The Body Reading Journal #2

The Body: Movie v. Book

“Ahhhh, Chris!”

This exclamation is perhaps the most frequently spoken phrase in our class while watching Stand by Me. For the girls, including me, Chris was the number one important character, the hero, and the only reason why we were watching the movie. Another DiCaprio, River Jude Phoenix, was just one contributing factor that made Chris cool. The character of Chris was the dominant factor that made him appear cool. But what I thought, to be honest, was that Gordie appeared much more heroic in the movie. Though I still think that Chris is much more attractive than Gordie, it is true that Gordie was quite an attractive character in the movie. The movie Stand by Me also had some other differences from the book.

First, Gordie’s character is much less described in the movie. Gordie’s writing piece as an undergraduate student, Studcity, is left out in the movie. I understand that Studcity isn’t the easiest part to filmize. It is further inadequate as well. But the fact that Studcity is left out makes the difference between movie and book.  Studcity first emphasized Gordie’s trauma once more. Chico in Studcity represents Gordie, and readers can easily notice the embarrassment and longing of Gordie from the Studcity. Second, Studcity shows Gordie’s overall character. This describes how Gordie wanted to look ‘experienced’, but in fact he was more inexperienced and innocent. Another part is where Gordie sees Ace in Castlerock as an adult. This very last part of the book shows adult Gordie flashbacks his memories of childhood. He quite insensibly and objectively recalls the past.

Second, the relationship between Gordie and his brother Dennis got much closer. In the book, Gordie described the relationship between him and his brother as ‘acquaintance’. He also said that Dennis’s death was somewhat like a radio star’s death. It is quite apparent and spoken straightforward in the book that Gordie and his football star brother Dennis barely had any special happenings. The book also explained much of Gordie’s trauma. (I think this is partly-or a lot-due to the point of view, that Gordie was the first person narrator in the book). The movie also put Gordie as a first person narrator, but since movie focuses more on visual images, perhaps it had less opportunity to show Gordie’s trauma effectively. Also in the movie Gordie appeared to have quite good and close relation with Dennis. The movie added some more instances between Gordie and Dennis such as embrace of Gordie and Dennis in Dennis’s bedroom. This might be my personal opinion, but in the movie Gordie’s trauma seemed somewhat trivial compared to that in the book.

The last thing, as mentioned above, is that Gordie was much more heroic in the movie than in the book. In the book, Gordie was very speculative and contemplate. He had a lot of thoughts in his mind always, and it was described directly into words in the book. However, in the movie, narrator Gordie’s voice didn’t appear much and thus audiences are not able to perfectly get all the thoughts that are going on Gordie’s mind on certain points. But all things taken together, the final part of the story is the crucial part, when Gordie and his friends met the gang. The gang was a group of guys who could actually life threaten Gordie and his friends. In the book, it was Chris who challenged them, by pointing a rifle at the gang. Everyone, even Teddy and Vern, knew that this time the threat could be a ‘real’ life threatening one. But Chris, who also had fear of future troubles, held the gun and stood against the gang. The book also mentions about Chris being severely beaten by the gang after the body incident. However, in the movie, it is Gordie who holds the rifle. The part about the gang’s revenge is also omitted in the movie. So in the movie Gordie seems much more brave and heroic.

The movie and the book had little differences compared to others. The movie contained pretty much everything that was in the book. It also had consistency of characters. But some trivial differences made the color of the book and the movie different. Still, I like both. And I like Chris!