No Surrender Cinema: Bullies

It’s September, which means it’s back to school season for everyone from preschoolers to college students. In fact, some of you reading this edition of No Surrender Cinema may be sitting at your computer, procrastinating while your assignment sits undone. Well, far be it for me to be a bad influence, but after spending the summer on the islands. it’s time to tackle a subject that can greatly impact the enjoyment of the semester. What could I be referring to? I’m talking about Bullies!

Released in 1986, this film doesn’t deal with the guys who want your lunch money or challenge you to a fight when the bell rings. These bullies are far worse than the guy who smokes in the boy’s room and wears a leather jacket. For the Cullen clan, bullying is a family affair. Led by patriarch Jonah, a grizzled looking man with a rough voice and cold eyes, sons Ben, Judd, and Jimmy along with dear old dad have managed to impose their will over an entire town, intimidating residents into doing as they say and giving them what they want. They also don’t take too kindly to resistance, as we see in the first few minutes when elderly couple Fred and Martha are run off the road to their death by who we eventually find out are the Cullen boys. Bullies wastes no time in getting straight to the point that even the most minor threat to the Cullen way of life will be destroyed, which becomes central to the story we’re about to see.

The deaths of Fred and Martha have brought their family to town to take over the general store that they owned. Husband Clay is the quintessential Average White Guy, a little too meek and a little too naive for his own good. His wife Jenny seems to have come along reluctantly, but wants to make the best of their current situation. Lastly, there’s teenage Matt, Jenny’s son and Clay’s stepson. He’s got your typical teenage angst that comes along with being uprooted in the middle of high school and coming from a broken home. Their arrival also serves as an introduction to some of the locals; there’s the Chief of Police Sam Hogan, mechanic Vern, and Will Crow (astute action fans will recognize Dehl Berti, who plays Crow, as Chuck Norris’ pal John Eagle in Invasion U.S.A.), a Native American man who looked over the store until the Morris’ arrived. Crow makes an impression on Matt because he’s obviously somewhat of an undercover badass, and it’s not long before Crow takes Matt under his wing and drops some knowledge on him. We don’t approach Daniel/Miyagi levels of training, but if you see Crow showing Matt the mystical art of spear fishing and think that a long sharp object isn’t going to come into play at some point when shit gets real, you haven’t seen too many movies.

It’s made obvious from their first encounters with the various townsfolk that most people have been put on edge by the Cullen’s. Clay and Jenny’s first encounter with them happens at the local bar, when Ben begins accosting Jenny. Clay, already with an uneasy taste in his mouth after his introduction to Jonah, does the bare minimum defense of his wife, which immediately positions him as a rival to Ben. Another run in at the store, when Jimmy starts opening and eating food and he and Ben try to walk off with the old “put it on our tab” sees Clay put his foot down, but Jonah shows up to drag his boys out. Don’t read that as a favor to Clay either, because Jonah gives him some not so friendly advice, encouraging him to never question a Cullen again. Clay’s meek ways don’t endear him to Matt, and it’s not before long before Matt has his own Close Encounters With The Cullen Kind.

While he’s out at the lake utilizing his spearing skills to reduce the local fish population, Matt is confronted by the lone female Cullen, Jonah’s teenage daughter Becky. She questions Matt’s reason for being out at the lake that her family has apparently claimed as their own, but it’s not long before she’s shedding her rough exterior (and most of her clothing). Becky hops in the water for a swim, looking all too enticing to Matt in her now soaked white tank top. Before young Mr. Morris can capitalize on the offer, Jimmy Cullen rides up on his dirtbike and lays waste to Matt, dragging Becky back home. Matt’s all WTF just happened here, and his anger towards the situation intensifies when Clay is all “aw shucks, are you sure none of this was your fault?”. Matt storms off, pissed at his cuck of a stepfather, and rightfully so. Once Clay does get up the nerve to go to the Cullen house he’s brought face to face with a battered Becky, who’s brother is literally twisting her arm into saying that Matt assaulted her out at the lake. Clay doesn’t really believe it, but Jonah Cullen orders him to drop the issue and fall in line, or else.

While Matt struggles with his feelings for Becky and the Romeo and Juliet scenario he’s now found himself in, Jenny Morris struggles to get Ben Cullen off her back. A night out at the local bar almost turns into a bad scene when Jenny runs back to the store for something, and Ben follows her with sinister intentions. The assault is prevented by the timely appearance of Will Crow, who armbars the asshole and tosses him out. Naturally, this puts Crow in the Cullen crosshairs, and he’s soon being beaten on his front lawn while his property (including carvings and totems that he had made) are burned to the ground. In most of these movies, this is the turning point where our heroes rally and Rise Above Hate (shoutout to my “big bro” John Cena), but not in Bullies. Rather than stay and fight, Crow heads out of town the first chance he gets, despite Matt’s pleas. Matt’s consolation prize is Crow’s truck, and though young Mr. Morris now has his own set of wheels (though I didn’t see any paperwork exchange hands… did Canadian DMV’s not exist in the 80’s?) all that teenage angst starts to overflow. Even a romantic rendezvous with Becky is ruined unbeknownst to them both when Jimmy Cullen spies the pair about to have sex in Becky’s secret hideaway. Matt actually sees Becky get beaten this time when he stumbles upon her family trashing the place and her father calling her a whore, but common sense prevails and he doesn’t rush in to save her.

