Columbia Pictures
By Eric Vespe/March 6, 2022 8:11 pm EST
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
Why it’s essential viewing
I have a very distinct memory of my usually very permissive mom turning to me and saying she wasn’t sure I should be watching this. Naturally, I protested, and she didn’t need much convincing, even though I couldn’t have been older than eight or so at the time. I mean, by this point I had seen “Jaws” and “Aliens” a few dozen times apiece, so what were a few bad words here and there, right?
So, we watched the movie and then I obsessively rewatched it over and over again throughout my entire childhood, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to talk about it today.
Authenticity is this movie’s secret sauce
Each one, in his own way, has been let down by the adults in their lives. Gordie’s parents are mourning the loss of his older brother and can’t get their s*** together to be strong for their surviving son. Chris’s whole family is a mess and he’s kind of left to figure out a righteous path on his own, all while living in the shadow of his tainted family name. Teddy’s father is physically and emotionally abusive, and Vern … well, we don’t know much about Vern’s parents, but his brother, who is part of Ace Merrill’s hoodlum outfit, is a bad egg. Vern is probably the purest of the four of them, but even so he rings as true.
Watching this movie as a kid you recognize these characters. Everybody knew a Vern at school, and if you’re thinking back to your school days and saying “No, I didn’t,” then bad news, bud: You were someone else’s Vern.
King started those characters out as fully fleshed out human beings, but it was Reiner’s direction and the talented young cast that really cement this movie as being an all-timer and the very definition of a great coming-of-age movie.
Let’s talk about the term ‘coming-of-age’ a little bit, shall we?
Granted, this could just be my definition at work (and society as a whole never voted for my take to be correct), but for me a coming-of-age movie has to focus on characters bridging the gap between childhood and teen years. It’s a fascinating and scary time in every single person’s life. Bodies are changing, hormones are pumping, the greater world’s expectations of you are shifting. That to me is the core of a coming-of-age story, not a “high school seniors going on an adventure” kinda thing that gets slapped with coming-of-age labels all the time. That’s a teen movie, my friend.
Getting angry over labels
Puberty, of course, but there’s also a shift in maturity and that aforementioned expectation put upon us by our friends, family and even strangers. It all changes in that murky, awkward zone between 12 and 14. Your friendships from that time either evolve together through those tumultuous tween years or break apart, like what happened to the four kids at the center of this story.
It’s a weird thing to get pissed off about, I know! But I am a movie geek and we get weird about labels. Someday I’ll address why I feel it’s problematic to label something like “Silence of the Lambs” as a thriller instead of a horror movie (which it absolutely is), but there’s only room on this particular soap box for coming-of-age rantings, I’m afraid.
Somewhere on the journey to find Ray Brower’s body, the four kids lose their childhoods. The beauty is that it’s not one single moment that does it, rather a cumulative effect as the friends bond in a deeper way than they ever have, especially Chris and Gordie, and face threats both within themselves and outside themselves. When they return to Castle Rock they bring the weight of their journey with them. There’s melancholy in the air, a sense of maturity that wasn’t there at the outset.
