Film Blog - "Stand By Me"

Plot

The plot in the movie is almost exactly the same with a couple of minor exceptions. The movies still starts with talk of a dead body that they are going to see which intrigues the viewer to keep watching. The movies does follow the story very closely though. There were a couple differences between “The Body” and “Stand by Me” too. In “The Body”, I felt like Gordie and Denny (his deceased brother) did not have a close relationship, but their relationship in “Stand by Me” was completely different. Their close relationship was emphasized by a few scenes that did not appear in the short story. The movie showed Denny sticking up for his brother and caring about him when their parents did not. Denny was interested in Gordie's life by saying at the dinner table, "So Gordie, how are your writings going?" Their parents would have never been this interested in Gordie's life. Also, Denny gave Gordie his New York Yankees hat which he wears throughout the movie. For me, this relationship completely took a 180 degree turn from the short story to the movie. Also, the store clerk in the movie did not try to rip off Gordie like he did in the movie. Lastly, in the book, Gordie is the one who pushes Teddy off of the railroad tracks and Chris is the character who pulls out the gun to scare off their older brothers’ gang. In the movie this is flipped around. I think this was done to show that Gordie is the one with the intellectual ability to act when it really counts.


Point of View

The movie is still in the format of one of Gordie LaChance’s flashbacks. Also, Gordie still narrates throughout the movie, but not quite as much. This way the viewer sees the story as a whole and they don’t get into Gordie’s head as much. This also means that not as much background information is given about the boys and their families, especially Gordie’s family. The viewer can’t connect as well with the characters and Gordie in the movie because there are not as many descriptions of the boys’ feelings as there were in the book. The movie also cuts out the whole story of Stud City. I am guessing that if they were to have put this in the movie it would have been rated R for other things rather than language. I think it was a good idea to not put this story in the movie, but the viewer does not get to understand the writing abilities and imagination of this twelve year-old. The viewer will not understand this passion nearly as much as the reader of “The Body” would.

Characterization

Since Gordie does not narrate nearly as much in the movie, indirect narration is the most common way to characterize the characters in “Stand by Me.” Gordie still tells of Teddy and his father’s relationship, but besides that Gordie does not give a lot of direct characterization as he does in the short story. The boy’s characters are revealed throughout their journey. When the boys are walking along the railroad, they split up into two groups, Gordie/Chris and Teddy/Vern. Here we see the mature vs. the immature. Chris and Gordie have an intellectual conversation of moving onto junior high and Chris lectures Gordie on pursuing his love for writing and actually making something of himself and not being “dragged down by his friends.” It is clear that Chris thinks his destiny is already written and he is going to end up like his unaccomplished brother and family. Then, we see the group of boys acting their age (Vern and Teddy). They are having an important conversation about if “Mighty Mouse could beat up Superman.” Also, when the boys camp out, they have one boy stay up on look out after they hear noises. The way the boys act all alone in the woods says a lot about them. Vern is scared and just at the slightest cricket. Teddy talks to himself to break the silence. I believe that this speaks to his loneliness. Chris is not really scared at all. Lastly, the scene of teddy standing up for his dad happens the same was in the movie as it does the short story. After this incident, Teddy cries. Chris and Gordie both cry at other points in the story too. I believe this speaks of their true age no matter how old they are trying to be. These tears also represent the struggles these boys are faced with at such a young age. All in all, the actions and situations these characters are put in bring out their characters fully.

Setting

The setting in the short story and the book is different. “The Body” takes place in 1960 in a town called Castle Rock in Maine. The movie, “Stand by Me,” takes place in 1959 in the same named city (Castle Rock) but in Oregon. This city of Castle Rock is very small in both the short story and the movie. Also, the lack of parental supervision is seen in both versions of this story. The parents of these children are not very involved in their lives and don’t really mind that their children are camping and missing for two days. I understand that the boys told lies to make it work, but if this is such a small, old town, one would think that the parents would see each other often and communicate. The boys are not really cared much about by their parents and everyone assumes they will just turn out like their “looney” parents and older siblings so the boys just fall into this trap. Maybe if the society would give these boys a chance, things would be different.

