Stand By Me
Last weekend I watched the movie Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner. This movie is about four 12 year old kids who go on a journey in Oregon to find the body of a kid their age who recently went missing. Each of these kids had to deal with their problems at home but always had a good time together whether it be in their tree house, or in their neighborhood. Gordy, is going through a tough time with his brother just recently passing away. Teddy has an abusive father, Chris has parents that don't care about him and Verne does not get along with his brother. They are regular kids who just wanted to be the ones who found the body and be heroes for it. After hearing about nobody being able to find the body from his older brother, Verne let his friends know and they all wanted to go out and be the ones to find him first. The film shows the time period that it is set in very well with the clothes, cars, music, and homes in the film. Even the area the film is shot in is shown very well as it looks like it would be in Oregon. Rob Reiner did a very good job of showing what kids during that time period would wear, what they would do, and how they would talk to each other. These kids smoke cigarettes, wear scuffed up jeans, and swear constantly when speaking to each other, just like any other kid during this time period. The music in this film also makes the audience feel like they are living in the time period it is set in while they are watching it. The director did a great job in the objective portion of this film and showed the dominant features and made it easy for the audience to see the mes-en-scene in this film. Reiner used the correct pieces of mes-en-scene in the correct scenes that made it easy for the audience to see what is going on in each part of the film.
I enjoyed the movie itself subjectively. The movie made me feel like I would like to grow up at that time and it looked enjoyable to be one of those kids. It was also very relatable because the friends had to overcome difficulties and arguments throughout their journey just like many kids do every day with their friends. One of the scenes I like particularly is in the beginning when the kids are in their tree house and they are just playing cards and hanging out listening to the radio. In this scene, all of the characters are introduced and a little bit is talked about them by the narrator who is an older version of Gordy, the main character. This scene includes many things a person would see when growing up during this time and I think it was very well put together and made it enjoyable to watch. Another scene I enjoyed is when the kids are walking on the railroad tracks to where the body of the kid they are looking for it. During this scene, the kids have to go over a bridge where a train comes by and they have to run from it without falling off the bridge. I liked this scene because the shot angles throughout the scene are very interesting. The kids eventually run away from the train followed by the friends making a joke with each other even though they were in a near death experience seconds before the joke was made. I felt that the movie was put together very well and it would be very easy to watch several times. I would give this film a good, good rating overall.
Lots of good ideas in this blog, Kenny. You zoom in on some pretty specific narrative choices (especially setting and characterization), and that allows you to talk about specific scenes for evaluation. The biggest step for your review is to add more evaluative flavor into that objective section. Sometimes we risk slipping into neutrality, but remember that objective can still be argumentative! You get there a bit with the soundtrack and costumes, but keep pushing that language. The subjective stuff is solid too, but consider how you can bring even more of yourself into that writing. So rarely do we get to write about ourselves, so use that subjective piece to talk about your experience watching the film (whether it's the 5th or 50th time watching it). Also consider how your title can be a bit more fitting with what you're going to argue/evaluate.
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