Stand By Me
Réalisé par Rob Reiner
USA, 1986
J'ai écrit ma thèse de fin d'études sur ce film, en utilisant Kaja Silverman’s Le sujet de la sémiotique, Jessica Benjamin’s Les liens de l'amour, et Eve Sedgwick’s L'épistémologie du placard. [liens affiliés] J'ai essayé de retracer les déformations, détournements et évasions idéologiques occasionnés par l'adaptation de la nouvelle de Stephen King, Le corps, a more honest work. You can tell that it is from its title.
King’s narrator, Gordie, worries openly about how his relationship with his best friend, Chris Chambers, might appear to others as evidence that they had “gone faggot.” In the end, he concluded he didn’t care, acknowledging the depth of their connection.
Comme le font naturellement les films hollywoodiens, le film sublime tout cela (avec une poignée d'utilisations piquantes de l'autre mot en F which didn’t occur in the book) into a piece of precious and pretty nostalgia. It’s still an affecting narrative about boyhood friendships, and so not surprisingly winds up feeling more like a romance than anything else.
I also can’t help but feel there was a lot of wink-winking and nudge-nudging going on, on-set. At a key emotional moment, River Phoenix’s Chambers comes awful close to planting one on his best friend crying in his arms. (Try advancing one frame at a time during that scene and you’ll see how close he does come.) The final hoarsely whispered farewell between the two boys sure makes it seem like there’s a missing shot or two, forever lost in the closet.
Additionally, some of the song choices and where they’re placed make the in-jokes even clearer. (Lollipop, lollipop !) Et comment peut-on regarder cette scène de sangsue gratuite sans se tortiller, alors que Gordie/Wil Wheaton plonge la main dans son slip, retire une limace de ses couilles, puis la montre à ses amis en la faisant pendre de ses doigts ensanglantés juste avant de s'évanouir ? Je veux dire, Jésus.
Tout cela était-il un sous-texte intentionnel ? Je n'en ai aucune idée.
The scene represents teenage emasculation anxiety at the very least, and not just for one character. In my thesis, it was fun speculating.
Summing up the point of my paper in the vernacular: This movie’s so gay.
Watching it 30 years later, I don’t think I was wrong.
Is this a must-see? I really don’t know. It’s dated, certainly, but not entirely, at least not for me. I had those feelings. I’ve felt that nostalgia, remember those almost-kisses. So I’m glad I watched it again.