Theme

Like the short story, “The Body,” the movie is also based on the growing up of a group of boys. It is a “coming of age” movie that is all about the friendship of a gang of young twelve year-old boys. Although they are not perfect and engage in dangerous pursuits, at heart the boys are good kids and loyal friends. The story focuses on the struggles of the adolescent years. The boys grow up over the course of two days. They stick together through leaches, trains, intimidating dogs, and the older gang of boys (who they are expected to turn into). Just like in the short story, they take responsibility for themselves, get through their differences, fight their problems and develop into young men.

Short Story Blog - "The Body"

Plot

Stephan King did a fine job on the sequence of this story's plot. The interest of the reader is sparked by Vern's line, "You guys want to go see a dead body?" (pg. 299) By doing this, King is sure to have the reader's attention throughout the story because now the reader wants to see what a could of young boys will do to see a dead body up close and personal. King has the whole story in chronological order of Gordie's memories because it is essentially a memoir, but throughout the story, Gordie speaks about the present day sometimes too. "Nothing like that could happen in southwestern Maine today; most of the area has become suburbanizied, and the bedroom communities surrounding Portland and Lewistown have spread out like the tentacles of a giant squid." By expressing the plot like this, the reader truly does get the feel of an older man looking back on memories in his life. Lastly, I think it is important how the story ends. Present Gordie tells of how the young boys lived out the rest of their lives. This adds a special closing to this memory.

Point of View

"The Body" is written in the first person point of view of the character Gordon Lachance. Gordon is now older and tells this story that happened in his past. There are some advantages and disadvantages to this point of view. The reader knows that this information is reliable because the person who was actually present at the time is telling the story. Also, the reader gets to see what Gordie is thinking and feeling. These descriptions give the reader a better idea of what the moment was like. "I became acutely aware of all the noises inside me and outside me, like some crazy orchestra tuning up to play. The steady thump of my heart, the blood beat in my ears like a drum being played with brushes, the creak of sinews like the strings of a violin that has been tuned radically upward, the steady hiss of the river..." (pg.358) This point of view also has its disadvantages, because it can make the reader side with Gordie because the reader never gets to understand what the others think and feel, but I think this story did a good job of being fair to all of the characters. Lastly, I feel that the two stories that Gordie tells are an important aspect of the story. It shows Gordie's passion for writing and also shows how the other boys look up to him.

Characterization

I feel that King used both direct and indirect characterization to help the reader get a feel for the characters and their lives. King starts off the story by directly telling the reader of how Teddy got to be the way he was. "Teddy's dad took Teddy over to the big woodstove at the back of the kitchen and shoved the side of Teddy's head down against one of the cast-iron burner plates." (pg. 296) There are also direct lines such as, "He was the dumbest guy we hung around with, I guess, and he was crazy." King has to use direct characterization in the beginning of this story because it is a short story and he has to establish who these kids are and why they act the way they do early in the story for the reader to understand the rest of it. King also uses indirect characterization through the boys' language. From the way they talk, the reader can see how they have been raised and what kinds of things they value. Teddy stands up for his Father by bad-mouthing a man who is calling his father a "looney." This shows that even though his father abused him a countless amount of times, the values of a strong, close family in a small town are still present. (pg. 348)

Setting

This story takes place in 1960 in Castle Rock, Maine. This time period is very important because 1960 was in the middle of things like the Vietnam war. Technology wasn't a key to the world that they were living in. They still relied on radios for getting news. Gordie speaks of how they "all heard about it on the radio." ( Ray Brower's death ) (pg. 299) Also, this story is in the small town of Castle Rock. These were the times when children still played outside instead of playing Xbox. This combination of small town and 1960's gave the boys the ability to camp out without much worry from their parents.

Theme

I think the theme of this story could be represented by the lines on the top of some of the pages of this story, "Fall From Innocence." It is definitely a "coming of age" story. The most important part of the story is not the finding of Brower's body, it is the journey the young boy's take to get to "The Body." It shows how the young boys grow up throughout the story. They take responsibility for themselves and develop into young men by standing up for themselves in two instances. They stood up to Milo Pressman at the Dump and didn't let him get away with sticking his dog on Gordie or bad-mouthing Teddy's father. Then, when they met the older boys' "gang" (including Chris' and Vern's brother), they stood up to them too and scared them off. (It probably helped that Chris had a gun.) "Now you guys get into your cars and bomb on back to Castle Rock. After that I don't care. But you ain't getting him." (pg. 415)