Good 80's Films: Stand by Me

1986 Drama
From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Rob Reiner

Starring
Wil Wheaton
River Phoenix
Corey Feldman
Jerry O'Connell
Kiefer Sutherland
Casey Siemaszko
Marshall Bell
Bradley Gregg
John Cusack
Richard Dreyfuss

As male coming of age films go, this one (perhaps arguably) shines above all others.  It features performances of four talented young actors.  It certainly belongs in the top three films the esteemed Rob Reiner has ever directed.  And for some of you, it may come as a surprise to know that the author of the source material is none other than Stephen King of horror and supernatural fame.  It is based on his 1987 novella The Body.

The film opens in 1985 as writer Gordon Lachance is sitting in his parked car on a rural highway.  He has read that his best friend from childhood, Chris Chambers, has been killed in a restaurant scuffle.  It's been years since the two have had any contact but LaChance remembers his friend fondly and with great sadness.

Through the writer (obviously this is King in real life) the tale unfolds in the summer of 1959 in and around a small Oregon town.  Gordon, then Gordie (Wheaton), and Chris (Phoenix) are besties for sure.  They're not carbon copies of one another but they exude understanding, compassion, trust.  They crack one another up, are comfortable enough to cry in front of the other and always appear to be up for a hug.

The remaining two, Teddy (Feldman) and Vern (O'Connell) are not as tight with each other or the others but all four form a solid alliance that has chemistry and a familiarity that has worked.  Their friendship provides everything to pull them out of the boredom of living in their very small town.  Teddy and Chris are frequently engaged in verbal sparring, each of them having an A-type personality.  Interestingly, each is a part of the town's lowlife families.  

All four enjoy a really bitchen (think 1959) treehouse that is built in an area overlooking the town.  The location likely contributes to a little smug superiority for the quartet who are about to crash land in their teens.  They have not fully embraced the opposite sex although breasts crop up in a number of conversations.  They love slamming one another with insults and put-downs.  Character-assassinating another's mother is high on the list.  Swearing and smoking is a given.  

Vern, the hapless one, gets everyone's attention in the treehouse when he suggests they all go off to locate a dead body.  Vern has overheard his older brother and a deadbeat friend talk about dumping a body somewhere in the forest.  Vern tells his buddies they would need to be gone the weekend so they will all tell parents that each is spending the weekend at someone else's house.  

And off we go.  The film is narrated by Dreyfuss, the grownup Gordie, and done masterfully... filling in gaps that we would not otherwise know about, explaining a fact that helps us relate to something in a wiser fashion and adding flourishes of humor.  Of course four boys stomping through an Oregon forest is a splendid feast for the orbs.  And many of King's original words are still alive but certainly have been illuminated by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans' adaptation and one can certainly assume that Reiner threw in a few bon mots.

There isn't a shadow of a doubt that these guys, all of them, have perfectly captured the speech of 12-year olds at that time.  In some ways, they have captured 12-year olds of most any time because some things about 12-year old boys don't seem to ever change.  What is the joy of a coming-of-age story if it's not that it gives us a most pleasant trip down memory lane?

Each of these four young characters is so well-drawn and so real.  I could have been one of them and of course I knew all of the other types.  Learning about these lads is the joy of the film and we're hiking in beautiful sunshine while doing it.  What makes them work as a unit is the one thing they all have in common... some adult has let them down... some adult has allowed them to feel less than rather than more than.  At least in three cases that adult was the father.  The two great crying scenes involve the despair that two sensitive boys feel due to their fathers' harsh treatment.  I was deeply affected watching them.

Gordie, of course, is the hero of the piece.  He's the smartest, the kindest, the most mature, the most likely to succeed in life.  He spends most of his time by himself writing stories, not being the jock hero his recently-deceased brother was.  The family is still grieving if not listing.  Imagine the damage done to Gordie when his father says to him at the funeral... I wish it had been you.

Chris is sensitive, too, but it is masked under his need to display some masculinity (T-shirt sleeves rolled up, some 'tude) and he is enjoying his leader role.  He's the best-looking of the group, used to being popular with some and taking charge.  He weathers the occasional opposition he receives.  

Chris wants to display his feathers with his buds because he's the lackey in his lowlife family, the lowest of the low.  His father badly mistreats him and the whole town knows what losers the Chambers are.  In a heart-breaking scene, he cries out to Gordie that he wants to go someplace where nobody knows him.

Chris says Gordie is too good for the group.  Gordie, as is his style, demurs.  Both have suffered at home and have been rebuffed by their fathers.  Both are looking for approval and love.  I know I'm not the first to address the notion that there is a homoerotic nature of their friendship... to me it's clear.  At those ages, their mutual stories are one recipe for how it can start to open up .  Of course, if the story went there, it would become a whole other movie.  But hey, advance it a few years or so and tell a different kind of sequel.  Oh, I'm just thinking out loud here.  Never mind.

Teddy was abused by his father even more so than Chris was.  The old man has been in a loony bin for years and Teddy gets upset at the like father-like son analogy.  Carrying around a lot of anger, he's likely to be one of those involved in any ruckus within the group.

Vern is the luckiest to be a part of the group... on the edge of being a tagalong  The group accepts him but he gets taunted more than the others do.  He's the only one who can't grasp the secret knock to get in the treehouse... and you know how humiliating that would be.  Yee gods.  Still, he has an enthusiasm that propels them all.

Even in coming-of-age stories, we need a villain.  Here they would be Vern's brother and his pack of delinquent, bullying friends.  Pack is the operative word as they leave a bad smell in the town.  Our hero boys want to ascribe to something higher than that, although all won't succeed. 

These bullies come upon the boys twice in the story, each time darkening the story's light mood.  The second time is when they all happen upon the corpse at the same time.  It becomes a defining moment in the boys' lives.

There was a creepy scene involving leeches and another dramatic-- and fun-- scene on a train trestle (above Lake Britton Reservoir).  Can they make it across before a train comes or can't they?  Couldn't they move their little legs a bit faster?  I mean... here comes that somewhat expected train.  Yikes.  Run... run.  Oh, I loved it.

I enjoyed everything about this movie.  It was just a total delight... everything it needed to be.  For all those involved, in front or behind the cameras, I think you deserve an A+.

I hate to end such an upbeat experience on a sad note but I feel compelled to yammer a sec on River Phoenix.  Having just watched this film again, of course I am reminded of his tragic death.  Not only is his character here the only one to die (not onscreen, however) but his departure is eerie.  Wil/Gordie is watching Chris/River walk away and the latter simply vanishes from sight.  Poof.  Gone.  His death is one of those Hollywood deaths that I could tell you where I was when I heard it.  It was a devastating loss to the film community.  At 23, he was already heralded as an extremely good actor, especially for someone so young, and there was the promise of him becoming one of the greats.  What a shame.

Oh no, I haven't mentioned the music.  Of course the movie lets nostalgia reign with such ditties as Rockin' Robin, Let the Good Times Roll, Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home), Lollipop, Book of Love, Come Softly to Me, Hush-A-Bye and Yakkety-Yak, although all are done in bits.  The title tune is sung in its entirety over the closing credits.

That title is the heart of the film.  It's what their friendship is all about.  Very touching stuff.

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Another good 80's film