Bully Film Analysis

‘Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,’ a common response to verbal bullying on the school playground. If only standing up to bullying was that simple. Bullying is unwanted hostility from an antagonist who perceives him or herself to have more power over the victim. Bullying can take the form of name-calling, spreading rumors, threatening someone, or even physical abuse. Unfortunately bullying happens everywhere: at school, on the bus, over the Internet, over text. The ramifications of bullying are immensely destructive to the youth of the world. Lee Hirsch created the film Bully to display the harmful effects of bullying and to call everyone to action in stomping out bullying. Lee Hirsch’s exhibition of the three rhetorical appeals, pathos, logos, and ethos, in his film Bully, spawns the assertion that the bullying epidemic can be prevented and needs to be eliminated. When viewers hear and see the word ‘bully,’ they are swarmed with emotions, because of experience as a bully or as a victim. Pathos is the clearest appeal in Hirsch’s film. The topic of bullying evokes so much emotion in an audience and Hirsch knew he could channel these emotions to create a passion to end bullying. Hirsch follows the lives and family of five victims, displaying the brutality inflicted upon the individuals and the agony and sorrow caused by the ruthless bullying. In many anecdotes, Hirsch reveals each victim’s story. Alex Libby, a twelve year old boy from Sioux City, Iowa, is brutally harassed in school and on the bus. Hirsch shows clips of Libby being punched and stabbed on the bus, alarming the audience with the violence Libby undergoes. “They punch me in the jaw, strangle me, they knock things out of my hand, take things from me, sit on me. They push me so far that I want to become the bully” (Libby). The spectacle of a child being physically injured is shocking to the audience and a pang of guilt emerges when nothing is done to stop the