Important childhood films: Stand By Me (1986)

One of my all-time favourites

 by Lukas Agelastos

"For a long time, I thought I would love to be able to find a string to put on a lot of the childhood experiences that I remember" 

(Stephen King talking about his novella that became Stand By Me in Walking the Tracks, 2000).

Rob Reiner's classic adaptation of Stephen King's 1982 novella "The Body" is 30 years old this year. I was only ten when I first saw it in the cinema in 1987.

It is the story about four boys on an expedition to locate the body of a missing child and to many film fans "the most iconic coming-of-age story ever put to film" (Mentel 2016).
Like for many of my peers at the time, the impression it created on me was so lasting that it is still one of my favourite stories. I won't argue that it's one of the best films ever made, but it's certainly one of the most engrossing and enjoyable ones.

In the 1980s, as children, one of the things we used to do was to roam around freely, exploring, going on little adventures. Belonging to a group of friends was important, and going on secret missions was part of it.

So imagine being 10 years old and watching four 12 year-olds going on the adventure of their lifetime. You want to be like them. You want to go on an adventure like they do. You identify with them. You want to have friends like that.

The movie is timeless and universal as it takes place at a childhood age that everyone is familiar with: at the crossroads between the last days of naïveté and the harsh truths of the grown-up world (Bramesco 2016).

There are certain rites of passage that all boys go through with their friends

"The first time that we went away from home, the first time that we really had to face something frightening by ourselves, the first time you face death, the first time you face disillusion about your parents [...] These are all things that boys go through, and they're part of what makes boys men"

(Stephen King in Walking the Tracks, 2000)

As the four young boys make their way through junkyards, leech-infested waters and along railroad tracks, they learn things about themselves. They all deal with their own personal issues.

Gordie's older brother, the "favourite child,” died in a car crash, and Gordie can’t escape the thought that his parents believe the wrong son was killed; his enthusiasm for storytelling doesn't measure up to his father's expectations of more masculine activities (Berardinelli 2009 & Stendall 2015). He tells one of his stories at a campfire about a fat boy who is tormented by everyone in his town and gets revenge by throwing up on everyone after winning a pie eating contest; this signals Gordie's willingness to keep facing his fears against the odds. Gordie is a kind of impassionate observer at the beginning, but his experience of discovering the dead body with his friends empowers him to become a successful write later in life. His alienation from his family became the motivating driving force with which to prove himself- and in the end, triumph (Hannaford 2011).
"Chris Chambers was the leader of our gang and my best friend. He came from a bad family and everyone just knew he'd turn out bad" (Stand By Me, 1986). Stand By Me asks how it is possible for a kid to make a fresh start. Reiner’s answer is not completely pessimistic and he confidently explores these difficult social problems; something that continues to make Stand By Me relevant today (Stendall 2015). Chris is aware that he comes from a ‘bad’ family and is judged as such throughout the movie. He advises Gordie to mingle with the brainy kids at school and says, ‘you hang with us you’ll just be another wise guy with shit for brains’.
Teddy bears the scars of physical abuse from his father but masks them with admiration and proud war stories. And the cowardly Vern is frightened of life and taking risks.

As the journey into the woods and into discovering their inner thoughts progresses, the boys confess and confront their fears and, when they finally find the body, they have to face their mortality. The following conflict with a gang leader illustrates the inseparable ties that bind them at this moment of their lives (Berardinelli 2009).

Rob Reiner manages to capture the boy's friendship beautifully. He is aided by the calm and unobtrusive cinematography from Thomas Del Ruth who captures the boys' perspectives effectively in a dreamy"world of soft shadows and gauzy light" (Cheney 2011).
Del Ruth leads us underneath the porch where Vern is digging for his pennies jar; we crawl next to Vern and Gordie on the train track on the bridge.

The screenwriters Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans received a deserved Oscar nomination for the screenplay, because they achieve to reflect the boys' changing feeling about their adventure. While the four are fascinated at the beginning, the presence of the dead body overshadows the adventure as they approach it. Gideon and Evans credit the children with wisdom, self- and social awareness that is uncommon for the genre (Stendall 2015).

