by JG Hanks
Staff
Reprinted from the August 21, 2011 edition of The Meridian Star’s Meridian 360 Edition
As kids, we were often bound together with our circle of friends by nothing more than the love of a sports team, interest in the same comic books, or simply an address. It’s not until we get older and can understand the complexities of the act of friendship that we can finally process the effect our childhood friendships had on the formation of our personal character and the people we have become.
In the film Stand By Me, released 25 years ago this month, the nuances of friendship are displayed brilliantly by the four main characters of Gordie, the storytelling nerd of the group who is left feeling neglected by his parents after (and even before) his brother Denny’s death; Chris, who comes from a family of criminals and alcoholics and whose biggest fear is ending up just like them; Teddy, physically injured by parental abuse and quick to insult those around him as a defense mechanism; and Vern, the often picked on and meek overweight kid. At first glance, there could not be a more unlikely group of friends. However, after thinking about it, couldn’t this describe many of our own diverse group of friends from childhood?
Wil Wheaton, who played young Gordie in the film, attributed the film’s success to the casting. “Rob Reiner found four young boys who basically were the characters we played. I was awkward and nerdy and shy and uncomfortable in my own skin and really, really sensitive, and River was cool and really smart and passionate and even at that age kind of like a father figure to some of us, Jerry was one of the funniest people I had ever seen in my life, either before or since, and Corey was unbelievably angry and in an incredible amount of pain and had an absolutely terrible relationship with his parents.”
It was this diversity that made the kids from Stand By Me such a great group. Despite their differences, they stood up for and accepted each other. As we listen to Richard Dreyfuss (who provides the voice over as adult Gordie) recall the story of how he and his friends went on the search for “The Body” that Labor Day weekend, we can hear in his voice how much that unlikely group of kids meant to his character. As adults, we can easily take for granted the life lessons we were taught as children from the groups of friends we had. Nowadays in the age of the internet and with the vast array of entertainment choices offered to today’s youth, a group like the one from Stand By Me might not even speak to each other, let alone become friends.
In honor of the great tale of friendship and growing up that is Stand By Me, take some time and think about the friends you had as a kid and how they may have steered your life in a certain direction or maybe even changed the way you look at things now as an adult. Some of the friends you haven’t spoken to in years may have had more impact on your life than you ever realized. For most of us, our memories will never make it onto the big screen but they are just as important, if not more so, than any film we will ever see.
