“Stand By Me” is a film directed by Rob Reiner, which is based on the novella “The Body” by Stephen King. Stand By Me is the story of four twelve year olds living in a small town in the year 1959, whose lives were changed by a chance adventure that they embarked on at the end of an indolent summer. The four boys were Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton),
Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), and
Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell). It fits into the film genre coming of age. This genre is outlines as a small group of individuals who have a life changing experience in the natural world. They are usually are the same sex, If not the opposing character would be more masculine/feminine and clearly more suited to hanging round with the group of the opposite sex.

The director of the film is keen to show a very strong message, which is apparent though out the film. We are alone in this long journey to adulthood. He expresses this in a variety of ways. One method is cinematography. He frequently uses perspective and panoramic shots, which charts their long, eventful but beautiful journey to the back
Harlow Road. The incoming train is another way Reiner shows the boys fear of adulthood. The train is a large, opposing and fast moving object; the threat is objective rather than impersonal. It is one of the imagery factors used he uses to add to his message. Other references to the adult world are seen as enclosed and often hazy, used to portray the boy’s view of maturity. Whereas the world the boys see and particularly the journey uses wide and expansive shots to show the whole world opening up in front of them. Other films shots that are used are close ups which show the particular intense moments of the journey for the boys. The help give a sense of tension and strong emotion. This is particularly shown well at the end of the film when the boys go to split up. The camera only shows you their faces; to give you the affect you are looking right at them. Like you know them.
At the end the camera also shows all different angles of Castle Rock, making it seem like a different place than you saw at the beginning.
It is seen as empty, barren almost dead. At the start of the film it is shown as a cleanly, shiny, friendly typical 50’s American city. It shows how the boys have changed. Music is also used in the film, the popular White American music of the fifties passes through the film showing the boys fun and innocence. However, the music is also played on the scenes featuring Ace and the gang, to show the way popular music infiltrated all young peoples life.

Reiner has set this film up to show the boys coming of age, and as mentioned before, the scenery and the composition help that. But there are also other factors that contribute to that. The four main actors performances and direction really brings it along. The boys are at the age in which they share everything and they haven’t quite started with girls so the dialogue is empty of female confusion, as it should be.
They break down and lift each other back up. The characters have a real raw connection, which is well shown on film. The camera is well suited to catching their emotion; a lot of close shots are used. Each individual plays his character in a different way, but in one sense they all unite as ‘the boys’. This is particularly seen in the campfire scene. A very important scene to the film, it shows so many things about the boys: The fact they are different, the fact they are same. They enjoy humour and cigarettes and discussing everything under the sun. Gordie, the protagonist is seen as a shy, clever boy, who tires effortlessly to impress his parents but to no avail. Gordie may be seen as one of the weakest characters in the film, but technically
I think he is the strongest, close to Chris. Gordie's older brother
Denny was recently killed in an auto accident, and his parents have not handled it well. They mope around their house and continually ask
Gordie (who is an aspiring writer) why he isn't more like his brother, who was a popular athlete in town. This means Gordie’s home life is terrible. All the boys have a hard time at home, which is somewhere they unite and can be strong for one another. Gordie's best friend,
Chris, who is intelligent, brave, and the natural leader of the group, has an alcoholic father, who constantly beats him, and an older brother who is a delinquent. Everyone in town figures that Chris will follow in their footsteps, so he is very much afraid and yet in some way defiant of what his future will be. He wants to show them all how good he can be, and in the end he does. Teddy is the son of an emotionally disturbed war veteran who has abused him all his life. In his mind Teddy cannot accept his situation, so he has created a fantasy world in which his father is an All American war hero instead of an inmate in a mental hospital. Vern is on the chubby side, somewhat uncoordinated, and is constantly the butt of jokes. Vern's older brother likes to push him around when he is there, and so Vern spends a fair amount of time hiding out. Yet Vern ends up being the catalyst of the story. He accidentally overhears his older brother describe the location where he is pretty sure that the dead body of a missing boy from the town that everyone had been looking for actually lies. This gives him a chance to be important in the pecking order of the club, and he brings this information to the other boys. Another good thing about the film is that Reiner does not sanitise at all, the film is a 15 (or a R in USA), and it’s full of the language you’d expect. This is not a children’s film just because it is about children. It has not been given the ‘Disney affect’. Which is remove all the bad language, appear to give all the children either a very extensive or a tiny vocabulary and make everything seem American perfect. Because that is not this film at all. The best scene to show this is the scene in which Gordie and then Ace find the body. The two boys in the presence of fear and a threat to their own lives come of age together. When the boys find the body Gordie gets upset and goes quiet. Typical, you’d all think. But then, he, taking his place next to Chris stands up with the gun and really that’s when you know, he has smoothly become a man. All thanks to Reiner.