Stand By Me? Suck on this

Ernie · June 11, 2003, 09:03:24 PM

Alright dammit, it's time for my bitching, rampaging, vemonous rant of the month. I'm going to be bashing a movie called Stand By Me and any movie similar to it so if you like it and it's close to your heart, I suggest you stop reading now, you have been warned.

Ok........so....to begin....I'm reading this beautiful review/article type thing of a beautiful movie/gift-from-god type thing called George Washington, right? In doing this, I have a revelation. One that I hope you will understand and agree with by the time you read this whole thing. I realize something that I should have realized a long time ago. The article talked about the serious lack of good adolescent/teen movies in past years. It deemed GW as the last great film about childhood since The 400 Blows. They praised it and hit every right note. In doing this, they mentioned the horrible Stand By Me...a movie that strived REEEEEEEAAAALY HARD to do what GW did perfectly and fucking failed miserably. It's a "coming of age" (haha, yeah right!) film about a bunch of fast talking, foul mouthed, too cool for school little non-likeable little gross, punk kids and it SUCKS! It's about as real and honest as The Real World. And get this guys, GW outdoes it with-fucking-out the in your face emotional scenes or any of the sappiness! As I said, it's honest. It's a perfect film. Now, just to be clear...I saw Stand By Me awhile ago and well, I just disliked it...plain and simple. I didn't really HATE it, I definitely didn't like it...just disliked it. But this review/article...it made me realize that I actually really do HATE it. It represents the type of film that overshadows all of the little gems (GW, The 400 Blows) that can barely ignite the tortured genre of teen/adolescent films and it is sad. They will always get overlooked. There is just too few of them.

It's pointless to say because it'll never happen but...we need more Virgin Suicides and less Pay It Forwards...we need more Rushmores and less American Pies...we need more Say Anythings and less A Walk To Remembers...dammit, we need more great teen/adolescent films.

Let me guarantee and clarify something for those that do not know. My first film will be a teen movie, it will be the most honest film about young people since (at this point) All the Real Girls. It's not going to be like fucking Welcome To the Dollhouse with all hell breaking loose and EVERYTHING going wrong and potraying teen life as completely HORRIBLE...it's also not going to be like American Pie with everybody having sex and scoring with whoever they want and making "pacts" and all that stupid shit either...it's going to be happy, sad, funny, heartbreaking...it's going to have nearly every emotion that teen life has...I want to try to capture that for once. I know it's ambitious but it's not impossible. I've seen it done before. I hope those that agree with this whole rant will see and love this film. I'll list the influences I have for it just to give you and idea of what it might be like....

Sleuth · June 11, 2003, 09:05:52 PM

You talk the talk BUT DO YOU WLAKAEWNJO4BN;45N3

SoNowThen · June 11, 2003, 09:19:53 PM

Ebs, I think everything you wrote is so fucking solid, and so fucking true. Kick ass. Yes, I too hate the steamy mound of shit that is Stand By Me. I hate what all those teen movies stand for. But I've tried, tried soooo hard, to write a good teen movie ever since highschool. And I've failed. I have two horrible scripts. Just horrible. I've scrapped both of them. I realize now that I cannot write this kind of film. Basically Last Picture Show is the closest I'm gonna get to what I want, and even that has an affair with an older woman, which I would leave out. But I think a straight-up high school kids story might be impossible to write. I once detailed this to a coworker of mine, and I said "no over-the-top drug use, no teen prenancy, no suicides", just kids being kids, and having fun, and feeling sad, JUST REAL EMOTIONS with no pat story. He just looked at me and said "what fucking school did you go to?". So I salute you -- I hope you write a fucking killer flick. God knows we need one.

children with angels · June 11, 2003, 09:23:30 PM

I have to say I pretty much enjoy every teen movie I see: I'm a real sucker for them... Everything that makes them bad: the contrived story (generally based around a bet or something), the one-hit-wonder pop punk bands on the soundtrack, the unrealistic dialogue - I love it all. I have a particular place in my heart for American Pie (and I do honestly think that, although exagerated, it is a pretty honest teen movie. Not realistic, but truthful in a weird way).

Of course the films you mention (Rushmore, Virgin Suicides, Goddamn-still-haven't-seen-George-Washington) are a completely different matter - I don't even really compare them. Although they're about teens, they basically aren't just going for the teen market.

If you include all those influences it will be the best fucking teen movie ever...! Have you started writing?

P.S: I like Stand By Me too.

Pedro · June 11, 2003, 09:57:58 PM

I'm in the process of writing the teen movie you're cursading after....so far it's terrible. It's amazingly hard to do...I guess my only hope is to structure it like Dazed and Confused....but there's so much I want to say...the movie would have to be nine hours or something.
We should collaborate

Ghostboy · June 11, 2003, 11:30:11 PM

EB, that's probably the best list of influences you could possibly have, and if you follow up on it, it's going to be one hell of a movie. And while I have a few fond memories of Stand By Me, your post was very astute, heartfelt and worth paying attention to. Excellent.

SHAFTR · June 11, 2003, 11:35:13 PM

Ooo, the shots on Stand by Me, maybe I should have stopped reading. I thought Stand by Me was great and it really resonated with me. I saw it before I was 12, when I was 12 and years since I was 12. Every time it gets better and hits me harder.

