“When we visited my grandma, she had one VHS we watched all the time: Stand By Me.
It was like a ritual. Every time we visited, when it was time to find something to watch, that’s what we watched.
It was like a ritual because I don’t know how it started, and I don’t remember the last time. But for years, it’s what we did, and just the look of the movie reminds me of visiting her house.
It made a great movie for this sort of thing. When you’re a kid, Stand By Me is just a little…advanced. Or it feels that way. It feels like something that’s not totally outside the stuff you should be watching, but it’s not like watching Nick Jr. either. And then you get older, and it’s still pretty great.
The book and the movie are very close. The events are very nearly identical, for the most part. If you’re familiar with the movie, the book doesn’t hold a ton of surprises. But there’s a little more depth, and the ending wraps things up more. The movie ending is really good, and so is the book ending. Different, but both worthwhile.
The only knock on the book, it contains a couple short stories. The one is clearly designed to give us some insight into Gordon’s relationship with his older brother. It’s not bad, but it feels like it’s just kind of in there. I don’t know that I needed it, or maybe that I needed as much of it as I got. Stories within stories are tough. The pie-eating contest really works because it’s exactly the kind of story a kid that age would make up, and it has the feel of lore that a kid that age passes around. But the brother story, I dunno. I think it’s supposed to be from an early “professional” writing of Gordon’s, which is fine, but it’s the only time in the book we really get into this period between childhood and the present, and bridging those times with a story written by a 20-something(?) Gordon, as being re-read by an adult Gordon, detailing events from childhood Gordon, it’s a little complicated.
That said, that’s a nitpick on a really good book, and a book that I’d recommend to folks who want to try out some King but aren’t big horror buffs. If you liked the kids in the 50’s business of something like IT, this is a great choice. “