1:54 is very dark tale of the possible consequences of schoolyard bullying and homophobia.· In recent years' there have been many films that deal with bullying and homophobia. and it's tragic consequences· Most bring back memories of my own youth·

As a boy in the mid-1950s, probably then in junior high school, I was harassed by a boy a couple of years older than I· It mostly occurred as I walked home from school and passed his house· By most modern day standards, it was pretty mild· "L" (I don't wish to use his real name), to my recollection, never was physically abusive; just verbally threatening· I was scared of him· I never understood his issue· While by that age I would have had sex with other boys, I am fairly certain that "L"would not have been aware of these encounters· After a short while, I solved the "problem" by taking another route home· While "L" appears in my school yearbooks, by what would have been his graduation year, he is absent from them· From the yearbook entries, he appears to have been somewhat of a loner· He married and continued to live in my hometown· He died in 2010·
Was there bullying in my high school? There no doubt was· But my school was very small by today's standards· Parents, teachers and administrators generally knew each other socially· I certainly believed my situation was unique· I never told anyone-parents or teachers· It was my problem to solve.