Review: Stand By Me (1986)

It never fails to amaze me how some films manage to effect me emotionally. In a way, it sounds almost ridiculous. I mean, usually you don't know the characters in a film, and a great deal of them have never actually existed, but they still somewhow manage to penetrate our emotions, and make us feel for them; make us feel as if we knew them; as if they were our friends, or our friends of friends. Like they're really out there somewhere. At least, that's how I feel, and it's how I felt when I first saw Stand By Me.

After learning of the death of a childhood friend, Gordie LaChance writes about the adventures he experienced with his three best friends in the summer of 1959. What follows is a story of discovery, understanding, and, above all else, friendship.

"Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?"

Stand By Me is a wonderful little film about the fears kids face about growing up and moving on in life. The four characters at the centre of the picture are best friends, and have been since they can remember. With a new school year on the horizon, and separation looming in the air, the boys make the most of the time they have left together, knowing that, as soon as the school year commences, they will likely drift apart, and make new, different friends.

I find this film to be very emotional. You can't help but compare the boys' friendships to your own personal friendships, and it certainly makes you look back on the friendships you had when you were a kid. As a person who is still friends with a majority of the people that they grew up with, the way this movie ends saddens me. I wish it could have been different for the boys. I really do.

"It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of our lives, like busboys in a restaurant."

The four boys are played convincingly by Will Wheaton (Gordie), River Phoenix (Chris), Corey Feldman (Teddy), and Jerry O'Connell (Vern). You truly believe them to be friends, and they all deliver excellent performances in the film, especially Phoenix. I'm quite the fan of River Phoenix and his brief yet brilliant career. In a way, his untimely death at the age of 23 makes Stand By Me all the more poignant. There's a scene in the movie where Phoenix's character walks off into the distance and disappears before our eyes. It's almost as if it were a foreshadowing, of sorts, of River's own death in 1993. Very sad indeed.

If you haven't already guessed, I love this film, and I believe that all teenagers should be made to watch it before they morph into adults. 10/10

Trivia: Stand By Me was based on a novella called "The Body", written by Stephen King. Yes, I said Stephen King. He's actually quite good at writing drama, not just horror. King also penned the novella which became the basis for the movie The Shawshank Redemption (1994), another wonderful feature that you should absolutely find the time to see.