INTEPRETATIONS, INTEPRETATIVE CONTESTS

A Romantic Film with a Construction Strategy of ’Excess’ — Stand by Me

Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me is situated in a provincial town in America, in the summer of 1959. All four boys who are the main characters of the film are depicted as losers. This is not only an individual trait, it also divides them into two groups: on one side we have Gordon/Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton), Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamps (Corey Feldman), who are emotional losers, on the other we have Vern Tessio (Jerry O’Connell), whose loss is material. Story revolves around a journey, actually a search for the dead man, and the key points of action are linked to the experience of fear with the motive of escape. During the journey, one of the characters, Gordie, tells a story, which the director presents as a parallel film story thus distinguishing it as a point of excess.

The story underlines the difference between Gordie and Chris on one side, and Teddy and Vern on the other. The same effect has the closing point of the journey, when, for the first time, the boys are no longer escaping together. Stand by Me is a touching film about four friends in a transitional period between childhood and youth, the ultimate film of nostalgia that subtly and meticulously deals with the themes of the nature of living, stream of life and its changes. Part of the film’s appeal also lies in the fact that it is centered around nature — meadows, river, woods — as opposed to most of the other nostalgic films that insist on urban ambience, even if provincial. The motive of the sensitive artist (Gordie) moved by nature also evokes the romantic tradition.

Damir Radić