Weinstein joins campaign against bullying of Bully

By Alexandra Heilbron on March 14, 2012 | 3 Comments


The number of expletives used in Bully, a documentary by Lee Hirsch, forced the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to slap a Restricted rating on it. But now, Bully has a new ally. Harvey and Bob Weinstein from The Weinstein Company are appealing the rating, saying, “We have the utmost respect for NATO, but to suggest that the film Bully could ever be treated like an NC-17 film is completely unconscionable, not to mention unreasonable… we feel now is the time for the bullying epidemic to take center stage, we need to demand our community take action.” Despite the controversy, Hirsch firmly believes the language is important to telling the story.

In The Hollywood Reporter, he’s quoted as saying, “I made Bully for kids to see — the bullies as well as the bullied. We have to change hearts and minds in order to stop this epidemic which has scarred countless lives and driven many children to suicide. To capture the stark reality of bullying, we had to capture the way kids act and speak in their everyday lives — and the fact is that kids use profanity.” In Canada, Bully, which opens April 6, has been rated PG in Ontario, British Columbia and Manitoba. ~Rodrigo Cokting



Comments & Discussion

  1. Torpedo • March 14, 2012 @ 3:44 PM

    Censorship at its finest here. How ridiculous that they would give it an R rating when its meant to be seen by kids. Kids swear more than sailors do these days. Gimme a break

  2. rose • March 14, 2012 @ 8:28 PM

    this movie should be show to everybody because this bullying got to stop and because the kids swear who stop the age limited should be ashamed of them self for doing it because kids swear now at any age so let everybody see this movie.

  3. Olive • March 14, 2012 @ 9:01 PM

    Wow. I still cant believe we live in a world where the Saw movies and other torutre movies get only an R rating, while a movie about bullying gets the same rating because of freaking LANGUAGE. Im under age so I cant see this movie unless those nimrods down at MPAA make it PG-13. People need to see this, mainly the kids, so I hope this protest sends the rating down.


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