtrack is more dynamic than the Dolby Digital one, although the centre channel is more dominant in the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.

    Dialogue is clear and is mixed mainly from the centre channel speaker.

    Ion Furjanic, Justin Rice and Christian Rudder provide an original score which plays along, mainly in the background, but is more incursive than most documentaries.

    The surround channel mix was employed discrete and ambient effects in the front and rear channels.

    The subwoofer doesn't feature, other than to support the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras included, unfortunately!

    The Region 1 United States DVD includes the following extras:

• Deleted Scenes (12:35) - Six deleted scenes.
• The Bully Project at Work (7:17) - A High School views the films and aims to address bullying issues.
• Alex After Bully (4:27)
• Alex's Character Sketch (1:45) - Another look at Alex's life in the film.
• Alex Raps (2:27) - Alex raps with Sean Kingston.
• Kelby's Original Sketch (1:26)
• Meryl Streep on Bullying (2:07) - The actress shares her thoughts on the film.
• Communities in Motion (5:16) - A look at bully prevention initiatives.
• Sioux City After Bully (6:32) - We look at Sioux City's anti-bullying measures.
• Good Morning America (7:57) - Alex, his mother;, Tyler Long's father and director Lee Hirsch discuss the film on US breakfast television.
• Kevin Jennings, An Advocate's Perspective (2:22) - Kevin Jennings, the former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education gives a short discussion on this problem.
• We Are Daniel Cui (3:17) - this looks at online bullying, which is becoming more prevalent at younger ages, and how Daniel's soccer friends helped him cope with his bullying situation.
• Bully, The Book - An advertisement for the book.

    Made on a budget of $US1.1 million, Bully has grossed approximately $US3.5 million. It has also enjoyed favourable critical consensus since its release. This is a well-made documentary that will leave you emotionally-impacted after viewing. Despite the M15 rating, I would highly recommend not showing this film to adolescents younger than the recommended rating due to the subject matter, which can be at times so confronting.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall