Coming of Age Films—Stand By Me

Leaving the John Hughes dynasty behind, we turn from teens to kids in the film Stand By Me [1986] by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans. Stephen King wrote the novel on which the film is based , and it’s reported that when he saw the film, he had tears in his eyes because he thought the adaptation of his book was better than any other film adaptations of his work.

The film begins with an older guy reminiscing about a summer he had an adventure with three of his friends—and he clearly remembers it with a great deal of fondness.

The film then focuses on these four 12-year-olds who hear about the dead body of another kid who has gone missing, and go in search of it—driven by a kind of a curiosity about it. Plus, they expect to be town heroes for finding the body. Even though it’s perhaps a bit macabre for most of us to think about heading out to see a corpse, from the kids’ point of view, it’s a normal curiosity and something they think would be cool to do.

Like any adventure, this one is fraught with problems and obstacles. Take a look at the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8vz3tguoE0.

The four friends each tell their parents they’re spending the night at the house of another one of them to cover their trip into the countryside to find the body. One of our four has heard his older brother talking about having seen the body, so the kid knows where to look.

It’s summer, and nothing is going on, so the four friends decide to do it. Are they well-organized? Not really. None of them even brings food to sustain them on this overnight journey. But hey, they’re kids—so that’s to be expected.

Interestingly, the film isn’t really about the finding of the dead body—it’s about the lives of these four boys…their backgrounds, hopes, dreams, foibles, and quirks. And it’s—at its heart—about friendship.

And when a bunch of older boys wants to stop our four friends from finding the body—as they want to find it and take credit as town heroes—the boys are pitted against these teens and it’s not a fair fight! How could these 12-year-olds hope to complete with these older boys? Well, they do—and it’s down to their friendship and belief in one another that they’re able to triumph.

One of the premises of the film is that you just don’t have friends any closer than you had at some seminal point in your life. So this is a time to be looked back upon with a great deal of nostalgia and wishful thinking.

Another plus of the film is that it can be viewed by kids—who will relate to the adventure the kids have—and it can be viewed by adults who bring a great deal of nostalgia to remembering what their own childhood was like. And the key, as a writer, is to be able to do it with heart.

Next week, a coming of age film of an older teen… a girl!

Copyright © Diane Lake

18Jul21

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com