MovieChat Forums > Bully (2001) Discussion > Teen prostitution ring?

Teen prostitution ring?


In the movie, Bobby only says Ali and Heather were part of a teen prostitution ring as a put-down, right? That conversation takes place during the first time he ever meets Heather, and he's only hung out with Ali a handful of times by then, so he has no way of knowing anything about either of their pasts. It's a little confusing because neither girl denies it or really reacts, but still. Can anyone who's read the book confirm that this part was just a random insult and not true?

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It was absolutely true. The book goes into a lot of detail about the girls time as underage prostitutes, giving blow jobs to crusty old men. The whole beginning of the book is about it.

In the movie they don't dwell on it at all. It's left to Nick Stahl to make it clear to us that he's being serious this time and not just insulting them like he usually does. Personally I think he did a good job. The way he makes eye contact with Donny in the rear view mirror and says to him "for real" made me believe he was being serious. And the fact that the very first word out of Ali's mouth after he said that about her was "yeah".

So, yeah, they were prostitutes.

How did Bobby know? That's less important to the story - point is he knew. Maybe he knew a guy who knew them who told him or maybe he read about it in the papers. Point is he knew the girl's past.

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Oh, interesting. I wonder why suburban kids who didn't need the money would've chosen to do that?

I really don't think it was handled well in the movie, though. Bobby brings up the topic with a question to Heather like "Are you a whore like your friend?" and then he goes in about the prostitution stuff, as though he's making it up right there. Why would he ask her that if he knew it to be true? Pretty weird. It sounded like natural dialogue and everything, but was not super clear for the viewer in my opinion.

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they might be mostly middle-class kids from fairly decent home, but Heather Swallers is a dramatic exception.

She is dirt poor with nothing and has come from nothing except hell.

Ali sees her at the Mall one day, and befriends her...one of her first acts is to buy her some brand-new clothes, racked up on her mother's credit card.
It's the nicest thing, possibly the only nice thing, that anyone till then had ever done for Heather...that and the fact that she is so damaged anyway, seals her as Ali's adoring supplicant not-much-to-say sidekick..
(she has two of them, Heather, and the apparently dimwitted but equally adoring and sycophantic Donny)

Whether Ali after that time, got Heather into her hooker-ring, maybe,another thing that makes it hard to be sure, besides absence of a direct statement saying so, is that the time-lines in the book are a little all over.

as for these kids generally needing the money, although Ali is spoiled by her parents , has a Mustang 5.0 (not that I personally think much of 80s and 90s Mustangs) I mean, surely even middle-class kids need or want additional money, right?
for a start, even for illegitimate needs, this particular gang all seem to have raging drug habits or at the very minimum they all drink and smoke cigs and weed, even that takes money, you can't rely on your parents financing your illegal boozing and tobacco/weed smoking when you are a mid-class teen, right?

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"givng Blowjobs to crusty old men" I bet the girls look favourably on that time period in there teens as a highlight or an achievment lol

mankind must put an end to warfare before warfare puts an end to mankind.

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I've actually reviewed the parts of the book dealing with Hildebrand's teen hooker ring involving Ali, and Heather's own back story, and I actually cannot find any reference to her by name as one of Hildebrands girls with Ali..the main other one mentioned is Eileen the beautiful half-cast Asian chick who is not involved in the crime with the possible exception of having put Ali and Lisa in contact with 'hitman" Derek Kaufmann.

But now much later in the book, it introduces further doubt. The cop or DA prosecuting the case, muses that, words to effect..several of the girls he has in custody for the crime were part of the Hildebrands girls bust..it does not then mention them by name, so still, I cannot see a direct statement anywhere of HS having been in on that.
Maybe all in all, it seems to imply it without saying it.

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Bobby includes Heather in it but it was only Ali. as someone mentioned, the books goes into details about it-extensive.

___________________
he left u NAKED in a DITCH!

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I always assumed Clark just added a lot of gratuitous sex to the story as he is wont to do. But these kids obviously were pretty screwed up to begin with. My question is was that girl's name really "Heather Swallers"? If so I think she was pretty much doomed to be a teen prostitute. . .

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She was real friend of theirs that went to rehab


Ich bin hier, um die Werke des. Teufels zu tu. Cast a spell. Kill me Ill kill you.-KUZA

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y question is was that girl's name really "Heather Swallers"? If


yes, I am sure that her unfortunate would usually be funny name struck others besides you and me.

the problem in this case, is that this poor girl really had had a sub-hell childhood and upbringing, so I was reticent about taking more piss at her expense over her name.
What this chick had gone through, you have no idea.

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Ali definitely YES, but I do not recall evidence of Heather having been in on that...nor Lisa.Lisa Connolly seemed strangely sex-obsessed for a homely or overweight virgin teen girl to me, the material the author Schutze describes her having displayed on her bedroom wall seems highly unusual for a teen girl, to me.

Heather Swaller's back story is the most tragic out of all of them, you have to read what she had been born into and what her late father, and her mother had been like, to even believe it..actually heart-rending any kid is left in such an environment, but she had been.
'
Ali was working tricks for this guy who started up running teen hookers to older men, it was going ok too,as pimps go he was ok to them , took 40%, got them good clients as these things go, trained them well, she was ideal material for it and had money both from her tricks and her mother, but cops stung him and busted him.. hilariously two or more cops initially lost their jobs out of that bust, they mishandled it so badly it became a departmental scandal..but their bust on the Pimp still stuck well-enough, he was put out of commission ..

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Lisa Connolly seemed strangely sex-obsessed for a homely or overweight virgin teen girl to me, the material the author Schutze describes her having displayed on her bedroom wall seems highly unusual for a teen girl, to me.


It's natural and common for teenage girls to be interested in sex. And I really don't know why you'd think looks would be a factor in that, as if only supermodels have sex drives.

On a related note, it's so disheartening how no one can mention Lisa on these boards without dumping on her looks. What does that have to do with anything? She orchestrated a murder, but apparently her very worst crime is not being thin enough. Sick. Hearing posters shame her gives me the same creepy, misogynistic vibe as all the horrible things Bobby says in the movie.

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I'm not equating looks proportional to sex-drive, in that context I'm talking about any teen girl...her bedroom wall material , which the movie only skims over with the camera, but the book author makes more of, is unusual for a teen girl,. imo.These are not "Dolly" mag pics of pretty boys from boy-bands I'm talking about here.
Please also do not give me any analogies involving 'super models"...nothing could be further from my mind when discussing any aspect of this /movie/book than 'super models"..or any other time, for that matter.

As for making something of her looks-when you read the book, you get a different perspective. The author Schutze himself makes a fair bit of her chubby homely body image.
Actually looking at the b/w pics in the book, of which there are only police mugshots of the human players, I would categorize LC as average/prettyish.

But with her body-image, Schutze devotes some effort and space to making clear she is frumpish...this helps make the material posted on her b'room wall all the more unusual.
If you have not read it, read the book, it is a quick read, and it gives a whole different slant on the whole deal than this disjointed movie did.

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