Stand by Me

Stand by Me

June 24, 2014

          Stand by Me was directed by Rob Reiner and came out in 1986. Stand by Me is based on the short story “The Body” written by Stephen King. “The Body” and Stand by Me have similarities but are also different in some aspects. Both the movie and the short story are coming of age tales that involves four friends searching for a kid that is around there age, and is supposedly hit by a train and died. The main characters in the short story and movie are: Gordy, Teddy, Chris, and Vern. On this journey they grow and find a little truth about themselves and each other.  

            The main kids in the movie all come from a troubled family life. Teddy’s dad has fits of rage and is mentally unstable. Teddy keeps repeating that his dad is war hero, who stormed the beaches of Normandy. He does this to make his dad a hero, instead of a man with a troubled life. Chris comes from a family known in town as a bunch of trouble makers. Chris is stereotyped in school and in town, because of his family’s reputation. Vern’s brother also has a bad reputation in town and is constantly picking on Vern. Vern is afraid of his own shadow. Gordy feels that he is the invisible boy because; his older brother was the hero of the family and the hero of the town. After the car wreck that killed his brother, Gordy’s parents couldn’t find a way to “put back the pieces” and ignored him while grieving their son. To prove to themselves and to the town that they are worthy individuals these four friends go on a journey to find a missing a kid.

            The movie and the short story have different titles because they show the center story in two different ways. “The Body” tells of the journey of the boys, but is more descriptive of the body and what takes place after the discovery of the dead boy. In the short story, the boys turn the body over and try to figure out how to get the body into town when a hail storm breaks out. The description of the hail hitting the body is very vivid through the characters eyes. Also, Gordy talks in length about the body, when they find it, and later through the years he talks about going back to find the pail that the kid was carrying when the train hit him. The title Stand by Me fits the main theme of the movie, rather than a title like “The Body” would. In Stand by Me, the journey finds the boys in different situations where they back each other up, or have heart to heart talks. Teddy and Vern both have memorable encounters with a train, in which they both need the help of Gordy and Chris in order to survive. Teddy stood on the tracks and proclaimed he was not afraid of an oncoming train and was ready to die. Chris talked to him and said to get off the track, we need you. When Teddy refused to get off the track, Chris carried Teddy off. Teddy needed someone to be there for him and show him that everything is alright. Vern became scared when an oncoming train was approaching him and Gordy on a narrow bridge. Vern simply laid on the tracks and said he was too afraid to move. Gordy could have easily ran passed him, but instead he picked him up and forced him to run side by side next to him, until they made it to safety.  Chris and Gordy are the closest of the four friends and stood by each other by having heart to heart talks.  In one of the heart to heart talks, Gordy wanted Chris to go with him to college so Chris could make something out of his life. Another heart to heart talk was when Gordy was down about not being in the same classes as his friends. Chris said not to take classes with his friends because they will only bring him down. Chris wants Gordy to succeed in his classes and tells him he is going to become a great writer. After the four friends found the body, they once again had to stand by one another to figure out what to do. They all decided to leave the body alone and to call in anonymously the location of the body. The four friends walked back to town, in silence, contemplating the turn of events and the growth that just happened among all four of them. The title of the movie describes perfectly the main four boys because even though they came from a troubled life, they stood by one another and never let each other down.         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Watcher in the Woods

The Watcher in Woods

June 17, 2014

(This is from an alternate ending of the movie; here the unseen watcher is seen as an alien like creature.)

 

            Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods was released in 1980 and was adapted from the young adult novel written by Florence Engel Randall. Randall combines the elements of science fiction, fantasy, and suspense that takes the reader into the realms of the natural world and the other world. The book gives the reader a look into another world through a door in a tree. The father and daughter takes the journey into the world of the watcher that shows the life of the watcher and why Karen and the watcher traded places. The movie leaves out the storyline involving the father and daughter entering the watcher’s world.  In an alternate ending we only see a glimpse of what the watcher looks like, in the form of an alien like creature, and what the other world, of the watcher, looks like. The book becomes muddled in fantasy and sci-fi where it becomes confusing for the reader. The movie is more audience friendly because it gives more of a supernatural and suspense feel that gives a better storyline and leaves out the confusing fantasy aspect of the novel. The audience hears and sees the suspense while being kept involved in a great storyline without having to decipher which world they are in. The director of the movie weaves elements of suspense that involves the use of music, the unseen watcher, the wind, the woods, and flashes of light that gives an eerie feeling of what is really out in the woods.

            The back-story of the movie involves the disappearance of a teenage girl named Karen. Karen, the daughter of Mrs. Aylwood, one night was in the process of being inducted into a secret club, run by her friends, when she mysteriously disappears and trades places with the watcher. The movie is scary but not gory, as result it is family friendly while still being suspense filled because of the elements that the director uses. Some of the supernatural and spookier elements of the movie that keeps great flow involves, not only the unseen watcher in the woods, but also the uses of séances, sudden bursts of wind, humming from unseen forces, and the younger daughter talks in an unnatural trances. When someone thinks of a séance they think of communicating with the dead and brings an eerie mood to that moment. The unseen dead could, like the unseen watcher, attack any moment. One cannot defend themselves against an unseen force. The unseen watcher is a suspense tool because the audience never knows where it is, if and when it could attack, or what it is. The disappearance of Karen and the appearance of the watcher were neatly resolved using the supernatural, natural, and a touch of suspense at the end of the movie. The director had Karen’s friends repeat the séance while a solar eclipse was occurring. During this eclipse the watcher possessed the body of the younger daughter, Ellie, and told the friends that Karen would return if they repeated the same ritual that caused the watcher to enter the natural world and Karen to enter the watcher’s world. The suspense filled ending gave a better understanding of what the novel essence was all about.