Stand By Me - Critical Evaluation
I have just watched "Stand By Me" which is a film directed by Rob Reiner. It is about four boys who decide to go and find a dead body, so that they can tell the police about it and in turn be famous. The boys are called Gordie Lachance, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio. On the way they encounter many adventures such as running from a train and sticking up for themselves with a gun. In this essay I will discuss how the filmmakers make the film interesting and enjoyable. Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern are best friends. When Vern overhears his brother and his friend talking about the dead body they have found, the four boys decide to go and look for it so that they can become famous. During the journey they meet many challenges, which test their friendship, like escaping from the Junkman and his dreaded dog Chopper. When they get to where the dead body is, after much decision they decide to phone the police anonymously. But when they get up to leave, Vern's brother and his friends confront them. They want the body themselves so they can become famous. The younger boys end up standing up for themselves by threatening Ace and his friends with a gun. Gordie Lachance, who is played by Wil Wheaton, is quite imaginative
An exciting scene was definitely when the four boys have to run across a train track to avoid getting knocked down by a train, and Vern and Gordie end up jumping off the bridge. The camera angles used highlight the important parts of the scene. At the start you have an extreme long shot that shows how long the bridge is, then a high angle, which gives a good idea of what's in store for them. And once they start to cross the bridge you get close ups of all four characters to see expressions and to see who is coping and who isn't. After they have walked further you get a long shot again to see how far they have gone. Once the boys notice the train, you see that if the character is coping you get a low angle shot which makes him look powerful, and if the character is not coping you get a high angle shot of him which makes him look weak or small. Then you get another long shot to show again how far they have travelled and then you get low and high shots again. But this time it is not to show who is coping but to show who is in danger. It is low on Chris and Teddy as they are in no danger but moves to high on Gordie and because they are much further along the tracks. To make the scene more exciting the filmmakers use old music, such as "Everyday" by Buddy Holly, which stops when they reach the bridge. This shows there is a problem. From then on there is silence and all we can hear is footsteps, which adds to the tension. Then we see the comb falling and we see it fall all the way down into the river. This tells us how high the bridge is. The noise of the train is gradually getting louder by this point. When they notice the train it becomes much louder and nearly drowns out most of dialogue and footsteps. Then Gordie and Vern jump. As the train gets further away the noise of it gets quieter and quieter. And once the dust has settled the noise of the train has disappeared completely. Vern Tessio, who is played by Jerry O'Connell, is the daft one of the gang! Instead of bringing food when they go to find the body, he brings a comb instead. He tells his friends that it is incase they get on TV and they look a mess. A long time ago he hid old pennies under the porch and he is still looking for them now. He is also very immature and childish, and he gets excited a lot during this film. Furthermore he gets scared very easily and often has to rely on his friends to cheer him up when he gets scared. This shows how close the group of friends really are as they are always there for each other. He also over reacts and gets excited very easily. Like his friends, his family life isn't up to much. Hs brother steals cars and is always pushing him around. He is also in the same gang as Chris' brother. His most
Some common words found in the essay are:
Wil Wheaton, Gordie Vern, Gordie Gordie's, Jerry O'Connell, Vern Gordie, Teddy Teddy, Teddy Vern, Gordie Eyeball, Buddy Holly, Corey Feldman, memorable moment, dead body, angle shot makes, run train track, shot makes, film stood, film enjoyable, chris teddy, character coping, stood front, memorable moment film, stood front train, angle shot, 1950 details film, front train,
Approximate Word count = 1828
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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