The documentary Bully, directed by Lee Hirsch, tells the story of five different families who have firsthand experience with bullying. The film follows Tyler Long (17), Ty Smalley (11), Alex (12), Kelby (16), and Ja Meya (14), individuals whose lives were changed by bullying, two which were even pushed to take their own lives. In order to convince viewers that bullying is an epidemic in America, Hirsch employs several rhetorical appeals and fallacies. First, Ethos is used successfully in the film. Lee Hirsch lets the kids shown in the movie speak for themselves, and also lets their parents speak up as well. This helps to successfully convince the viewer. The kids talk about what they have to deal with every day, and unlike some documentaries, there is no commentary from the director asking the kids questions, or elaborating on what they are saying. This helps Lee Hirsch gain the trust of his viewers because they feel like he just wants them to know the truth. Although Lee Hirsch gains his audience s trust with his successful use of Ethos, his overuse of Pathos makes his audience question whether they ve been lied to soon after the movie. The documentary is very dramatic. It shows several scenes of parents and children upset and in tears regarding what happening to and around them. Most powerfully, is the scene where 11 year old
Ty s parents crying after they came back from his funeral. Parents who watch the movie have their heart wrenched as they realize that something like this could happen to them. Every parent s worst nightmare is that something could happen to their child. Kids are similarly moved as they watch 14 year old Ja meya and her family also pack a powerful scene as Ja meya starts crying while with her mother that all she wants is to come home from juvenile hall/mental hospital. Kids are moved because they don t even want to imagine being separated from their parents for such a long time. These wrenching scenes would have been even more successful if the whole movie was not like this. There are several scenes that employ such a strong use of pathos in the movie. It s borderline manipulation. If used more liberally, this documentary could have been much more successful in persuading viewers. Lee Hirsch further manipulates his audience with the use of several logical fallacies. Ad hominem attacks against the administration board and schools are used throughout. Yes, the people on the administration board in this movie are indeed terrible, but they are portrayed in such a bad light that viewers are led to question if they were scripted. Slanting is used also, especially so in the case of Tyler Long s tragic suicide. In reality, his suicide note mentioned nothing about bullying; only that he thought his family didn t love him. Several other omissions are made as well, such as the fact that Alex suffers
from Asperger s Syndrome. Probably one of the most blatant fallacies is oversimplification. Although the film states over and over again that bullying needs to be stopped, there is no proposed solution other than to Stand up for the Silent. The filmmakers lead you to believe that by standing up for the new kid, bullying can be stopped. But this is nothing new. Time and time again, teachers, parents, the school board, and even Disney videos have told repeated the phrase. It never works. Overall, the film Bully is manipulative. Although on the surface, the documentary seems to make a good argument, when put under closer inspection, you realize how many flaws the argument contains. Although Lee Hirsch gains the viewers trust by using ethos and pathos, as soon as the movie is over and the audience members have dried their eyes, he has lost them. It s almost as if the filmmaker himself is bullying the audience into believing him with his manipulative arguments. Using only emotions to persuade people does not work. If the filmmaker had used less Pathos, and instead used more Logos (the logical appeal) he could have made a better case. By also using so many fallacies, his argument ends up falling apart. In short, the filmmaker wanted to persuade his viewers, but didn t really know how to go about doing so.
Although Lee Hirsch s documentary Bully is emotionally moving, his utilization of oversimplification, post hoc, and slant fallacies ultimately discredit his argument and deem it ineffective. Hirsch oversimplifies the problem of bullying in order to strengthen his call to action but in doing so discredits and weakens his argument. In Bully, Hirsch includes the testimonies of victims in order to show viewers the torment that the victims endure on a daily basis. This strengthens Hirsch s call to action which is to stand up to bullying and befriend the victims who are bullied because it will give victims compassion and friendship. This call to action however, completely ignores the side of the bullied. Hirsch makes no attempts to acknowledge the lives of the bullies or understand their motives in bullying. This weakens his argument and call to action because he does not acknowledge the full problem which causes bullying and instead focuses on a small part. Additionally, Hirsch s victims are from rural areas and he makes no attempts to sample victims from urban areas. This also oversimplifies the problem because Hirsch does not take into account the difference of lives of people living in rural areas and urban areas. Furthermore, Hirsch uses his small sample of rural victims and extrapolates this to victims around the nation. This does not logically follow because most of the population of the US lives in urban areas. By using rural samples and projecting it as a national crisis in a nation whose population is mainly urban Hirsch greatly weakens his argument. Through Hirsch s attempts to deceive the audience by oversimplifying the problem, he ultimately discredits himself and proves ineffective in a critical view. In another attempt to deceive his audience, Hirsch also uses a post hoc fallacy.
Hirsch sets up a post hoc fallacy by implying that if bullying continues without being stopped or suppressed, victims will commit suicide. This is done through his inclusion of the two suicide cases of Tyler Long and Ty Smalley. Hirsch includes these cases then continues in his documentary to target bullies as the reason for their suicides. By setting these scenes in the order that he did, Hirsch implies to the audience that bullying will lead to suicides. In doing so, Hirsch will successfully appeal to the pathos of the audience members who will be emotionally moved by the tragedies. Although he does appeal to the Pathos of the viewers, he ultimately overshadows this success with his post hoc fallacy which discredits everything that he said using the suicide cases. By using two cases, and extrapolating that to every case, Hirsch s post hoc fallacy proves that Hirsch s argument is logically flawed. Thus, Hirsch weakens and discredits his arguments by using a post hoc fallacy. In addition to the fallacies mentioned, Hirsch also utilizes a slanting fallacy. Hirsch omits the inclusion of Tyler Long s suicide note because it completely discredits his argument, thus Hirsch discredits himself by utilizing a slanting fallacy. Hirsch does not include the suicide notes of his suicide victims in order to prove that bullying was the cause of their suicides. In the case of Tyler Long, Long s suicide note mentioned nothing about bullying. In fact, Long blames his family for the reason of his suicide. This discredits Hirsch s argument and more importantly his credibility because he attempted to deceive his audience through omission of a key fact. With Hirsch s credibility tarnished, all of his other arguments are deemed ineffective as well because the audience can no longer believe anything he says. Ultimately, through Hirsch s use of a slanting fallacy, he discredits himself and tarnishes his credibility which renders his argument ineffective.
Hirsch discredits his argument and his credibility by attempting to deceive his audience. By oversimplifying the bullying problem, Hirsch commits his first logical fallacy in an attempt to strengthen his call to action. Basically, Hirsch s inclusion of the oversimplification fallacy discredits his call to action, and thus his argument. Similarly, Hirsch also utilizes a post hoc fallacy which also weakens and discredits his argument. Hirsch implies that if bullying goes unsolved, it will lead to the suicide of the victims. He does so by arranging the suicides in the film, so that they will be the major emotional force in order to persuade the audience to accept Hirsch s call to action. Although it may have moved audiences emotionally, Hirsch s post hoc fallacy ultimately discredits his argument by being logically askew. Finally, Hirsch includes a slanting fallacy which omits the suicide note of Tyler Long. In Tyler Long s suicide note, he mentions no signs of bullying as a motive; instead he blames his family for his suicide. This discredits Hirsch s argument because he uses Long s suicide as his primary device in persuading his audience. Since Hirsh uses Long s suicide as a kind of proof for his argument, he is discredited by Long s note, and his omission of such discredits him and taints his credibility. In conclusion, through Hirsch s incorporation of logical fallacies in order to deceive his audience, he ultimately disproves his argument and defames his credibility which renders his argument ineffective.