Faith in Film, Week 2

For our second week, we're diving into one of King's stories that was turned into a film. While most people think of him as the Master of Horror, King's work is much broader than that, as we discussed the first week. So it makes sense we'd be taking on one of his more family-friendly stories.

"Stand By Me," released in 1986 and directed by Rob Reiner, is the story of four boys who take a journey of self discovery that surrounds a field trip to see a dead body. While that might sound like a scary set up, the story is anything but a horror tale. It's based on the Novella "The Body," which is found in the collection "Different Seasons." It's set in the Summer of 1960 in Castle Rock, Maine. Except that the movie made a few changes.

While the Novella takes place in the summer of 1960, the film moved the action up to 1959. Another change is the setting. As we talked about last week, Stephen King was born in Maine and most of his stories are set there. It’s like his calling card. This Novella was also set there, in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, where a number of his stories have been set in the past. But, for some reason, the producers of the film decided it best to set the film in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon. It’s not a huge change, but one that I thought was a little odd. Also a bit of a change is the way the story is set up, giving much more time to the older kids, and showing their activities more in the run up to the confrontation. Again, not a huge change but a decision made in turning this story into a movie.

But King was nonetheless pleased, and in fact moved by this adaptation of what was a very personal story. On the special features of the 25th anniversary Blu-ray set, King indicated that he considered the film to be the first successful translation to film of any of his works. According to a later interview with Gene Siskel, Reiner recalled that after a private early screening of the film, King excused himself for fifteen minutes to compose himself; he later returned to remark, “That's the best film ever made out of anything I've written, which isn't saying much. But you've really captured my story. It is autobiographical. All that was made up was the device of the hunt for the body. I was the writer,’ King said, ‘and my best friend was the guy who actually did instill the confidence in me to become a writer. And he actually was killed as a young man.”

A big part of what makes the story work is the idea of friendships, and how they can help shape us, sometimes moreso than families we're born into. That's part of what we'll be looking at when we gather on Wednesday night.

To help you prepare, here's the discussion questions we'll be thinking about as we work our way through this material.

1. Did this movie work for you, why or why not?

2. The heart of the story is a friendship that is closer than family, especially for Gordie and Chris. Did the film capture that well? What stood out to you about that aspect of the story? Have you had a friendship like that? What did it mean to you?

3. Sometimes we have experiences early in our lives that stick with us, and Stand By Me is one of those stories. Have you had any experiences like Gordie that stuck with you?

See you Wednesday night!