3rd Reading Journal for "The Body"-(focused on the movie)

To tell the truth, I have never thought a movie could be better than the original text that it came from. Though I have seen a lot of films after reading the books, all those movies literally seemed to be “craps”, when compared to the text. For me, they couldn’t give the appropriate expression for each scene. One big example is “Twilight”. About three years ago, I used to be so in love with the “Twilight saga” by Stephenie Meyer. I read the all four series in less than a month and was always waiting for the movie. But when it came out, it was so lousy that I wanted to turn it off while watching. Another one is “The Shawshank Redemption”, which I have watched not so long ago. And as a consequence, I expected the same for the novella “The Body”. But, now I know I was totally wrong in that sense.

In the first place, the film turned one boring story into an excellent piece of art that reminds you of childhood memories and friendship. Every single line of the characters’ conversation, every single stream of music in the background, and even the tiniest details were set to fit with the mood and theme of the story. For example, though it was such a small detail, I liked how it was not Denny, but Gordie’s father who appears in Gordie’s dream and tells him “It should have been you (who got killed)”, in the movie.

For some reason, while I was reading the book, I had this perception that Denny should always be the nice one, and this was why I felt weird when Denny’s corpse came out and said such a statement. Although the book did not mean to portray him as a mean figure or anything, I just did not like that part. I was extremely surprised when I found out that the movie modified that very part. The scene in the movie also drew a dramatic effect on forming the “bad” image of Gordie’s dad.

Another thing is that the movie eliminated those unimportant parts in the book, and showed only the main scenes that would either affect the storyline or the mood. There were two metafictions in the book: one that Gordie wrote, and the other one that Gordie told his friends in the middle of their journey. It was a wise decision of the film producer to erase the first one, “The Stud City”, and to accentuate the other one, “The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan”. The Lard Ass one helped forming the mood of fun childhood talking time. But if the Stud City were described in the film, it would have been more like a serious group of children being lost in their teenage. And the movie would have been rated “mature”, frankly.

Last but not least, I loved how they changed the title “The Body” into “Stand by Me”. “The Body” was such an odd title for me. I wondered why the body had to have that much importance. I felt friendship and the childhood memories were the themes shown throughout the story. Finding the body was just a mere justification for the children leave home and have their time with each other. And the title “Stand by Me” fit perfectly with the image that I had in my mind. Whenever I imagine someone is always standing by me, I feel safe and secure. I strongly believe it tells the overall mood of the story way better than the original title.

             Making compliments toward the movie does not mean I did not like the book. I loved the original story, but then I loved the film more. It was such a great chance for me to notice how there are films that are better than the text; and to stop and think about my own friendship. I hope to watch the movie later in life!

p.s. Mr. Garrioch, do you think i should put this piece as a review on the movie for E.C., or just one of the reading journals.....?