Stephen King’s “The Body” is an honest and fearless look into the life of a twelve year old boy. The short story looks back from the present day to a summer adventure where four young friends travel to find the dead body of another boy, Ray Brower. Believed to be highly autobiographical, the story of Gordie Lachance seems an unforgiving account of the author’s own childhood. Rob Reiner’s translation of “The Body” into film carried all the blemishes and curse words that made “Stand By Me” feel so authentic. Both works do a wonderful justice to youth - giving them the freedom to be real, to be flawed. It is interesting that these imperfections are the elements that make both the story and film so intense and significant. While it is not the typical portal story, “The Body” masterfully depicts childhood in a narrative text and illustrates maturity and growth through multiple contexts.
It is always a struggle to adapt a literary work to film. While Stephen King is known for his thrillers and horror stories, this novella is a departure, offering readers a naturalistic representation of adolescence with realistic dialogue. It is debatable whether the film was intended for a younger audience due to its violence and profanity and the emotionally mature themes of broken homes and the hopeless personalities of Teddy and Chris. The book also appeals to a mature audience because it takes some of the more provocative aspects found in the film to a very different level. Certain pieces of the book are changed in the film, such as Chris, instead of Gordie, holding off Ace with his father’s gun and the added scene in the film where Ace and Eyeball take the hat Denny gave Gordie before he passed. The edits made the film as touching as the book without losing the significance of the themes of loyalty and friendship.
It could be argued that the book was an opportunity for the author to discover some of his inner psyche through reflecting on his childhood. The film masterfully develops the characters of Chris and Gordie and the dialogue is consistently believable and touching. The theme song from which the film takes its title - “Stand By Me” - is perfect for the translation. With an R rating the film is clearly not intended for a young audience, but it is almost exclusively shot with young actors, the four main characters not even yet teenagers. The trouble is that these boys are more accurately represented than other films intended for a young audience with a primarily young cast of actors. It is not only the predominance of young actors but how naturally they interact. It seems that society tries to hide the flaws that define these characters away from young audiences, when it is these imperfections that give the story such great depth and gravity. Rob Reiner’s direction brilliantly converts “The Body” to film, but Stephen King gives a powerful tribute to the pain and growth of adolescence.
“The Body” is entirely unconventional in its simplicity. King does not use talking animals or witches or magical worlds to create a portal. Ray Brower serves as the white rabbit to the boys, the trestle above Castle River is their portal, the forest their Oz, or Wonderland. It is interesting to note that like Alice and Coraline, or even the children of “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe”, these boys are bored with the monotony of summer vacation and tempted by the idea of adventure. It seems they are pushed through their portal. There is the same urgency in the children running from a train in rural America as there is in the children fleeing a disgruntled English housekeeper in the Wardrobe. But the body has other portals. The whole story seems to be a writer’s journey back through his memory. His reliving the events with such detail gives the reader a sense of actually walking along the train tracks, or looking down at the face of Ray Brower. While recounting his childhood, the author has Gordie tell the story of the pie eating contest to Chris, Teddy and Vern, and the author himself inserts his own short “Stud City.” All of these stories illustrate some facet of coming of age, through friendship, revenge and sexuality.
“The Body” is a wonderful piece of literature. “Stand By Me” is an endlessly impressive film. It is rare that a film adaptation and its original could be both independently significant and complimentary at the same time. Much of the credit for “Stand By Me” must go to the four young actors Whil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell and in turn the director Rob Reiner for such a compelling performance by such young actors. But ultimately the film’s great success comes from its fidelity to Stephen King’s “The Body”.
While Stephen King is known for his thrillers and horror stories, this novella is a departure, offering readers a naturalistic representation of adolescence with realistic dialogue.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet the premise of "The Body" is one that would be ripe for a horror treatment: four young men venture into the woods to see a corpse, and things to happen to them there. Almost sounds like a standard horror film setup, doesn't it? What is so remarkable about "The Body" is that it suggests the impetus for King's horror work, without being identifiably a part of that genre. It's as if this kind of boyhood experience informs all of King's horror writing.
I like your comparison to the portal fantasies we've read and seen in class. But I'm particularly taken with the following:
It is debatable whether the film was intended for a younger audience due to its violence and profanity and the emotionally mature themes of broken homes and the hopeless personalities of Teddy and Chris. [...] The trouble is that these boys are more accurately represented than other films intended for a young audience with a primarily young cast of actors.
I find this so terribly ironic. Here is a film that portrays boyhood with a degree of honesty rarely seen in mainstream film, and yet it was labeled "R" by the MPAA, so that, supposedly, viewers of the same age as that depicted in the film were not to be allowed to see it. A sure sign of the disconnect between reality and fantasy that continues to shape our views of childhood.
Fine work here, thanks!