Media mogul Harvey Weinstein had a good night on Sunday. The Weinstein Company’s The Artist won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Its film The Iron Lady propelled Meryl Streep to her third Oscar. The Weinstein Company even produced the documentary Undefeated, which ran away with yet another statue.
But in the midst of all that success, Weinstein was fuming over a recent loss. His company’s upcoming documentary Bully, which examines the lives and experiences of harassed youth, had just been slapped with an R rating—despite a personal appeal by Weinstein.
“It’s really an injustice to a bunch of kids who’ve been beaten up and suffered a little too much at the hands of a crazy society that allows that kind of stuff,” Weinstein said on the red carpet Sunday, “and I think [the MPAA has] made a gigantic mistake.”
Did it? For me, it’s a tricky question. From what I gather, Bully’s main issue (at least in terms of its rating) is the language. And as some of you might know, I believe that foul language is almost always unnecessary to tell a given story. Do certain stories require depictions of violence? I think so. Sexual situations? Arguably. Language? Not so much. I know loads of filmmakers (including some Christian ones) believe foul words can add to a film’s authenticity. And yet, the old, black-and-white movies I dig rarely had even a speck of language in them, and the stories are still compelling and resonant and feel quite “real” in their own way. I don’t miss the foul words at all.
But we’re talking about a documentary here—and, as such, you’d expect it to “document” the real behavior of real kids. When I was growing up, most of the conversations I heard during lunchtime from about fourth grade on would’ve been rated R, and I doubt the language has gotten much better in the public school system over the years. Says Bully director Lee Hirsch:
I made Bully for kids to see—the bullies as well as the bullied. 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. It is heartbreaking that the MPAA, in adhering to a strict limit on certain words, would end up keeping this film from those who need to see it most.
I get that. The R rating essentially bars the film from being shown in schools, where presumably Bully could do the most good. And it should be noted that the MPAA has allowed films with extreme profanity to skate by with a less-restrictive rating before: Gunner Palace, a documentary set in the Iraq War, served up 35 f-words and still managed a PG-13 in 2005.
But even though the MPAA can be inconsistent, I don’t fault the organization for holding the line here. Sure, some kids might be helped by seeing a film that honestly engages with the theme of bullying, and I know that many children have heard the language before. But I also think there are loads of parents out there who would rather not have their kids be exposed to such language onscreen, and with reason (studies show it can change how kids talk in real life). If a fairly profane film was given a lesser rating, many moms and dads would feel blindsided. “Why didn’t the MPAA warn us?!” they’d would say. Giving the film an R rating essentially takes the decision of whether to screen the movie out of the hands of schools and into those of the parents—where, I think, the ultimate decision should lie anyway.
For me, the whole tale illustrates the importance of going beyond the rating and thinking through whatever you and your family decide to watch: There are teens out there who might be helped by this film. There are teens out there who might be hurt by its language. And in the end, it’s up to parents—not Harvey Weinstein or Lee Hirsch or the MPAA—to determine whether it’s appropriate for your children.
Sometimes, I think we can all look for the easy way out: We try to make the MPAA or others do our work for us. But really, it’s up to us—as viewers and as parents—to look past the ratings, sift through the info and determine what’s appropriate to watch. After all, we’re all different: What might be suitable for little Bobby won’t work for Trevor. What might help Susie could give poor little Allison nightmares.
Hey, it’s a little more work, of course. But anything worthwhile always is.
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