RSSJohncox88’s Film Club – Week 1: ‘Stand By Me’
Jan 05
Film Club, Films club, film, johncox88, stand by me View Comments
Hello, welcome to the first meeting of my film club!
For those of you who don’t know what I’m on about, let me explain.
While ticking of which of IMDB.com’s top 250 films I’d watched I realised that there were a lot that I hadn’t seen that people always rave about. So I decided that this year I would watch a film every week. I think I will try and watch each film over a weekend and have the write-up on Mondays.
So this week’s film was ‘Stand By Me’, based on the novella by Stephen King and directed by Rob Reiner and starring River Phoenix, Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell.
The film is engineered to induce nostalgia. The main plot being framed by scenes of the writer, Gordie LaChance (Richard Dreyfuss, played as a boy by Will Wheaton) in the “present”. A device that separates the viewers from the actual story, in order to accompany the retrospective narration.
“I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people. But to me, it was the whole world.”
The main narrative takes place over one Labour Day weekend in 1959 when Gordie and his three friends Chris Chambers (Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Feldman) and Vern Tessio (O’Connell) decide to go on an adventure. A weekend that epitomises the boys’ childhood whilst marking the inevitability of its end.
After following the story of a missing boy and overhearing his brother mention the location of the boy’s body, Vern has the idea to go and find it. Thinking of the glory and fame the boys will receive in their small town they agree and head off along the railway track.
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?”
On their travels they encounter and angry junkyard owner, are almost run over by a train and get covered with leeches.
Eventually they find the body, however the local gang shows up and threatens to take the body. There’s a tense stand off as Gordie threatens him with a gun that Chris (Phoenix) had brought along. The gang leave and the boys decide it’s best to leave the body and make and anonymous call to the police.
They return to the town and say goodbye to each other, knowing that their lives will no longer be the same.
The futures of the boys are revealed by the narrator as he finishes his memoirs and takes his son and his friend out swimming.
“We’d only been gone two days, but somehow the town seemed different, smaller.”
I really enjoyed the film. The young actor’s performances were brilliant and the script was insightful and true to life, if a tad contrived.
The flaws of each character were nicely varied and well portrayed. The concepts of death and grieving were played out well and were actually rather touching.
It’s a haunting, and rewarding coming of age drama with touches of genuine humour.
I’d definitely watch it again.
Trivia:
While practicing his lines, Jerry O’Connell was incredibly impressed that, as an 11-year old, he was being allowed to swear.
Another actor was originally cast as The Writer. After those scenes were shot, Richard Dreyfuss was cast in the role and the scenes were re-shot with him.
When they were filming the scene where Gordie and Vern are about to be run over by the train, Will Wheaton and Jerry O’Connell did not look scared enough; In frustration Rob Reiner yelled at them to the point where they started crying and that’s when they were able to film the scene.
In an interview by Stephen King in the special features of the DVD, he reveals that the scene with the leeches actually did happen to him, when he was a child.
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