Let’s take a moment to run down all of Matt Morris’ Miserable Moments thus far, shall we?

• Gets relocated to a new town in the middle of high school
• Real dad is dead, stepdad is a pussy
• Mom tries to make everyone happy and just makes things worse
• Meets a girl who gets one or both of them beaten up any time they’re together
• Comes to idolize a man who turns out to be just as big of a coward as everyone else

Can things possibly get any worse for Matt Morris? Oh they can. In fact, what happens next is bad for everyone in the Morris family. Matt returns home to be attacked by Judd and Ben, who have his mom hostage. Since Ben hasn’t gotten what’s he’s wanted from Matt’s mom, he’s come to take it, one way or another. What follows is a very uncomfortable scene where Matt is held hostage by Judd and forced to listen to Ben Cullen raping his mother. Bear in mind that there’s nothing gratuitous about this scene at all… there’s no nudity to speak of. Instead, director Paul Lynch opts to focus on the faces of the characters; we get Ben’s grunting, Jenny’s crying, Judd’s laughing, and Matt’s holding back tears as he hears his poor mother suffer. As viewers, we know what’s going on by sight and sound, but it’s amazing how gritty it feels without an inch of skin shown. The Cullen boys decide that Jenny is going to come with them and Matt is disposable, but Becky arrives to save the day, shooting Judd to scare off her brothers from hurting the Morris family any more. The kids get Jenny to the hospital, and that’s where Clay finally decides that this shit has to stop. Matt says he’s going to, and we get one of those “no you’re not-yes I am” moments between stepfather and son. It’s not until Matt tells Clay that he was there having to witness Jenny being assaulted that Clay finally understands why Matt needs to do this. Although Becky warns him against it, Matt goes, but like any good hero would do, promises her that he’ll be back.

The climax of Bullies takes place on antagonist turf, as Clay and Matt journey out to the Cullen house to settle things. There’s no montage of loading weapons, no training footage, not even a “do you know how to use that thing” discussion. These two very normal men decide to take their chances, flanked by the insistent Sheriff Hogan. Hogan thinks he can “reason” with Jonah since he’s been under this thumb for so long, but it’s mere moments before Hogan lays dead and Clay is wounded at the hands of Judd Cullen’s gun. Clay gets dragged inside, while Matt is surprised by Jimmy. The two scuffle, and Matt accidentally impales Jimmy on the antlers that adorn the hood of Will Crow’s truck. With Jimmy dead and Clay trapped inside, Matt morphs into MacGyver and starts army crawling his way around the Cullen homestead, adapting to his surrounding and using what’s available to him to put an end to their reign of terror once and for all. Judd, Ben, and Jonah are all going to meet their maker, and at least one of them is going to become target practice for Matt’s makeshift spear.

Bullies is one of those movies that I grew up feeling like no one else remembered but me. No one could recall it if I mentioned it when I was younger, and airings on television were scarce. In fact, it wasn’t until I was older that I found out the reason it had obtained cult status was for the swimming scene with Becky. Olivia D’Abo (who many will remember as the older sister on The Wonder Years) was only 16 at the time, so having her popping out of the water with her breasts all too visible got Bullies a rep for all the wrong reasons. Now don’t get me wrong, this is an exploitation movie if there ever was one, but Bullies does so without being too obvious about it. The scene at the lake is the only time we get anything sexual shown to us… all other times, from Becky and Matt’s consummation of their relationship to Jenny Morris’ rape are filmed in ways that avoid focusing on the actresses bodies. Even the violence is minimal, as each situation is a building block to the main feud between the Morris and Cullen camps. It’s exploitation without being too explicit; it’s the polar opposite of something like Troma’s Toxic Avenger, but the lack of sex and violence doesn’t make it boring at all. The entire movie feels rough and dark, at times literally. It has a cheap feel too it, focusing more on character reaction and settings versus special effects. It certainly helps that Paul Lynch has enough credits to his name to show that he knows what he’s doing; the Bullies director is responsible for the horror classic Prom Night and went on to be a prolific director for the Star Trek TV franchise, among many other things. Here he does a good job at keeping you hooked and wanting to see the Morris’ through their struggles, so that when you get to the final battle between Matt and all of the Cullen men, you’ll be on the edge of your seat.

Although this film didn’t deal with a school bully situation, it does have a connection to my beloved Bayside High. I mentioned that you might remember Dehl Berti from the Cannon classic Invasion U.S.A., but he also appeared as Chief Henry and helped my hero Zack Morris (no relation to the main characters in Bullies… and what a crossover THAT would be) get in touch with his heritage on a somewhat infamous episode of Saved By The Bell. It’s too bad he wasn’t around to advise him against starring in Precious Cargo.

Amazon Prime is currently the only place to my knowledge where you can find Bullies. The Region 1 DVD goes for a fair amount on sites like eBay, and there’s no full upload of it on YouTube. I recommend taking advantage of its availability while you can, because this is a movie that should get credit for not falling into the “same old, same old” 80’s low budget tropes and dared to do things a little differently. Bullies has the ability to bring you to a very dark place and you’ll need to survive a few intense scenes, but I’m calling it required viewing for anyone who considers themselves an exploitation film fan.