Stand By Me- Dramatic Aspects

Stand By Be is a 1986 drama, directed by Rob Reiner. It was based on the story The Body by Stephen King and was nominated for an Academy Award for the screen play. I doubt theres anyone who disagrees that this is a superb story, but I believe that the dramatic aspects of this film, such as the acting, sets, makeup and costumes, deserved some recognition as well!

Like The Goonies, the cast of this movie is made up, primarily, of child stars and they were quite talented ones. The difference though, is that while comic relief is sprinkled into the script, the rolls of the children were a lot more serious. This allowed the actors to showcase their abilities to perform extremely emotional scenes. Not all child stars are able to believably act out serious, deep or sad scenes, but the film had been phenomenally casted and this was not an issue. Wil Wheaton claims that the children's real personalities matched those of their characters which helped them successfully portray their roles.  The main characters Gordie, Chris, Vern and Teddy are played by Wil Wheaton, River Pheonix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell.

Most of this movie was shot on location, therefore the sets are extremely realistic. The boys supposedly live in the town of "Castle Rock", but this town is fictional so the town scenes were shot in Brownsville, Oregon. Most of the other scenes were also shot in Oregon, including the junk yard which is still in operation today. The scene where the boys outrun a train was shot in California on the McCloud River railroad. Having the movie shot on location as opposed to on sets made the movie that much more realistic.

The costumes and makeup in this film were intentionally extremely simple. Anything other than minimal makeup and slightly worn out clothes would have looked out of place. Even though the wardrobe was not extravagant or complex by any means, each character still had a subtly unique style. Gordie's simple t-shirt showed off his scrawny arms and his torn up jeans showed his rugged side and a hint of neglect. Chris' attire was similar. The jeans were almost the same but Chris wore a white shirt which, symbolically, could have showed how he wanted to be distinguished from his family of alcoholics and criminals. Vern's collared shirt tucked into beige pants with a belt around his waste reflected his timid and not-quite-considered-cool personality. Teddy stood out with his big black glasses and the darkest outfit of the group. He also had the makeup necessary to make his ear look like it had been held to a stove.

This movie is crazy strong when it comes to the Dramatic Aspects! These aspects were all covered very solidly and they all strongly contributed to making this movie such an impressive project.

The Goonies- Litterary Elements

The Goonies is a 1985 Adventure-Comedy directed by Richard Donnor and produced by Steven Spielberg.  Even though Steven Spielberg also thought of the story for this film, Chris Colombus (the director of the first two Harry Potter films) wrote the screenplay. Instead of reviewing this film, I'm going to discuss the literary aspects of it. These are the elements that films share with literature, like the plot, setting and characters, themes and symbols.

The story consists of a group of kids who are facing their last weekend together before a couple of them must move away. After a surprising discovery in their attic though, they find themselves on a treasure hunt in pursuit of "One-Eyed Willie"'s lost ship and the valuable items on board. Some may say that the plot line isn't important in 80's movies and none of them are very strong. I'd say this film had a decent storyline that followed the story writing structure that you are taught in school. It defiantly wasn't too complex or unpredicatble, but the film revolved more around the dynamic of the characters than the actual story. The script it's self was incredible! It was witty and successful in matching appropriate dialogue to each character and also making audiences laugh.

The story is set in Astoria, Oregon. More specifically, in the "Goon Docks" neighbourhood, thus the reason behind the name the boys gave themselves and the movie's title. The small coastal town setting allowed the weather to impact the mood of the film. To accompany the sad moods of the children at the strart of the film, the dreary weather had a logical place in the story. Once the mood changed at the end of the film, the sunshine after the rain helped create the intended releaved and happy feelings. A good part of the film is set inside a cave. It is filled with unexpected obstacles which gives the characters a chance to show thier personalities when faced with these challenges. It also inevitably creates an entertaining environment for the audience, who has most likely never been in a situation like the kids in the movie.

Each of the characters in this film possess very different characteristics which creates a very entertaining atmosphere in the film. The five main characters, Mikey Walsh, Lawrence "Chunk" Cohen, Richard "Data" Wang, Clark "Mouth" Devereaux are played by successful child actors of that time. The character developement is decent in this film. We never discover too much about the character's past, but we know enough about their personalities to identify unique qualities in each of them and recognize how they handle certain situations. Mikey is a athsma suffering kid who doesn't like getting in trouble from his mom and is constatly annoyed by his brother, but has a curious, brave and determined side. Chunk is the chubbiest kid in the group who is constantly dealing with his addiction to eating and has to take the periodic citisism and ridicule from his group of friends. Data is my favourite character. He is a little asian boy who is following in the footsteps of his dad by creating numerous tiny inventions which seem crazy but prove useful in the end. Mouth is the smartass of the group. He finds him self hilarious, hes a lady's man and he uses his ability to speak spanish to not only help the goonies. but also to convince an old lady that Mikey's family posseses a large amout of drugs. He brought comic releif to the group was also the biggest leader out of the five.

There is a lot more symbolism in this movie than one may think. There are many theories about what the movie symbolizes as a whole. Some think that this is a story about "the pursuit of sex and happiness." This is backed up by the fact that the group of boys are looking in a hole for "One-Eyed Willie" (clever ), a myth that has been told for generations and will solve their problems. They are joined by two girls, (one of which is suggestively confused about her sexuality, but decides that she does like boys by the end) and the flirting and kissing ensues. The whole time they are also being followed by "Mamma Fratelli". My favourite and the most convincing part of this theory is the fact that one of the girls "plays the bones" and following that, the kids slide down tube-like slides. It's also not until they find out that they still have a bag of jewels that the boy gets the girl.
Another theory is that the forces against the children, like the Fratelli's and the men who want to take thier home, represent god and "One-Eyed Willie" represents Satan ( who has been seen as good and bad, depending on the religion). The thinking behind this is that the children were disobeying the wishes of their opposing forces and in effect, found themselves in hell (the cave with Willi'e ship in it).

Although the story wasn't the strongest, the more I looked into the littereary aspects of this film, the more respect I had for the film makers and actors. Having a good story was not the intent of the film, it was to use symbolism, unique characterisation and the ressources that the set presented to create an entertaining and enjoyable film.

http://kingpin1613.blogspot.ca/2005/12/goonies-innocent-i-think-not.html