Forgotten Gems and Movie Classics: Stand By Me

The first Forgotten Gems and Movie Classics review, and first on my list of favourite films: Stand By Me. Firmly on the Movie Classics list, this film has everything you need for a successful film: a great director (Rob Reiner), a great cast (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Keifer Sutherland, Richard Dreyfuss, John Cusack) and based on short story The Body by Stephen King.

The 1986 film follows four best friends as they set off to see the dead body of a local boy who’s been stranded in the woods after a train accident. After Vern overhears his older brother talking about the macabre incident, and delivers the news to the group, they become convinced that they’ll become local heroes for finding the body and take the trip to find the body before the older guys get there. The boys’ journey to the elusive body is coloured by the personal pressures brought to bear on them by the adult world as they share, often painful, experiences. On the 25th anniversary Blu-ray, Stephen King indicated that this was the first successful translation to film of any of his works – and even with the brilliant Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption, I think it remains the best.

It is quickly clear what the rank is amongst the group of friends. Chris (Phoenix) takes on a fatherly role of the group despite his bad reputation, his best friend Gordie (Wheaton) is the sensitive writer who has the best shot at a good future, Vern (O’Connell) is a chubby kid with a heart of gold but a head full of rocks and Teddy (Feldman) with a deformed ear as a result of his ‘looney’ father’s rage, is an eccentric and unpredictable boy destined to follow in his dad’s footsteps. A significant part of the enjoyment of Stand By Me stems from the small group of realistic characters used and the quirks inherent in their behaviour.

In a 2011 interview with NPR, Will Wheaton attributed the film’s success to the director’s casting choices, saying: “Rob Reiner found four young boys who basically were the characters we played. I was awkward and nerdy and shy and uncomfortable in my own skin and really, really sensitive, and River was cool and really smart and passionate and even as that age kind of like a father figure to some of us, Jerry was one of the funniest people I had ever seen in my life, either before or since, and Corey was unbelievably angry and in an incredible amount of pain and had an absolutely terrible relationship with his parents.”

The boys’ courage is tested as they discover that the world outside their clubhouse doors and their secret knocks, is a lot bigger and scarier than they initially realised and that they have been hiding a lot of pain and fear from each other the years. As much as Stand By Me is a coming of age story about a group of boys in dusty Oregon, it’s also a reminder that allowing yourself to be vulnerable to life’s experiences can change your life.

Favourite Scenes: 

Train Track: 

Chris Crying

Lollipop

Leeches

"I don't shut up, I grow up and when I look at you I throw up"

Interesting Facts:

• When filming the train scene, Wheaton and O’Connell didn’t look scared enough; in frustration Rob Reiner yelled at them until they started crying and that’s when they were able to film the scene.
• To keep in character while off-camera, Keifer Sutherland often picked on Wheaton, Phoenix, Feldman and O’Connell.
• The lead actors weren’t allowed to see Ray Brower until they unveil him on camera to gain the best reaction possible.
• Feldman and Reiner tested thirty different laughs before deciding on the one for Teddy.
• While practicing his lines, the 11 year old O’Connell was incredibly impressed that he was allowed to swear.
• In the scene where Chris breaks down, Reiner asked Phoenix to think of a time in his life when an adult let him down and use it in the scene; upset and crying he had to be comforted by the director afterwards.
• At the insistence of avid non-smoker Reiner, the cigarettes smoked by the boys were made from cabbage leaves.
• Sutherland claimed in an interview that at one location they bought cookies from a Renaissance Fair which turned out to be pot cookies – two hours later they found O’Connell crying and high on cookies.