‘Goat’ Highlights Horrors of Frat Hazing

Brad Land was one of millions of young men who chose to become fraternity members, and he certainly wasn’t the only one to undergo hazing as part of the process of being accepted. But the former Clemson University student broke the code of silence that normally keeps the details of hazing a secret by sharing his traumatic experiences in the 2004 memoir “Goat.”

That tome stirred plenty of controversy upon its release, and spent over a decade winding its way through the Hollywood movie-development process. But after receiving critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival this past January, the film adaptation of “Goat” debuts in theaters and VOD service this Friday.

Both the book and film of “Goat” sought to shine a light on the pervasive problem.

Despite having a 77 percent approval rating from the nation’s critics on Rotten Tomatoes, “Goat,” starring James Franco, is a painful and unpleasant experience to watch.

It follows the story of Brad, played by Ben Schnetzer, as he gets viciously beaten and robbed by two strangers after offering them a ride home following a college party.

Brad sublimates his anger and frustration over that incident by insisting on pledging to join the fraternity his older brother Brett (played by Nick Jonas) is in. Brad is hoping for instant camaraderie — but he soon finds that the hazing required to join the frat involves drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol and often violent forms of humiliation.

Both the book and film of “Goat” shine a light on the pervasive problem of hazing, a ritual that defies any rational thought in the name of men feeling they have to “prove” they can handle great amounts of suffering — in order to prove their masculine worth en route to lifelong brotherhood with a group of strangers with whom they otherwise share little else.

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But despite all the attention the film received at Sundance and its distribution deal with Paramount, it will likely have little effect on the real-world abuses that continue to occur nationwide.

“In just the spring semester of 2015, 133 fraternity and sorority chapters at 55 U.S. colleges were shut down, suspended, or otherwise punished after alleged offenses including excessive partying, hazing, racism, and sexual assault,” according to the study by Bloomberg.com.

For those who found such numbers incredible after decades spent focusing on hazing issues and colleges claiming they had reformed the process, the Bloomberg article also included a shocking graphic that described each incident in detail and by the date they occurred.

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Another disturbing report, this time by The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, ranked fraternities as the sixth-worst insurance risk in this country – with even hazardous waste disposal companies and asbestos contractors considered safer risks. Their report cited one insurance broker for fraternities who admitted handling more than 6,000 claims and $60,000,000 in payouts.

A large part of the claims and payoffs are made to women who are the victims of sexual assaults by frat members. The problem is so bad that TIME magazine did a report on that issue, and found what may be one harsh solution to the problem: making the sex-crime records of fraternities akin to convicted sex offender databases that are available for public viewing.

Related: Pledges at All-Black Frat Hazed by Their Own

Indeed, exposing these kinds of statistics could put a dent in the problem, as society moves more and more toward demanding accountability for the actions of campus predators such as the notorious Stanford student Brock Turner.

Though it’s often painful to watch, one hopes “Goat” will foster greater awareness among the public — and force some fraternity members to look in the mirror and demand better of themselves and their brethren.

“There’s more to it than just the fraternity culture,” Jonas said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at Sundance.

“As far as people within that culture, there will probably be a lot of things about it that they are drawn to, that they can relate to in a big way, but also some things that we hope open their eyes to what has become a bit of an issue. In some cases, people get carried away and it gets ugly. So if we can raise our hand and say, ‘Look at this story, see what it does to you,’ then we’ve done our job.”