Stand By Me
Stand by Me is one of those great films that capture the qualities of true friendship with such eloquence and heart that it becomes legendary. Packed to the brim with excellent characters and marvellous dialogue, Stand by Me is a true classic. The film was released in 1986 and took its title from the song of the same name, which plays during the end credits. Stand by Me was based on the novella entitled “The Body” by author Stephen King and was written for the screen by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans. Rob Reiner, director of When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men, was the director.
Stand by Me is considered to be the epitome of the “coming of age” genre, as it captures the growth of four boys over a summer journey that takes them on a two-day trek across the woodlands near their home. The goal of this journey is to see the dead body of a boy who was close to their own age. This mystery of the dead body provides motivation for the boys as they travel across often treacherous and precarious landscapes. Each boy has his own purpose for seeing this body and his own reasons for wanting to accomplish the trip. The tale is told through the recollections of one of the boys, who has now grown up into a freelance writer and is composing the story for a book.
Wil Wheaton stars as Gordie Lachance and Richard Dreyfuss plays the adult Gordie, who narrates the story. Gordie is a quiet boy that has a predilection for telling stories and an artistic spirit. He is unhappily living beneath the shadow of his deceased older brother. Gordie ends up rejected by his family in light of this and, thus, is often forgotten and uncared for. He begins to feel that his parents would have wished for him to die instead of his football star brother (John Cusack). Chris Chambers, played by the late and brilliant River Phoenix, is a boy from a family of criminals with a reputation that holds him down. Chris is an intelligent boy with a desire to break the curse on his family name, but he often lacks the motivation to escape the stereotype. Vern Tessio, played by Jerry O’Connell, is an overweight boy that is often picked on. He is also easily scared. Finally, Teddy Duchamp, played by Corey Feldman, is a boy obsessed with the military that was abused by his father to the point of disfigurement. Teddy defends his father ruthlessly, however, and opposes anyone who claims his father was a “loony.”
Stand by Me uses a lot of emotion to tell its story and develop its characters. In the film, we encounter a group of four boys with a tremendous love and compassion for one another, despite their differences. Each boy has had a troubled existence thus far and relies on imagination and their experiences with friendship to help provide respite. Through this, we find common ground and we can relate to the message of friendship and the importance of relationships. As the boys kid one another and squabble, we are reminded of the joy of the childhood friendship and are enthralled as the potential for life in these characters. Where will they go? What will become of them? These questions resonate within the film, long after they are answered by the closing narrative. Reiner’s film works so well because it enables the audience to feel something along with the characters.
The film has a lot of tears, as each of the four boys cries at one point in the story. This is important because it unearths real emotion beneath each character. Each boy uses the trip to see the body as a sort of breaking point, something that enables each boy to expose truth and find new purpose. Each boy is afraid of where life may go and afraid of returning to old patterns and ways of abuse, ignorance, and despair. Still, within their two-day journey, the boys find and discover hope and companionship. They discover one another and, for a brief moment, discover the anticipation that knowing one another can bring to their desolate lives. Through each boy’s tears, we find a breaking of a spirit and the rebuilding of another one. This is not just a coming of age film; it is a conversion film in many ways. While the transformations are never obvious or blatant, they are there and they lurk beneath the surface of each individual within. Stand by Me is powerful stuff.
It’s hard to mention 80s films without mentioning Stand by Me and I was ashamed to have not seen this film in some time before last night. The characters, the dialogue, and the plot were all sweetly designed by King’s novella and by Reiner’s direction. It is truly an exquisite and extraordinary film, one that doesn’t demand much of its audience. Instead, Reiner’s film gives a lot in return and that is the wonder of Stand by Me.
Trailer:
