A Boy's Life

I watched this documentary twice. I cannot believe the Grandmother's behavior. I couldn't decide whether she was the one with the mental problems or if she was just a control freak. A little of both, I guess.

My compassion for this child brought me to tears. I cannot believe that an adult could be so emotionally abusive. Unfortunately, I was raised by the same kind of mother and I know how it feels. I have no sympathy for a grown woman who, in my opinion, beats herself about the legs and blames a 7 year old. Her daughter has obviously been just as emotionally abused and I hope gets help for herself.

Please update us on how Robert and his brother are doing. I pray that things have turned for the better.

Fairly well done documentary about one southern family's life in the midst of poverty and psychological abuse. I rather enjoyed this movie, and found my self laughing at times during the opening half. Yet this is certainly not a comical movie. Early on some the characters acted so uniquely odd, so over the top "Southern", that it seemed to be staged. As the movie runs on, you realize that it is not the case. The things that seemed laughable early on, seem quite different at the movies end. The documentary looks in to several ills that seem to go hand in hand with poverty. It takes on more social problems, I imagine, than even the film makers expected. Nonetheless it gives us a snapshot, not always an objective one, at this family's life.

An in-depth look into the lives of a poor, rural family with little education, and a poor family dynamic. The grandmothers maniplation was outrageous (claiming Benji won the race when robert clearly did, showing up in the kitchen at Roberts birthday and hugging and fawning over him, then crying that no one is paying attention to her)and deeply saddening. The lack of opportunities and resources almost guaruntees this family cycle of poverty will continue with Robert and Benji's children.

Excellently done. Kudos to their schools, and all of our schools. It is an outrage that teachers and school administrators are not among the highest paid positions ion our society, instead of among the lowest. The teachers and staff at our public schools sometimes do more parenting and child rearing than these parents ever do, and the fact that they make next to nothing is embarrassing to me.

I was beyond disturbed and upset by this documentary. You would have to be blind, deaf and dumb to not see the surroundings of Robert including his insane grandmother and bitter lazy fat mother were destroying that child's future to be a normal boy.

As we could see from how he behaved at school, and getting A's for his report card he is an intelligent child stuck in some hick moron's home. I felt so beyond sorry for this child and his poor little ignored brother it actually made me sick.

In a perfect world I would not let the grandmother and her daughter look after a rabbit let alone raise two children. They are the scum of the earth. Yes that is harsh, but it's a great argument for legal and safe abortion when 'these' types of people get pregnant. It's a vicious cycle that will never end until people start saying what everyone is afraid of hearing! But Robert exists and I am saddened he is still with those horrible horrible people. The best thing for that child and his brother is be taken away immediately.

Bless the school and teachers for being so wonderful, and also Dr Phee for doing her best.

When I first started to watch this, I thought both the mother and the grandmother were no good, poor white trash and that the mother should be sterilized. Both seemed to be somewhat unstable mentally. The boy, too, seemed equally hopeless. As the movie progressed, my perception began to change and I began to see who was the real problem in this relationship.

Luckily, the social workers and teachers saw who the problem was as well. They actually have hope that Robert could turn out to be a normal little boy. Looking at him as they said this, you'd think they were saying this because they had to. However....

Kudos to the people who made this film who somehow were able to find these people and film their lives at such a turning point.