I too have thought hard about a teen script. I want to really explore the friendship aspect more than anything else. It's hard to write a teen movie though b/c I think the truth is that everyone had a different adolescence and some movies will seem cheesy and fake to one person and real with another.

Ghostboy · June 11, 2003, 11:40:18 PM

I was once going to make a teen movie; then I realized (I think) that there will be just as many poignant, memorable struggles throughout my life that I would also like to capture on film, and I'll probably end up drawing from those instead...just to expand on the pool of material.

AlguienEstolamiPantalones · June 11, 2003, 11:41:33 PM

ya know what is neat, john singleton was very inspired by stand by me when he wrote " boyz in the hood"

and not just the " want to see a dead body" part

there is the part about the hat, he turned it into a football, and the ending with ice cube its the same ending with river

he took the whole film absorbed it and spit it out in his own way

and it was very creative, and i think he brought a lot to it and turned it into something new

i think its cool, here is this kid growing up in the 80's in south central L.A , and he sees stand by me and it means something to him a film about a bunch of white kids in the earlly 60's

thats what a film fan should be like, not a fucking snob or jerkoff i find this to be inspirational

AlguienEstolamiPantalones · June 11, 2003, 11:46:00 PM

not to start shit but the world needs less virgin suicides

sofia coppala, is just someone who tried everything and failed then she followed her dad into the family biz

she tried acting, she had a band, she had a tv show that was so bad that it made people want to kill themselves, then she made clothes then she...

donovan leith brother of ioni sky, he did all these things too but he has not directed a film yet

ditto zoe cassavetties

just bored rich showbiz kids " I wannnnnna be famouse !!!! tooooooooooooo"

Duck Sauce · June 11, 2003, 11:53:56 PM

Well Im going to respond and say what I want, and whether it is relevant to what ebeaman said, I dont know, Its too long to read, but I think Stand By Me is timeless and fumes of things I wish I did when I was younger. For some reason I also loved Sandlot, those 50s and 60s kids movies do it for me in a non pedophiliac way

sexterossa · June 11, 2003, 11:57:36 PM

i love the leeches.

AlguienEstolamiPantalones · June 12, 2003, 12:04:40 AM

Quote from: Duck SauceWell Im going to respond and say what I want, and whether it is relevant to what ebeaman said, I dont know, Its too long to read, but I think Stand By Me is timeless and fumes of things I wish I did when I was younger. For some reason I also loved Sandlot, those 50s and 60s kids movies do it for me in a non pedophiliac way

i dont want to shit all over ebaum, seems like a nice guy

but he was way off

ive been thinking a lot about this for the past few minutes

take a film like " boogie nights" that is what most of us would call a perfect modern film

i can draw a closer line to it to stand by me then i could virgin suicides

because BN Is a real film and not some artsy jerkoff peice

there is nothing wrong with conventional mainstream films, when they are very well made conventional mainstream films

isnt that the goal ? To better the art of film

who sets out to be weird, only idiots

The goal is to make a film that is so awsome and honest to yourself, and then have it make tons of money

because money means people have seen it, and that means it has a chance to inspire many

thats why all the greats want to make popular movies, they want to make them there way

the great directers dont have to try and be weird and differnt they just are, and thats what makes them great

being artsy for the sake of being artsy is just dumb

with boogie nights pta told the story of a guy with a 13 inch dick who makes porno movies , and he made it as if he was making star wars

he wasnt trying to look cool and deep , he cant help but to be cool and deep

SoNowThen · June 12, 2003, 12:12:43 AM

Hmm. That's very true, too.

This is a great thread!! I'm pretty sure we all (at least those of us who do wanna make films) struggle with this discussion internally, at some time or another. Really, there's no definitive answer... except maybe to do whatever makes you feel good. If making a Stand By Me type movie is truly what you wanna do, then who the fuck am I to stand in your way? 'Cause if you make something that you can love and get excited about -- since we're all human -- chances are many others will get excited about it, too.

Probably the hardest thing about teen type stories is that, no matter what you think, you always have something to prove. I wanted to justify why I didn't get this girl, even though I really loved her, and all that bullshit just killed my script, this subjective moralizing. That's why I've retreated to genre stuff now, I can just tell a story, and get my feet back on the ground. Then maybe get more confidence to tackle this personal historical stuff. What Ghostboy said was very good too, about how maybe there will be other experiences later in life and we will want so bad to write about those. Probably everday, if you're passionate about life, you'll find something new to write about. It will be banal to everyone else, but raging inside of you.... then I guess you just have to find a way to tell it so it rages for everyone else. Then that's where talent and craft and experience come in.... well, I'm rambling.

I'm fucking glad you guys have this board, where I can get all this stuff out...

AlguienEstolamiPantalones · June 12, 2003, 12:26:28 AM

sonow, isnt it neat how singleton re interpeted stand by me, and created something so differnt and fresh

i want to use a sampiling analagy, but the mesh's of the world will say that i just making a black generlization when i am not

its like this, pauls boutique, the beastie boys took songs by the eagles and created something else and new and fresh

de la soul , they took a hall and oates song and created " say no go"

thats what singleton did, i really see him watching stand by me and bringing his own vision to it and re interperting it and creating something awsome

so my point is , maybe a film might be a fluff peice to one person it could be something very deep to someone else

and the proof is in the end result , and i think boyz in the hood is that proof