By Hannah Everman
Bully, the much-anticipated documentary film, was granted a PG-13 rating on April 5 by the MPAA, said the Weinstein Company. The film originally had an R rating for a particularly intense scene that shows a teen named Alex Libby being harassed and bullied on the bus, and also for some usage of the ‘F word.’ Due to the fact that a primary audience for this film is middle school and high school students, vast majorities of people of all ages have been petitioning to get the R rating lowered to PG-13, so that it would be accessible for those age ranges to view the film. The MPAA lowered the R rating without cutting the intense scene of Libby on the bus; however, three uses of the ‘F word’ were removed. Director Lee Hirsch has stated that he made the documentary with the intention of giving an uncensored portrayal of what 13 million children have to suffer through every year; therefore, he refused to cut the intense scene.
This is certainly a triumph for Hirsch and children everywhere who wish to put an end to bullying. With the PG-13 rating, the film can now be shown in classroom settings, as an educational tool all around the country. If you would like to read more on this, click the link below.
