Jess Norton's Media Studies

Throughout the film Stand by Me there is a recurring theme of storytelling. The film itself is an alteration of the novel; The Body by Stephen King. The majority of the film is also narrated by the main character looking back on his past after his friend dies. Gordie looks back on his childhood and writes a book about a specific adventure he experienced with his then close friends and narrates most of the film himself. This technique gives us a more personal experience of the film because we partly feel like it's being read to us and also we get to learn more of the characters emotions. The character is able to open up to us and tell us the things he was feeling or experiencing at the time but didn't necessarily share with his friends in the actual moment, so if it wasn't for the narration we probably wouldn't have found those things out. An example of this is when Gordie is sat on the train tracks in the morning and he sits and watches that deer, he doesn't tell any of his friends about it at the time because they would be annoyed at him for not killing it for food, but because of the narration we find out about it.

As well as these two things being related to story telling there is also the fact that Gordie's hobby is writing and creating stories. His friend Chris throughout the film gives Gordie self confidence and self belief about his writing is good because he can see he doubts himself about his ability and intelligence. This is probably because Gordie's dad used to tell him that he wasn't very good at it and it wouldn't get him anywhere in the world. We know this because there is a scene where Chris tells Gordie he's going to be a writer when he's older and Gordie snaps back "I don't want to be a writer. It's stupid" and Chris says "that's your dad talking". At the beginning of the film we see Gordie as an adult and he is reflecting on his childhood and telling the viewers a story and at the end of the film we actually see that Gordie has written the story down meaning that he has also made it into a book.

At the beginning of My Week with Marilyn we perceive Marilyn Monroe to be the perfect and happy film star that she was known to be. We see her dancing and singing on a stage in front of an audience and she has a smile on her face and she looks happy. As the film goes on we slowly begin to see a different side to her. When she comes to London to be in the film, on the first day we begin to see some of her insecurities. we see that she constantly looks to her husband and Paula for support which shows she doesn't really know what to do with herself when she's nervous, she looks at them assuming that they will be able to give her answers and support. We see that inside she still acts very young and relies a lot on other people to help her out because of the way she is treated. when she is out of control her husband just gives her drugs which isn't actually helping her at all but she's naive enough to think that they are.

In the scene where Colin is in Marilyn's house at night and he sees Marilyn crying after she's read her husbands notebook we begin to feel very sorry for her. She relies on him for so many things and then she reads a list of the things that he wants to be able to change about her. When we see her crying up against the wall be begin to really see her emotions beyond her fake fame identity. In this scene we see how even as an adult she drill isn't treated right, and all she really wants is to be loved and treated right and she can't even find that. Everyone sees her as a happy famous and rich film star but in this scene we start to see the vulnerable person beneath that.

When Colin and Marilyn had a day out together we learn quite a lot. In the dollhouse scene we connect and feel sorry for Marilyn as she talks about how a child should grow up. She says that a child should grow up knowing that their mother and father love them. This scene shows us that she didn't have this ideal childhood that she talks of. We later find out that she never even met her father and her mother was too mentally ill to look after her so she spent her childhood in numerous different foster homes. Once we find this out it makes us empathise with her even more during this scene because we see how much the ideal childhood that she never had has affected the adult that she has become and that she feels something is missing.

In the scene at the castle when Marilyn says to Colin "should I be her?" it shows that she doesn't even see herself as Marilyn Monroe and it is all just an act that she puts on. in reality she is just a very vulnerable naive girl who did not have the right upbringing.
In the scene where Marilyn is running through the woods we see a young, beautiful and happy side to her. We've seen the famous, rich, with brilliant lifestyle person. We've seen her insecurities and unhappiness and in this scene we see the way she wants to be living. She looks free spirited, young, happy and truly and in love. Its at this scene that we realise that she is just a normal girl underneath all her fame and insecurities. She isn't really any different to anyone else and all she really wants is to be in love.