Stand By Me

Hello and welcome to my blog…. 

This week’s post is all about my favourite movie!!!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect excuse to talk about “Stand by me” forever. If you’ve never seen “Stand by me” it’s a film made in 1986. It’s based off the book “The Body” by Stephen King.

The story follows a group of friends that leave on an adventure to find the body of Ray Brower a young kid from their hometown. Sounds weird, but I promise you it’s a great movie.

Your probably wondering how this connects to my current project “Voices of the cove”. Well “Stand by me” takes place during 1959 and provides quite a bit of insight into the postwar era. I rewatched the movie and took some notes on certain moments throughout the film that truly embody the 50s.

The first thing I want to point out is reputation. All four boys hold certain reputations in their town. Specifically one of the characters Chris Chambers. Chris is criticized by the way his family acts, all family members have criminal records and are considered to be delinquent. While nowadays judgement based on your family is still common, The film highlights how in the fifties image and status were extremely important. The perfect household was plastered everywhere, and the fact his family did not embody that image made his life so much harder.

 

Another character that is subject to criticism throughout the film is Teddy Duchamp. Teddy is also harassed because of his family. His father served in the war, and came home with severe  mental illness. Throughout the whole movie Locals comment on teddy’s dad, calling him a “loony”. This reflects how mental health was viewed during the fifties. There was few information about conditions such as the one Teddy’s dad suffers from. As well as stigma and backlash towards anyone associated with those suffering from mental illness. 

Another huge thing I need to mention is the fact that these four boys are twelve years old and spend numerous days walking in the woods to search for a dead body! If this happened nowadays, they would only get a few miles before a whole police search started up. I also think kids from modern times wouldn’t see the point in a long trek through the woods. The whole story only works in certain time periods, and I could see how parents back then could’ve been okay with not knowing exactly what their kids were up to.

 

Overall this movie has an amazing director, a fantastic cast and really captures elements of the fifties.

See you next week!!

Kaia