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Ethics and Film: Messages, Themes, and Techniques Module 2: Stand By Me by Magaret Haun, PhD Background Rob Reiner's Stand By Me is a perfect film for a high school English classroom, grades 9-12. Students at all levels will take away something of value from this beautifully crafted but short movie (89 mins.). Many people are surprised to learn that Stand By Me is based on a coming of age novella by Stephen King, The Body (part of the Different Seasons (1982) anthology, along with The Shawshank Redemption and The Apt Pupil). You may want to read and discuss this work with students and then view the film. Teachers who decide to import The Body into their curriculum will find that it is a perfect companion piece for texts as different as the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale, and Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." A cautionary statement: Both the screenplay and the novella focus on the experiences of young males. These boys speak and act the way boys often speak and act. They use profanity on occasion, they knock each other around a bit, and two of the boys light up cigarettes in both the story and the film. Stand By Me focuses on the changing relationships of four adolescent boys as they make the transition from junior high to high school. Each is wounded in some way. Gordy has in essence been orphaned by his parents after the death of his older brother, a star athlete. Chris Chambers, Gordy's bright and sensitive best friend, comes from an abusive family situation. Verne is fat, slow, and immature. Teddy grew up with an alcoholic father, who is now institutionalized. The father apparently pushed Teddy's head down on a red-hot burner-part of his ear is now missing and he has an anger-control problem himself. In addition to their difficult family situations, the boys must also contend with challenges from the outside world. Older boys threaten them at almost every turn. There are natural dangers, as well" a dog reputed to be vicious and leeches that attach themselves to Gordy's groin area after he ventures into a pond. But the defining event in the film is the death of a young boy who went missing some days earlier (in the antecedent action of the film). One of the boys overhears his brother say that the child was hit by a train and that his body is in a forested area outside of town. The four friends go in search of the body and en route make discoveries about themselves. They return to their small Maine town changed by the experience. To tell this story, King and Reiner use the archetypal journey motif, a structure particularly suited to the coming of age story where a young person--usually a male-- crosses the threshold from innocence to experience, immaturity to maturity, or childhood to adulthood. The journey motif has distinct and easily identifiable components. There is typically an event that prompts the young person to leave the known or comfortable world and a trip or journey ensues. The culmination of the journey involves a discovery of some sort. (In Stand By Me, the characters make a discovery about death.) Following the discovery, the traveler returns to the world he knows, changed for the experience. In Stand By Me, the motif plays out in two ways: The older Gordy narrates the film. In the first scene, he sits in a car on a rural road. The camera tilts to take in the newspaper headline: "Chris Chambers fatally Stabbed in Restaurant." Two adolescent boys bike by and Gordy, now a writer, begins a journey backward in time. This journey introduces the journey over time and space undertaken by the four boys. The female coming of age story typically follows a different trajectory and the discovery is often tied to sex. An excellent (and underrated) female coming of age film is Mermaids (1990), with Wynona Ryder, Christina Ricci, and Cher. This movie makes a superb companion film to Stand By Me. It, too, is rated R. Viewing Notes for Stand By Me Ch. 03, "Eavesdropper": Teachers whose students have read Stephen King's story may want to stop the film at the end of the first discovery: Vern learns about the approximate location of the dead boy's body. This section presents an opportunity to discuss Reiner's debt to the original text and his departures from it. The teacher may also want to introduce (or review) the journey motif and elements of the coming of age or initiation story. A natural discussion topic at this point is Gordy's relationship with his parents and the impact of the death of his brother on the family. The challenges of the other boys have begun to appear by this time and students may want to talk about those issues as well. Ch. 06, "Following the Tracks": The boys have ventured out of town. They are not yet chastened by the experience because the real challenges related to this expedition have not yet presented themselves. (Each of the boys has, of course, been handling serious problems at home for quite some time.) The prospect of getting out of their small town is exciting to them. If students have not read the book, ask them to make some predictions at this point. Ch. 07, "Train Dodge": Reiner has Teddy "play chicken" with an oncoming train. This scene sequence is beautifully photographed with Reiner alternating between long, establishing shots (to show Teddy's position on the tracks) and tight shots of the boy's face which enable us to see his determination. We also realize in this section that Teddy has serious emotional problems that are linked to his relationship with an abusive father. (This issue also surfaces in the "junkyard" scene where the owner of the salvage yard taunts Teddy by making fun of his father.) Ch. 13, "You Think I'm Weird?": The depth of the relationship between Chris and Gordy is established in this scene. Ask students whether this section of the film makes them uncomfortable. Reiner's take on male friendship is unusual here in that it focuses on the shared intimacies of two adolescent boys, not common interests, such as sports or girls. Their extraordinary sharing continues in Ch. 17, "Low-Life Chambers Kid." Ch. 27, "We're Headed Home": The boys have had their encounter with death-and older, threatening boys. They retrace their steps along the railroad tracks and arrive home changed for their experience. Gordy and Chris are more chastened than the other two. Ask students to discuss the operation of the initiation and journey motifs immediately after they finish the film. This discussion will serve them well in the event they are assigned an analytical essay on the topic.

