standbyme

I’ve always enjoyed coming of age stories. No, I don’t mean the ones where teenagers go on their
first date and then go to the prom. I’m talking about those movies that show the misadventures of
kids during a summer out of school. Some of them are light affairs like “Dennis the Menace” and
“The Sandlot,” while others are dramatically powerful stories like "To Kill a Mockingbird," the recent
“Because of Winn-Dixie” and one of the greatest, “Stand By Me.”

Director Rob Reiner manages to craft a very serious story about four friends in the summer of 1959
who go on a quest to find the body of a local boy who has gone missing. River Phoenix
(“Sneakers”) plays Chris, an assertive kid who wants a future away from his abusive father. Wil
Wheaton (“Toy Soldiers”) plays Gordie, a boy who aspires to be a writer and lives with the internal
turmoil of his older brother’s untimely death. Rounding out the group is Teddy, played by Corey
Feldman, a kid who firmly believes his abusive father was once a hero in World War II, and Vern,
the fat kid who can’t seem to get anything right.

They head off with their camping gear through the woods and start following the railroad tracks.
The story is really their journey together with a series of unrelated misadventures that develop their
characters. The boys have to cross a junkyard run by a mean old man and his violent dog, they
fall into a bog of leeches, get chased by a train and have conversations around the campfire
discussing their highest dreams and deepest fears. Chris tells Gordie to never give up on his
writing talent and we see the deep bond of their friendship.

Eventually, they learn that Chris’ delinquent brother, part of a band of punks led by Kiefer
Sutherland, are heading to find the body as well and it becomes a race of sorts. All the while,
Reiner shows us with uncanny accuracy how adolescent boys associate with one another, how
friendships are tested and what lengths children will go to in the protection of each other.

Reiner plays no visual tricks with the camera. Instead, he allows the hot summer to simply exist on
film without any artistic manipulation. This is not a tale of aesthetics, but a story about four friends
and it is those four faces that carry us through the movie. Phoenix and Wheaton have great
chemistry together and their friendship is beautifully genuine. In a brief but emotional cameo, John
Cusack plays Wheaton’s deceased brother in an ethereal flashback.

I firmly believe that these films only work when placed in a pre-digital age. The same story set in
1999 would lack something, because likely four kids in 1999 would never set off on such a mission.
They'd stay home and play video games or watch reality television. 1959, though postwar, was still
an age of wondrous possibilities. Life was slower and a little simpler. Objectives were clearer.

The only concern I had with the film was their rather stoic reactions to death, but then again I never
went looking for a dead body as a young lad so I can’t say what my reaction might have been either.

“Stand By Me” is a rare entertainment. Well worth your time.