Stand by Me (R)

Any movie drawn from the twisted but brilliant mind of author Stephen King (“The Shining,” “Pet Semetary,” “IT”) is usually pure unadulterated horror.  And although the 1986 film “Stand by Me” (based on King’s novella ‘The Body”) is not a true horror film, Academy Award nominated director Rob Reiner weaves King’s tale into a film drenched with an ominous and eerie presence. Watching the movie will give you an unidentifiable creepy feeling that will last long after the movie ends.

Filled with several Hollywood A-List actors (many in very early roles) “Stand by Me” begins with novelist Gordon Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss) visibly upset while reading a newspaper article showing that an attorney named Christopher Chambers has been fatally stabbed.  His best friend from childhood, Chambers had once advised Gordon to write a story about the two of them, and their other friends, if he was ever “hard-up” for material.  Dreyfuss begins narrating the story, recalling an adventure he and Chris partook in with two other friends during the summer of 1959 when they were each 12 years old.

Young Gordy (Wil Wheaton) and his friends all come from dysfunctional and abusive families.  The Castle Rock News has been infatuated with the story of a missing boy named Ray Brower who went blueberry picking several days prior and had yet to return.  While the authorities believe Brower to be a runaway, Gordy’s friend Vern (Jerry O’Connell) has overheard his older brother and a friend discussing how they stumbled upon Brower’s dead body inadvertently after they stole car, subsequently panicked and fled the scene.  Brower had been killed when he was hit by a train and now, armed with the exact location of the body, the friends set out on a trek into the next county where they intend to “accidentally” discover the body and become famous heroes.  When local gang leader and thug Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) is made privy to the location Brower’s body, he dispatches his gang of hooligans with the same hopes of fame and fortune for discovering it.

As Stephen King has so often done, his masterful ability to develop deep and twisted characters is what makes “Stand By Me” so gripping.  Each of the four friends carry a bevy of emotional burdens, the likes of which an adult three times their age would more than likely have difficulties dealing with.  As such, the story is not about finding the body of Ray Brower, or even the adventure of the trip, but the gut-wrenching personal demons each of the boys is carrying and their close friendships with each other that enable them to deal with them:

Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) has an unexplainable affection for his father – a World War 2 vet who “stormed the beach at Normandy” – though his father is currently an inmate at a psychiatric hospital after holding Teddy’s ear to a stove in a fit of rage and burning it off.  Teddy is the wildcard of the group, constantly picking on Vern and doing unpredictable and maverick things like attempting a dangerous “Train Dodge” and starting a fight with a local junkyard owner (after he insulted Teddy’s father).

Chris Chambers (the late River Phoenix) is Gordy’s best friend and is a smart kid who comes from a tough and physically abusive family with an infamous name in the small town, and as such, Chris has been pegged as a criminal and pigeonholed as a loser.  He was recently kicked out of school for a theft he didn’t commit simply because of his surname.  Chris has the wits and abilities to succeed but is afraid carrying the name ‘Chambers’ in the small town will be his undoing.  In a memorable scene that brought the then sixteen-year-old River Phoenix’s career to prominence, his character is discussing how he feels that he will never get a fair break in Castle Rock.  Director Rob Reiner advised Phoenix to bring to mind a time in his life when he had been let down by an adult.  River was able to complete the scene in one take with real tears, and got so emotional that Reiner was forced to stop filming to console the boy.  No one knows what River was thinking about, but the highly emotional scene speaks for itself.

A year and a half before the events of “Stand by Me” (detailed in a series of spooky and sepia-drenched flashbacks) young Gordy has become the invisible boy at home after his older brother Denny (John Cusack), a scholastic prom king football star alpha male, is killed in an automobile accident.  Gordy’s mother is shown folding laundry in a zombie-like state, unable to even speak to her still living son.  And Gordy’s father, who clearly favored the football star Denny over the un-athletic aspiring writer Gordy, repeatedly gives him the cold shoulder.  Ironically, Gordy and Denny are shown to have a terrific and loving relationship with the football star being a big fan of his little brother’s writing.  Gordy has to not only deal with the death of his brother but feelings that his own parents (and even some of the people in the town) would have preferred if he were the one that had died. Gordy is also the most mature of the 4 friends, often acting as a fatherly figure to them (a group who all lacks a quality father) at one point reminding the group that “Going to see a dead kid shouldn’t be a party.”

Also frequent with King’s work is the mass of symbolism.  The story takes place on Labor Day Weekend in 1959.  The four boys are about to start Junior High School, and all are aware of the major changes this will bring.  Gone will be their innocent childhood years, capped off by one last adventure at the end of the summer.  Of course the change from 1959 to 1960 is, in its own right, a well renowned focal point for cataclysmic shift in the history of the United States.   They follow the train tracks in search of the body, symbolism of each boy’s desire to hopefully escape the small town they feel so helpless in.  Even the title (named for the hit song by Ben E. King) is symbolic of the relationship the boys have with one another – that they can do what they desire – as long as they are together.

The acting from the children is unforgettable, especially in portrayal of roles with such deep emotional charges, and each was marvelously cast for the role they are in.  And “Stand by Me” has one of the best soundtracks ever, brought to life on the transistor radio the boys are carrying on the hike as it blasts classic oldies (to us, current music to them) by notable artists like Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Del Vikings and more.  Hearing these songs will put you in a 1950s soda shop with the desire to order a malt shake.

– by Matt Christopher