I Won't Shed a Tear, Just as long as you stand, "Stand By Me"

"Stand by Me" the movie based on Stephan King's "The Body" remained pretty accurate towards the overall work. Really the movie was just the work times Hollywood.

Lets start with the main character Gordon. In the story, Gordon's brother Denis dies and this affects Gordon's relationship with his parents. Now in the original story Gordon really doesn't know his brother and "only cried at the funeral because of his parents" but in the movie there were several brother-ly scenes to tug at the heart strings. This changed the over character of Gordon as he went from a mature but invisible boy (in the orginal) to a heart broken little boy left behind (in the movie). The movie also changes Chris into a more father-ly character for the gang of boys. He seemed a lot more mature than the other boys as he led them through the forest weather they were crying or fighting, and he "kept the peace". Vern went from another boy in the gang into the movie stable "funny fat kid" role, and Teddy was crazier in the movie than the book.
The Setting was riddled with more pop culture in the movie than in the story. The large amounts of 50's music added a time stamp element on the setting that wasn't really there before. It made the story seem more dated. In way this made the point of view an easier pill to swallow. However I found it harder for me to relate to the characters due to this time stamp. Also the movie carried more scenes of the older boys than in the book, making the older boys more evil and cynical. And finally the boys walked straight through the night in the movie but I'm pretty sure they didn't do that in the book.
The Point of the View was the same person in both pieces (the older Gordon looking back on his life). However in the movie the view hears the older Gordon far more than the reader does. I think this has to do with transitions of the movie more than the script writers trying to add the older Gordon character. For example at one point the action of the movie stops and the Older Gordon explains something, but in the book that interruption wasn't in there at all. I guess Stephan King didn't feel the need to explain everything to his readers. There was a random scene of the older Gordon with his kids that added another dimension on the older Gordon's character.
Finally the overall theme of this movie was more of a tale about how Gordon is inspired and pushed to not let other people hold him back. This is mainly carried by Chris as he has many one on one talks with Gordon that didn't occur in the book. Actually the viewer sees a lot of separation of the group into the two pairs (Vern and Teddy, and Gordon and Chris) they don't seem as much of a group. By the end of the film, for Gordon the "Town seemed different...smaller". In someways this was because Chris had told him he was being held back in that town and that he shouldn't let other people's opinions stop him.
Overall the movie and story are close, it's really small details that affect this story.