Ethics and Film: Messages, Themes, and Techniques Module 2: Stand By Me

by Magaret Haun, PhD

Background

Rob Reiner's Stand By Me is a perfect film for a high school English classroom, grades 9-12. Students at all levels will take away something of value from this beautifully crafted but short movie (89 mins.). Many people are surprised to learn that Stand By Me is based on a coming of age novella by Stephen King, The Body (part of the Different Seasons (1982) anthology, along with The Shawshank Redemption and The Apt Pupil). You may want to read and discuss this work with students and then view the film. Teachers who decide to import The Body into their curriculum will find that it is a perfect companion piece for texts as different as the Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale, and Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown." A cautionary statement: Both the screenplay and the novella focus on the experiences of young males. These boys speak and act the way boys often speak and act. They use profanity on occasion, they knock each other around a bit, and two of the boys light up cigarettes in both the story and the film.

Stand By Me focuses on the changing relationships of four adolescent boys as they make the transition from junior high to high school. Each is wounded in some way. Gordy has in essence been orphaned by his parents after the death of his older brother, a star athlete. Chris Chambers, Gordy's bright and sensitive best friend, comes from an abusive family situation. Verne is fat, slow, and immature. Teddy grew up with an alcoholic father, who is now institutionalized. The father apparently pushed Teddy's head down on a red-hot burner-part of his ear is now missing and he has an anger-control problem himself.

In addition to their difficult family situations, the boys must also contend with challenges from the outside world. Older boys threaten them at almost every turn. There are natural dangers, as well" a dog reputed to be vicious and leeches that attach themselves to Gordy's groin area after he ventures into a pond. But the defining event in the film is the death of a young boy who went missing some days earlier (in the antecedent action of the film). One of the boys overhears his brother say that the child was hit by a train and that his body is in a forested area outside of town. The four friends go in search of the body and en route make discoveries about themselves. They return to their small Maine town changed by the experience.

To tell this story, King and Reiner use the archetypal journey motif, a structure particularly suited to the coming of age story where a young person--usually a male**-- crosses the threshold from innocence to experience, immaturity to maturity, or childhood to adulthood. The journey motif has distinct and easily identifiable components. There is typically an event that prompts the young person to leave the known or comfortable world and a trip or journey ensues. The culmination of the journey involves a discovery of some sort. (In Stand By Me, the characters make a discovery about death.) Following the discovery, the traveler returns to the world he knows, changed for the experience. In Stand By Me, the motif plays out in two ways: The older Gordy narrates the film. In the first scene, he sits in a car on a rural road. The camera tilts to take in the newspaper headline: "Chris Chambers fatally Stabbed in Restaurant." Two adolescent boys bike by and Gordy, now a writer, begins a journey backward in time. This journey introduces the journey over time and space undertaken by the four boys.

**The female coming of age story typically follows a different trajectory and the discovery is often tied to sex. An excellent (and underrated) female coming of age film is Mermaids (1990), with Wynona Ryder, Christina Ricci, and Cher. This movie makes a superb companion film to Stand By Me. It, too, is rated R.

Viewing Notes for Stand By Me

Ch. 03, "Eavesdropper": Teachers whose students have read Stephen King's story may want to stop the film at the end of the first discovery: Vern learns about the approximate location of the dead boy's body. This section presents an opportunity to discuss Reiner's debt to the original text and his departures from it. The teacher may also want to introduce (or review) the journey motif and elements of the coming of age or initiation story. A natural discussion topic at this point is Gordy's relationship with his parents and the impact of the death of his brother on the family. The challenges of the other boys have begun to appear by this time and students may want to talk about those issues as well.

Ch. 06, "Following the Tracks": The boys have ventured out of town. They are not yet chastened by the experience because the real challenges related to this expedition have not yet presented themselves. (Each of the boys has, of course, been handling serious problems at home for quite some time.) The prospect of getting out of their small town is exciting to them. If students have not read the book, ask them to make some predictions at this point.

Ch. 07, "Train Dodge": Reiner has Teddy "play chicken" with an oncoming train. This scene sequence is beautifully photographed with Reiner alternating between long, establishing shots (to show Teddy's position on the tracks) and tight shots of the boy's face which enable us to see his determination. We also realize in this section that Teddy has serious emotional problems that are linked to his relationship with an abusive father. (This issue also surfaces in the "junkyard" scene where the owner of the salvage yard taunts Teddy by making fun of his father.)

Ch. 13, "You Think I'm Weird?": The depth of the relationship between Chris and Gordy is established in this scene. Ask students whether this section of the film makes them uncomfortable. Reiner's take on male friendship is unusual here in that it focuses on the shared intimacies of two adolescent boys, not common interests, such as sports or girls. Their extraordinary sharing continues in Ch. 17, "Low-Life Chambers Kid."

Ch. 27, "We're Headed Home": The boys have had their encounter with death-and older, threatening boys. They retrace their steps along the railroad tracks and arrive home changed for their experience. Gordy and Chris are more chastened than the other two. Ask students to discuss the operation of the initiation and journey motifs immediately after they finish the film. This discussion will serve them well in the event they are assigned an analytical essay on the topic.