Stand by Me Review

SPOILER ALERT

Here I am taking break from chronologically following the top 1000 films of all time to watch number 209 on the list: Rob Reiner's 1986 Stand By Me.   I have just recently finished reading the Stephen King novella of which the film is based on, so I decided to rewatch it and see how the two compared.

Set in 1959, Stand by Me follows the story of four best friends: the quiet and reserved Gordie Lachance (Wil Wheaton,) the group's leader Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) the flamboyant and mentally unhinged Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) and the timid Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) When Vern Tessio hears here the body a recently deceased local body Ray Brower might be, the four friends resolve to find the body and bring him home.

This is arguably the ultimate film of childhood innocence, discovery and exploration.  It is a great film in how it can make audiences long for childhoods where you had no responsibility and had the freedom to whatever you wanted.  it made me think back to when I was twelve years old and I was off exploring with my friends.  Even if I didn't realise it those were the best days of my life.

Stand by Me also perfectly captures what a group of young boys are really like.  Throughout the film, the four boys are constantly mocking each other, whether that be calling each other retards or making jokes about their mothers.  Again this makes me think of how what groups of boys are really like.  We express affection for friends by teasing each other.

It is also a powerful film in how the boy's mission to find Ray Brower is merely a subplot to how each boy is forced to confront their own personal demons.  All four boys come from dysfunctional families with neglectful.,d drunken or abusive fathers.  The boys help each other with these conflicts.  Gordie confides with Chris about how he has always had to live in the shadow of his older brother.  Int urn. Chris tells Gordie that due to his family's bad reputation, he is never going to amount to anything.  In a great performance by River Phoenix, Chris Chambers explains that after he stole the milk money at school, he felt guilty and tried to return it.  However, the teacher he returned it to, embezzled it and ratted him out.  River Phoenix's expression says volumes of about the pain that his character is feeling.  He tried to do the right thing, yet a teacher- an upstanding, law-abiding citizen still betrays him.

In terms of how the film compares to the book, it quite faithful.  Upon seeing it for the first time, Stephen King left the theatre in shocking saying it is the best adaptation of his work that he has ever seen.  The plot and its major events are largely the same, as is its characterisation of its protagonists.  One major difference is how the film's antagonists arepotrayrd.  Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) leads a group of older boys who are also trying to find Ray Brower.  Whilst in the novel, they are little more than a vague presence showing up at the beginning and the end, thy are much more threatening in the film.

Their menace is felt by their hobbies of playing mailbox baseball and scarring themselves.  The other major difference comes at the film's end.  Whilst in both versions, Gordie's group find Ray Brower first and successfully face off Ace's group, in the novella Ace's group later beats up Gordie's group in retribution.  This doesn't happen in the film.  Secondly, whilst only Chris dies in the film, Chris, Teddy and Vern all die in the book.  Of the two endings, I much prefer the ending of the film.  I feel that it correlates better with the nostalgic tone of the movie.

I think this is a great film that engages brilliantly with the themes of nostalgia and sentimentality whilst touching upon deeper themes such as abusive fathers.  The final line of the film is spoken by an adult Gordie Lachance and is my favourite: "I never had friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve.  Jesus, does anyone?"