interrogation report: Stand by Me (movie review)

Stand by Me (8 August 1986)

starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Keifer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko, Richard Dreyfuss, John Cusack, Scott Beach, Frances Lee McCain, Bradley Gregg

MPAA rating:

Studio: Columbia Pictures, Act III

Script: Raynold Gideon, Bruce A. Evans

Based on the book by: Stephen King

Music: Jack Nitzsche

Running time: 89 minutes

Suggested retail price: $$24.96 (US)

Tags: Adventure; boys; coming-of-age; dead bodies; Drama; friendship; guns; road trip; short story adaptation; trains

Tactical strength: [8/10]

So you might think, "Ah, yet another movie based on a Stephen King story." Well, yes and no. Yes, Stand by Me did originate from a Stephen King short story. No, it's not just another King movie adaptation. First, Stand by Me doesn't have any of the horror elements that we have come to expect from most other King works. Second, many Stephen King movies have second-rate acting, cheap visual effects, and downright lousy dialogue. Stand by Me transcends all these with excellent acting and well written dialogue, and as a character study, it doesn't need any visual effects.

The story starts typically enough with a frame story: the death of a friend causes a present-day day writer (Richard Dreyfuss) to take a nostalgic journey down memory lane to the summer when he was twelve years old and he saw his first dead body. The flashback relates the story of four boys, Gordie (Wil Wheaton) the younger and nerdier version of the writer, Chris (River Phoenix) the class bad boy, Teddy (Corey Feldman) the class screw-up, and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) the fat kid, who learn where they can find the body of a dead boy and decide to take a hiking trip to go see it. The two-day adventure has several real encounters with danger, such as a junk-yard dog, a near miss on a train bridge, and leeches. But the real adventures explore that interesting time of early adolescence between childhood and adulthood. The boys still have enough childlike trust to tell each other deep secrets and feelings -- and enough of the child in them to cry. But they also recognize at least the shadow of ensuing adulthood and the pending loss of innocence and loss of the carefree lifestyle of childhood. When the time comes at the end of the film, the boys stand up for themselves like men, rather than running away like little boys.

I think much of the success for Stand by Me should go to the casting directors. Rarely does a collection of child actors have so much talent bundled together, and the list of talent doesn't stop with the main characters. Stand by Me also has excellent performances by young Kiefer Sutherland and John Cusack. Almost every actor goes on to bigger and better things -- or would have if they had lived or found a lifestyle without drugs. Funny, Jerry O'Connell demonstrates the least acting talent in Stand by Me, but of all the main characters, he has gone on to have the most prolific career.