Crystal Clear

- Renowned film critic Roger Ebert's review of Bully

Crystal Clear

just had to create a thread for this brilliantly acted adaptation of Jim Schultze's book Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge that covered the true event of the murder of Bobby Kent [Florida, July 14th 1993].

It was recently the 20th anniversary of this movie's release!

The film is set in the year it was made [2000] rather than when the murder took place (probably for the convenience factor), and this shows particularly in its contemporary Soundtrack - there is a scene, for example, where Brad Renfro as Marty Puccio raps to Eminem on the TV

I was impressed by how Larry Clark cast 7 actors who looked remarkably similar to the real people who were charged with the crime and even though Nick Stahl does not fully resemble the murdered Bobby Kent, he more than made up for it with his acting ability.

A photo of the real trial featuring the 7 killers/conspirators is below:


Back left to right:
Marty Puccio (played in the film by Brad Renfro)
Derek Kaufman (played in the film by Leo Fitzpatrick)
Heather Swallers (played in the film by Kelli Garner)
Lisa Connelly (played in the film by Rachel Miner)
Alice Willis (played in the film by Bijou Phillips)
Front left to right:
Donald Semenec (played in the film by Michael Pitt)
Derek Dzvirko (played in the film by Daniel Franzese)

I plan to update the OP with more details of both Larry Clark's movie AND the real crime.

Has anyone else seen this movie? Or read the book? Or do you have prior knowledge of the real crime? Please share your thoughts.

canflam

I have seen "Bully"& it's disturbing, along with those killer teens having gotten lenient sentences for their brutal murder. It was obviously unneccesy what they did to him instead of seeking adults for help. Unfortunately with so many school shootings in the U.S. & some due I believe to bullying, it's tough to say that society has improved much in that regard. It might have gotten worse with online bullying.

Crystal Clear

Great to see you in here

In normal circumstances, I would never condone extreme violence/murder. That said, I can believe 100% that Marty Puccio was put into a physical and mental state of hell where he was trapped to the point of feeling that there was no other option to escape Bobby Kent. It's been said by the killers and by family/friends that he would exert ridiculous amounts of intimidation upon Marty, beating him in public then pulling the "you know I love you really" (eerily domestic abuse sounding) card; he would force girls (including one of the killers, Ali) to watch gay porn during sex - and if they refused, he would beat them whilst raping them... Plus he was on steroids, and it's on record that this can be a huge influence on a person's violent mentality. No excuse for his actions, however.

The whole conspiracy of the 7 members who killed him... Well, it's very complex and I'll go into it in more detail at some point, but it's clear that Marty, Lisa (who was pregnant with his baby at the time and suffered horrendous fat-shaming from Bobby) and Ali (Lisa's friend who was raped by Bobby) were the key figures here.

One thing I never liked about the movie was Michael Pitt's performance. Now don't get me wrong - he was great on his own terms funny and relentless bounds of energy. That said, I don't believe it was true at all to the real personality of Donald Semenec -- who is still in prison to this today.

There are petitions to release Donny based purely on the public's love of Michael Pitt and I'm just like ... Really? Donny wasn't the joker that Pitt portrayed. Pitt clearly did his own thing. Semenec was actually the first one to stab Bobby that night - and on his 18th birthday, no less!

A twisted case, for sure. But my sympathies lie with Marty more than Bobby, based on the evidence given. I think his sentencing was brutal, and he's gone into Jail Ministry - truly committed to atoning for his actions.

True story: Marty Puccio and Lisa Connelly's daughter together was born when they were in prison, before they were sentenced to life. She is called Megan, and she runs a Facebook page campaigning for his release. She looks so much like them both.

It's worth noting that despite her being an innocent in this situation, she claims to have had an extremely tough upbringing as a child/teenager. She said parents would convince their kids to shun her and she was brutally bullied herself in those years.

The vicious cycle of bullying -- these morons never learn.

Crystal Clear

Great article linked to by Rachel Miner in time for the 20th anniversary of the movie (lots of details provided by cast & crew of the filming experience, plus they talk about the loss of Brad and Rachel references when she dated him):

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The real Lisa Connelly posted this photo of her and Marty Puccio together on her twitter a few years ago - a photo from when they were dating, back in 1993 ~

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The comedic aspect of this very dark movie was how Kelli and Michael played Heather and Donny as an extremely high, giddy and sexually driven duo, even in scenes like this one where the others are literally engaging in talks over meeting a hitman:

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(Brad and Rachel pictured)



In reality, Lisa met Bobby when he was an avid surfer. This part of the movie addresses one of his main hobbies/passions.