Well, hi there.

"Bully" is a documentary about school, students and bullying, and the language is expectantly rough, but it is essential to the topic.
Apparently, last week the MPAA rated the film "R".
It is a film about teens in school and there is a hope that the film will eventually be shown in schools, but that will not be possible with the "R" rating.

A student has started a petition at change.org to persuade the MPAA to give it the PG-13 rating.
You can sign the petition here:

http://www.change.org/petitions/mpaa-do ... n-r-rating

WHO CARES

I haven't seen it but with the subject matter I do think it should be PG-13. It's a film that should be allowed to be shown in schools. With an "R" rating that's unlikely.

I signed the petition.

I signed it, but I don't like that it requires you to enter so much personal information to vote, especially a physical address, which I did not give them. That's ridiculous.

I agree that change.org wants too much information, but I've found that you can skip details.

The MPAA is insisting that the movie retains an "R" rating. The rep in L.A. says "for (ratings) consistency". Well, fuck that. This is a documentary about school and bullying that the kids themselves cannot attend on their own?

I'm reminded of the current viral campaign for MIB III and I wonder, why can't the Bully PG-13 campaign Go Viral? Is it a mere promotional stunt and the rating is already scheduled to be reduced?

I don't know that. All I know is, bullying in school is not consistent with Our Rights, and that the language which garners the "R" rating is not unusual in real life.

I would suggest contacting the MPAA to tell them to lower the rating and help support the kids who are too often traumatized; who are too often damaged by the 'consistencies' of protecting the guilty by silencing the victims.

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Celebrities have signed the petition even. But the MPAA isn't having it despite what, 300,000 signatures? It's a shame kids can't go see this movie without an adult. It's something they should be able to see and it's not like they don't hear this language anyway, including in school. The MPAA really needs to make an exception in this case.

The MPAA is really out of touch with this decision.
Their attitude appears to be that the language of bullying is 'adult content'
and that it needs to be left to the parents and the guardians, including the adult
faculty members and the authorities, to take care of or to consider as
a document for any potential correction.

So why do we still have this problem?

The MPAA giving this an R rating was a -gift-. It's allowed Weinstein to turn a documentary few would have seen ("I already know bullying is lame, I'll save my ten dollars") into a minor art-house event or at least curiosity.

You could be right there. It has created awareness. They should give that girl who created the petition and had a meeting with someone from the MPAA among others a cut of the profits.

If it's so important for kids to see the film, isn't this more the school's issue to have parents make an exception allow their kids to see an R-rated film, instead of a company's issue who just rates the film based on content?

+1

But the thing is kids should be able to go see this without having an adult accompany them.

As if they would.

Weinstein is a GENIUS. He knew the rating the MPAA would give because of the profanity. And he's used it to get the good-vibes, sign-the-petition, white-guilt, telescopic-philanthropy, flavor-of-the-cause-of-the-month types who are so concerned, man, because the children might not be able to see Bully by themselves, man, to more or less wage an ad campaign for him.

Think of the children! Oh, God, think of the children!

If anyone involved with this film truly believes the R rating will hinder its message and impact, then I have an idea: bleep the handful of goddam f-bombs causing the trouble. Oh, I know, I know, it's a -film-! The director, surely the Abbas Kiarostami of fucking MoveOn.org supporters, can't COMPROMISE his VISION by dropping the sound out over a few curses! Which, by extension, means the director's artistic vanity is more important than SAVING and TEACHING THE CHILDREN!

Well before probably not because they wouldn't have even heard of the movie . Now they would.

Weinstein fighting the MPAA over every release though does get sickening. It all seems like a marketing ploy. Maybe the MPAA purposely enjoys tormenting them .

Isn't it better for kids to see this together with their parents though? The topic of bullying is equally important both for the kids and the parents.

It's probably not over "casual F-Bombs".
I'm guessing the content is probably relevant to the assaults
in tormenting someone. Probably more to do with sex or orientation,
like, you know, we could ummm...overdub the language to uhhh...

Gee Wally, you perfume smells Very Nice!

Or...Dude, you sure do have a talent for Touch Football...

Or...Sally, you sure know how to pick Peaches!

And then use that over, say a beating or a death.

Free Speech...who needs it? But I was wondering if it was a publicity stunt?

Addendum: I learned the words Fuck and Fart in 4th grade, though at first I got the meanings criss-crossed.

In 7th grade P.E. there was a fat soft faggot who kept to himself, so the other boys drew him out and he got the shit kicked out of him a couple of times. He might be dead by now for all I know. I never liked him.
That same year there was a retard that the hipsters Loved to talk to in the hall.

When I was 14, one of the locals pretended to be new down the block and he called me over on first acquaintance. I rode my bike over to his yard and said, "Hi".
He pulled out a pair of wire cutters and snipped me in the ribs, leaving a second-degree gash, saying nothing more.
When I did not call the police and kept it to myself, he then shared his pot with me, but through one of his buddies.

In 10th grade there was an American Indian boy who, to anyone else, was nothing but a silent Nigger.

So, who are you protecting?

You can already watch R rated films in school. Kids already watch films like Bang Bang you're dead and Bowling for Columbine in school, and they are R rated as well, I'm sure this will have no trouble making its way into health classes

Just noticed Weinstein doesn't have any movies that will get wide releases for a while.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/cha ... ompany.htm

I'm assuming The Wettest County will and that isn't until August 31st.

Roger Ebert chimes in on the rating: http://www.towleroad.com/2012/03/in-the ... which.html

I wonder if this can be a bit of an arthouse hit. Not huge but respectable. Maybe 10-11 Million? It's been making the news quite a bit lately. Hell, Weinstein almost should have advertised this and released it somewhat wide.

Nah. Most people won't give enough of a shit to go see it. A tiny percentage of the people conscious of the MPAA fracas will give Bully their eleven dollars.

They played a movie trailer for this in my college cafeteria today. The Hunger Games didn't even get that which means Titanic is going down so...

This is always on the news. I've seen them talking about it a few times now. It's getting tons of free publicity. Well played Weinstein, well played!

I still don't get it. A rating is a rating! I know the MPAA is slowly are becoming more and more lenient over the years(I think the limit on F-words for PG-13 movies is two nowadays), but to expect them to give the wrong rating for a movie since it's got a great message doesn't seem right. Weinstein is yelling at the wrong people. Guess it's working though if they some publicity.

I think Weinstein used Bully to tap into a long-running controversy about how backwards the MPAA is.

'So children can see dozens of people get sadistically killed in The Dark Knight but have to be protected from language they hear in school every day?'

Frankly I prefer to see Weinstein using his dirty wits to confront MPAA's hypocrisy than steal another set of Oscars.