The Movie that Activated my High School PTSD

Anyone who knows me, or has read my post about the most recent Pirates film, can probably deduce that the main reason I went to see the recently released big screen adaptation of 21 Jump Street was because of the promised Johnny Depp cameo. Well, I'd just like to start off with a big screw you to Michael Bacall (and I guess a bit to Jonah Hill maybe since he helped come up with the story). Now that that's out of the way. . .


The plot is simple: two incompetent police officers are moved to an undercover program where they are tasked with infiltrating a high school drug ring and bringing the culprits to justice. In the process they have to adjust to the altered high school dynamic and come to terms with who they really are, yadda yadda, etcetera. Channing Tatum plays a jock (shocker) named Jenko and Jonah Hill plays nerdy (no way!!!!) Schmidt. Together they fail at their jobs, until they finally man up and luck into a successful career. It's everything you would expect this movie to be and nothing more.

The only thing that really struck me about this film was their fairly accurate representation of how high school bullying/mockery can screw you up as an adult. To be fair, it was written by Jonah Hill (who was overweight in high school) and Bacall (who looks like this) so they must have a bunch of personal experience with being picked on in school. I can definitely relate, and that sort of treatment (especially for extended periods of your life) can seriously affect how you behave as an adult. Multiple parts of the film show Hill's character being unable to shake his poor self-esteem and low social confidence as an adult, even one who has since become a police officer. Bullying takes a real toll on who you become when it happens during the formative years of 6th through 12th grade.I think Bowling for Soup summarized it best:

The whole social dynamic of high school doesn't go away after graduation, and neither does the trauma inflicted by your peers. Social pain is a real thing that activates the same pain pathways as physical pain (this stuff is really interesting if you want to read up on it), and anyone who knows anything about aversion behavior knows that people avoid behaviors that cause pain. To simplify, being mocked in high school causes pain, which causes people to start avoiding situations that can cause that pain, which leads to wallflower/anti-social behavior. Since this is ingrained in people over years, it's not exactly easily reversed. Why do you think so many people mistreated during school end up in therapy as adults (I have no actual numbers for this, it's just my personal observation).

So while the movie itself is nothing special, their portrayal of the negative affects a person can have based on horrible experiences during school is one of the most accurate I have seen in a long time. They do it in a funny way, but anyone who has been in that situation can certainly relate to Schmidt's shortcomings as an adult.

To end, I'd like to send out a nice big screw you to all those kids from elementary school up who mocked, teased, pushed, and tormented me. I'm awesome so fuck you.

The End

3.5 stars out of 5