Thursday, March 20, 2008
Film Drillbit Taylor, CJ7 and the bully pulpit
Posted by Curt Holman @Curt_Holman on Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 9:17 PM
Drillbit Taylor and CJ7, two films opening in Atlanta on March 21, both involve schoolboys who hope that outsiders can protect them from bullies. In Drillbit, three high school freshman hire Owen Wilson’s blonde super-soldier as a bodyguard, unaware that he’s actually a conflict-adverse, homeless panhandler. In CJ7, a penniless boy attending a private elementary school discovers an alien robot dog, whom he hopes has powers to change his fortunes at school and home.
The funny thing is, even though CJ7 features flying saucers and shape-shifting playthings from outer space, Drillbit Taylor manages to be less realistic – at least in its approach to high school dynamics and bullying.
Drillbit offers a blinkered vision of high school in which “Filkins†(Alex Frost), a psychotic young thug, runs rampant and the persecuted kids have no recourse. The script justifies this partly because Filkins has no parental authority figures, since his mother and father live in another country. (Confusingly, he’s described as “an emancipated minor†early in the film, and as an 18 year-old near the end. How can he be a minor if he’s 18? Maybe he had a birthday, even though the film only seems to take place over a few weeks.) The film also requires that Filkins has borderline-supernatural powers in currying favor with the clueless parents and teachers, leaving the boys isolated.
Note: the rest of this piece may contain spoilers.
Drillbit shows no awareness of or interest in bullying or security policies at contemporary high schools – which are fraught, serious subjects in post-Columbine America. Obviously, not even a good silly comedy would want to evoke tragic school shootings, but such real-world episodes have caused major changes in school safety and anti-bullying policies. (Even if the policies don't reduce actual bullying that much, a more interesting film than Drillbit would at least acknowledge the new rules.) Drillbit indirectly mocks the ideal of high school security by making a joke that complete strangers can be mistaken for substitute teachers, as long as they have a sweater and a coffee mug.
In CJ7, the bad kids are younger and less threatening, lead by a delightfully hateful, big-mouthed rich brat with several toadies and one hulking enforcer. The hapless boy hopes that the alien dog-thing, which he calls CJ7, can provide an otherworldly solution to his persecution (and other problems, including schoolwork). Instead, the boy's savior turns out to be the even-more-hulking schoolgirl whom he befriends. There's a short, outlandish fight-scene like you'd expect from Stephen Chow, who directed Kung Fu Hustle, but it emphasizes that violence is a last resort.
Drillbit eagerly endorses its violent outcome. Sure, bullies should be confronted, but Drillbit proves so contrived and manipulated that the final fisticuffs play like the catharsis of a revenge fantasy (if a non-fatal, improbably bloodless one). It shouldn't surprise anyone that the boys prevail, the bully goes away and the young heroes seem prepared to enjoy a life of popularity and victory thereafter.
Despite its sci-fi themes, outlandish poop jokes and mawkish sentiment, CJ7 ends on a hopeful but ambiguous note. The boy ends in a wary truce with the bully, who's less aggressive but still at the top of the popularity pecking order. The boy faces his problems, which still remain but seem more manageable day by day. Such a life-goes-on ending is probably much closer to the school experience of most people, who don't triumph over high school so much as endure it. Even ones who don't have alien dog toys.
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