An important relationship between characters in the film “Stand by me” Directed by Rob Reiner is the relationship between two characters, Chris Chambers and Gordie LaChance. We gain an understanding of this relationship through the use of dialogue, different camera shots, music and the parallel between Teddy and Vern.“Stand by me” gives us the story, narrated by adult Gordie, about a particular Journey involving four childhood friends, Teddy, Vern and Chris that happened in the summer of 1959 and that his outlook on life forever. An important aspect of the important relationship between Chris and Gordie is the strength of their friendship. This is shown in the incident of Gordie’s cap being stolen by Ace and Eyeball. Chris sticks up for Gordie and risks being beaten by the two older boys. The director uses Low angle shots of Chris trying to get the cap back off him, this makes him seem inferior and helpless in his efforts as the two older boy’s tower over him. This incident helps us understand the strength of the two boy’s friendship. The strength of the Chris and Gordie’s is especially noticeable when mid shots display two boys in convocation about life and the problems they are both facing. Gordie is faced with the neglect of his parents and feels like the “invisible boy at home” after the death of his older brother Dennie. Chris’s friendship makes gordie feel a lot better about himself and makes Gordie realise that he doesn’t have to live up to what Dennie was and that he can for full his dream of becoming a writer. Chris is faced with the problem of living under his bad family reputation but Gordie makes him realise he can escape from the shadow of his family name and tells him “you can do anything thing you want man.” This shows Chris and Gordies relationship is very important as they have both made life better for each other throughout the film.
The parallel between the important relationship of Chris and Gordie and the relationship between their two other friends Teddy and Vern is extremely interesting because of the dialogue between them. The dialogue of the two relationships is very important because it shows how close the characters are to each other. The director uses a long shot of Teddy and Vern walking side by side then several meters be hide them Chris and Gordie walking. This makes us understand the two relationships inside the group. Teddy and Vern are talking about superman, whist Chris and Gordie are talking about the problems they have with life. This is important because it shows the depth of their relationship. We can tell this because “You know your close with someone when you can just talk about life with them.”
The important relationship between Chris and Gordie is also shown to us through music. The use of the song “stand by me” is symbolic in the relationship between Chris and Gordie because they have stayed with each other through thick and thin over the journey. The orchestral version of the song is used during the film in various scenes before the full lyrical version is used at the end. The lyrics emphisis the important relationship between these two boys and motif of this song throughout the film helped us understand the bond between them.
The important relationship between Chris Chambers and Gordie LeChance was shown to us in many ways throughout the film. We saw the strength of their relationship during the incident of the cap and how close they were in scenes of conversation displayed by mid shots. We got a greater understanding of their relationship through the parallel of Teddy and Vern. And the symbolism of the song “Stand by me” helped us understand the strong bond between these two boys.