"Walk with Me" is a film made by American director Rob Wren in 1985. It is adapted from Stephen King's novel "The Corpse". It tells the experiences of several children in small towns in the United States in the 1950s.
In order to see a corpse, the four boys carried their bags and started a two-day and one-night trip along the railroad tracks. "Want to see a corpse" seems to be a terrible idea, but in the hearts of these 12-year-old boys, they don’t understand the true concept of death. To them, "corpse" means nothing but unusual, excitement and discovery. The honor of the actor, and "going to see the corpse" is a wonderful adventure outside of daily life. They just walked out of the day-to-day ripening life in the town, stopped at the garbage factory that is said to have wicked dogs, and ran on the viaduct so as not to be knocked down by the speeding train behind them, and frolicking. After crossing a swamp, he was horrified to find himself covered with leeches. This is a seemingly absurd, childish adventure, but in this short journey, we gradually realized the true appearance of this group of children.
Gordy is a quiet and introverted child who loves to write stories, but he does not get the support and attention of his father. The only brother who supported him died in an accident. He seemed to accept all this silently, but in fact he was stuck in the memory of his brother and the unwarranted guilt of his father. He would hear his relatives telling himself over and over again in his sleep: It's fine for you to die.
Chris was born in a rough family, his father was always drinking and beating his children, and his brother was a well-known gangster in the town, so everyone, including himself, naturally felt that Chris would go bad. Indeed, he swears, fights, smokes, plays cards, and steals his father's gun. But in the face of his friends, he showed integrity and kindness: he admired Gordy's writing ability from the bottom of his heart, encouraged him to stick to his creation, and he also dragged the crazy Teddy off the rails to prevent him from flicking. The madness of the train. Chris seems to be the most capable and assertive of the four children, but he has inferiority and sadness that is difficult to get rid of, fearing that he will not be able to escape the prejudices of the people around him and live the life he really wants.
Teddy was pushed on the stove by his crazy father since he was a child, and one ear was burned out. But he still admired his father, a hero who participated in the Normandy landing. He kept playing officer games, repeating various seemingly heroic games, imitating the father in his mind, and doing his best to defend this image. , Do not allow others to insult his father a little bit.
Wien is probably the most common kind of kid around us, fat, stupid, and timid, it seems that he can only follow his friends. But he was the first to propose to see the corpse. In the heart of this timid child, he still pretended to dream of adventure.
These four children seem to be a little different from our usual judgments of children of that age. They are not innocent and carefree. In these four small hearts, they are filled with different pains.
These pains are presented one by one during this journey, and the children support each other and face these pains directly. Then there are some seemingly invisible, but important growth and changes.
This film tells adults how stupid and self-righteous it is to judge a child simply.
If in life, the children in "Walk with Me" would probably be easily judged as stubborn, bad children. They smoked, played cards, and insulted each other’s mothers in the most vicious language. Except for Gordy, the others The grades of all children are in a mess. In order to see a dead body, we lied to our parents together and ran out of town for the night alone...
But besides these, what else is there? They will solemnly discuss whether Goofy is a human or a dog. When listening to the story, they put their hands on their knees and their eyes are gleaming, and they confide in each other's pain, and then put on the appearance of adults to comfort each other.
At the age of 12, this story chose a junction between children and adolescents. They still maintain the innocence of children. Even if they "learn badly", they are only out of curiosity and imitation, but at the same time, they can already feel the world keenly. The cruelty, endure the harm brought by the cruel outside world. Gordy endured the indifference of his parents, Chris endured people's tinted glasses, and Teddy had to face people's arbitrary ridicule of his heroic father. However, at least in the film, they can't find help and comfort in the adult world, they can only draw strength from friendship and their hearts, and strive to grow and fight.
The film seems to be interspersed abruptly with a story about Gordy: how Fatty Pig takes revenge on those who hurt him in the pie-eating contest. This may be a hint that the children feel the indifference and malice around them, and the retaliation for them is nothing but a vomiting contest. This is the innocence, helplessness and kindness that belongs only to children.
The children finally saw the body, but they did not go to the news as originally thought, but agreed with Gordy's opinion, covered the body well, and reported to the search team anonymously. Many things are like this corpse, not as romantic and interesting as children imagined. It will cruelly and truthfully penetrate through childhood dreams. But when you face this truth, you will grow.
"Walk with Me" is a gentle and pure story, but at the same time true and cruel.
When you watch it, you can’t help the children who make you feel bad, but you will also recall your sweet and painful childhood because of it, and the childhood that we can’t go back to make us miss so much. . Just like the elf-like deer that Gordy saw on the railway in the movie, just like the coin that Wien picked up from the ground at the end of the movie, the coin that brought him the simplest happiness.
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