The young ensemble cast have fantastic chemistry and each supports his character brilliantly by bringing their own experiences into the shoot. Reiner chose boys whose personalities allowed them to be the characters rather than act them. "Rob really wanted us to understand our characters" Jerry O'Connell, who plays Vern said in a 1986 interview (Harmetz, 1986). Two weeks prior to shooting, the young actors would take acting classes with their director (Hannaford 2011).
Casting director Jane Jenkins said in a 2014 interview that “all the boys had a great deal of the characteristics that they were portraying.” (Dimond, 2014).

Wil Wheaton is the very sensitive, sincere Gordie.
Corey Feldman as Teddy brings all his painful experience from his own troubled and abusive upbringing to life in the film.
River Phoenix who portrayed Chris, actually died very prematurely aged 23 only of a drug overdose seven years after the film was made (Weinraub 1993). “River was a very bright light,” Jenkins says. At his Stand by Me audition, “he was fabulous. I asked him back to read for Rob [Reiner], and he literally tore our hearts out. Everybody in the room was crying by the end of his audition—it was really powerful.” (Dimond, 2014).

And just as Feldman fit the role of Teddy, O’Connell was the embodiment of Vern, a chubby, forlorn kid with a big heart (Dimond, 2014).

On the surface, Stand By Me is a gripping boys' adventure tale. Beneath it, we are deeply affected by the longing for childhood friendships. "Men have important friendships with other men when they are young which end as they enter adulthood and whose like they will probably not experience again for the rest of their lives (Corman, 1982)."
Stand by Me's timelessness comes from the director's intuitive skill for seeing through a child's eyes and the writer's brutal recognition of what comes afterward (Bramesco 2016).

For me, it's one of my all-time favourite movies.

"I never had any friends later on, like the ones I had when I was twelve...Jesus....does anyone?"

(Stand By Me, 1986)




References:

- Berardinelli, J (2009), "Stand By Me". [ONLINE] http://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/stand-by-me. Retrieved 11 November 2016

- Bramesco, C (2016), "'Stand By Me' at 30: Why This Stephen King Movie Is Timeless", [ONLINE], http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/stand-by-me-at-30-why-this-stephen-king-movie-is-timeless-w435519, retrieved 16 November 2016

- Cheney, M (2011), "Summer of '86: Stand By me, Take Two". [ONLINE]. http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/summer-of-86-stand-by-me-take-two. Retrieved 11 November 2016

- Corman, A (1982), "Hanging Out- From 'Marty' to 'Diner'"[ONLINE], The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/13/movies/hanging-out-from-marty-to-diner.html?pagewanted=all. Retrieved 13 November 2016.

- Dimond, A (2014) "Photo Gallery: Stand by Me Celebrates 28th Anniversary", [ONLINE], http://www.snakkle.com/galleries/stand-by-me-25th-anniversary/, retrieved 16 November 2016

- Gillis, Michael (Director). (2000). Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand By Me (2000). [Video]. USA: Columbia TriStar Home Video/ MogoMedia Inc.

- Harmetz, A (1986), "How 4 Boys in 'Stand By Me' Became A Film Team", [ONLINE], http://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/16/movies/how-4-boys-in-stand-by-me-became-a-film-team.html?pagewanted=all, retrieved 16 November 2016

- Hannaford, A (2011), "25 Years of Stand By Me" [ONLINE], http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8566133/25-years-of-Stand-by-Me.html. Retrieved 14 November 2016

-Mentel, G. (2016), "The 5 Best Stephen King Film Adaptations." [ONLINE] http://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-5-best-stephen-king-film-adaptations.html/?a=viewall. Retrieved 11 November 2016

- Reiner, R (Director). (1986). Stand By Me. (1986). [Motion Picture]. USA: Columbia Pictures

- Stendall, N (2015), "Stand By me (1986): Classic Review" [ONLINE] https://writerlovesmovies.com/2015/02/25/stand-by-me-1986-classic-review/. Retrieved 11 November 2016

- Weinraub, B (1993), "Death of River Phoenix Jolts the Movie Industry". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/02/us/death-of-river-phoenix-jolts-the-movie-industry.html Retrieved 11 November 2016

Images: © 1986 – Columbia Pictures