Camille Gross: Stand By Me 25 April
I can’t go through a film class without talking about one of the most underrated movies of all time: Stand by Me. Every time I try to talk about this movie with someone, they have never seen it and I always tell them, “It’s about four boys who search for a dead body,” because that’s the best way to describe it without spoiling anything! If you want to watch it, stop reading now because I say a few spoilers. It’s such a beautiful story about friendship and growing up. I loved it when I was a child and watched it again for the first time in a while during my sophomore year of college. No matter what age you are you will always feel lost and this movie reminds you the importance of friendship and finding yourself.
No other movie captures emotion and gentleness among 12 year old boys better than Stand by Me. The best part is the boys go through a rite of passage as they search for the body. Each of them begin to realize who they are and not who everyone thinks they are. The narrator and main character, Gordie, struggles at home after his brother has been killed and his parents are unable to cope. His best friend, Chris, comes from a horrible family. His father is an abusive alcoholic and his brother is nothing but a troublemaker so Chris has a bad reputation he was born into and can do nothing to change it. Their other friend, Vern, appears to have a rough relationship with his brother but that’s all they mention. The final member of the group is Teddy. Teddy’s father almost killed him and was sent to an institution but Teddy will always defend his father because he served in the military.
I have never seen another movie where young boys turn to their friends and cry without being teased. In Stand by Me, the boys become emotional around each other and receive no judgement. No one says “quit crying and be a man,” which was something I always heard from my guy friends or saw someone else say it to them. When I watched this sophomore year, I cried so hard for numerous reasons. Even though it takes place in the 50s, anyone from any generation is able to relate to the heartaches of life. It also brought back memories from when I was their age and having those heart-to-hearts with my friends. One of the most quoted lines from the movie is, “I never had friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?” Life gets in the way and friends drift apart and that’s okay. At the end of the film, it is revealed that one of the boys died and Gordie said my favorite quote in any film, “Even though I hadn’t seen him in over ten years, I knew I’d miss him forever.” This shows how even after you and your friends may drift apart, you still meant a lot to them and they were always rooting for you. This kind of ties back to the connections we discussed in class but Dr. Redick is right. Having those connections is comforting.
No other movie captures emotion and gentleness among 12 year old boys better than Stand by Me. The best part is the boys go through a rite of passage as they search for the body. Each of them begin to realize who they are and not who everyone thinks they are. The narrator and main character, Gordie, struggles at home after his brother has been killed and his parents are unable to cope. His best friend, Chris, comes from a horrible family. His father is an abusive alcoholic and his brother is nothing but a troublemaker so Chris has a bad reputation he was born into and can do nothing to change it. Their other friend, Vern, appears to have a rough relationship with his brother but that’s all they mention. The final member of the group is Teddy. Teddy’s father almost killed him and was sent to an institution but Teddy will always defend his father because he served in the military.
I have never seen another movie where young boys turn to their friends and cry without being teased. In Stand by Me, the boys become emotional around each other and receive no judgement. No one says “quit crying and be a man,” which was something I always heard from my guy friends or saw someone else say it to them. When I watched this sophomore year, I cried so hard for numerous reasons. Even though it takes place in the 50s, anyone from any generation is able to relate to the heartaches of life. It also brought back memories from when I was their age and having those heart-to-hearts with my friends. One of the most quoted lines from the movie is, “I never had friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?” Life gets in the way and friends drift apart and that’s okay. At the end of the film, it is revealed that one of the boys died and Gordie said my favorite quote in any film, “Even though I hadn’t seen him in over ten years, I knew I’d miss him forever.” This shows how even after you and your friends may drift apart, you still meant a lot to them and they were always rooting for you. This kind of ties back to the connections we discussed in class but Dr. Redick is right. Having those connections is comforting.
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