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Stand by Me (film)

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Stand by Me
File:Stand by me poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRob Reiner
Screenplay byBruce A. Evans
Raynold Gideon
Produced byBruce A. Evans
Andrew Scheinman
StarringWil Wheaton
River Phoenix
Corey Feldman
Jerry O'Connell
Kiefer Sutherland
Narrated byRichard Dreyfuss
CinematographyThomas Del Ruth
Edited byRobert Leighton
Music byJack Nitzsche
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
August 8, 1986 (limited)
August 22, 1986 (wide)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8 million
Box office$52,287,414

Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming of age adventure-drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, the film takes its title from the song of the same name by Ben E. King (which plays during the closing credits).

Plot

The film is narrated by an author, Gordie LaChance, known as "The Writer" (Richard Dreyfuss), writing the memoir about his youth. Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, over Labor Day weekend in September 1959 young Gordie (Wil Wheaton) is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing. He is rejected by his father, following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a jeep accident. Denny paid Gordie much more attention than his parents.

Gordie spends his time with three friends: Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) who is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and is usually stereotyped accordingly, even though he does not conform to the perceptions and stigmas attached to his family; Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) who is eccentric and physically scarred after his mentally unstable father held his ear to a stove, requiring him to wear a hearing aid; and Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) who is overweight and timid and often picked on.

Gordie, Chris and Teddy learn from Vern that the dead body of a boy has been found, apparently killed after being struck by a train. Vern overhears his older brother (Casey Siemaszko) talking about finding the body and the younger boys decide to embark upon a journey to see if they can find the body.

They set out to find the body, first encountering Milo Pressman, when they pause to fill their canteens from a well located in his junkyard. They then walk along a train bridge and Vern and Gordie are nearly run over by a passing train. At the end of the day, the boys set up camp and Gordie tells the boys a story he had been thinking of. Later on in the night, Chris reveals to Gordie his fear of being stereotyped as a criminal and never making anything of himself. As they continue they take a short-cut through a swamp only to discover that it is infested with leeches. While desperately removing them from each other, Gordie faints after finding one down his underpants, causing the other boys to wonder if they should go on. Gordie ends up being the decisive one, knowing that they have put in too much work not to see the body.

They locate the boy's dead body, and it reminds Gordie that his father liked his brother better than him. At this point Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland) and his gang show up to take the body, but Gordie threatens him with a handgun that Chris had brought on the trip.

The film ends with the boys returning home to Castle Rock and saying goodbye to each other. The narrator states that Vern later married straight out of high school, had four children and became a fork-lift operator. Teddy tried to join the military, but due to poor eyesight and his ear injury, was refused entry. He eventually served jail time and now was doing odd-jobs around Castle Rock. Chris was able to stick it out and get by in the advanced classes with Gordie, and later moved out of Castle Rock and became a lawyer. However it is revealed that Chris was recently stabbed and killed when he tried to break up a fight in a line at a fast food restaurant. The Writer then finishes his memoir and takes his son and his friend out swimming.

Production

Some of the movie was filmed in Brownsville, Oregon, which stood-in for the fictional Oregon town of Castle Rock. Scenes which include the mailbox baseball, and the junkyard scenes were filmed in Veneta, Oregon, the junkyard is still in operation. The campout/standing guard scene was filmed in Eugene, Oregon, just a few miles from Veneta. The general store is in Franklin, Oregon, just north of Veneta. Scenes along the railroad tracks were shot near Cottage Grove, Oregon, along the right-of-way of the Oregon, Pacific and Eastern Railway, now used as the Row River National Recreation Trail. The scene where the boys outrace a locomotive across a trestle was filmed at Lake Britton on the McCloud River Railroad, near McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, California.

Cast

Reception

Stand by Me has extremely positive reviews, receiving a 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[1]

Soundtrack

  1. "Everyday" (Buddy Holly) – 2:07
  2. "Let the Good Times Roll" (Shirley and Lee) – 2:22
  3. "Come Go with Me" (The Del-Vikings) – 2:40
  4. "Whispering Bells" (The Del-Vikings) – 2:25
  5. "Get a Job" (The Silhouettes) – 2:44
  6. "Lollipop" (The Chordettes) – 2:09
  7. "Yakety Yak" (The Coasters) – 1:52
  8. "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis) – 1:52
  9. "Mr. Lee" (The Bobbettes) – 2:14
  10. "Stand by Me" (Ben E. King) – 2:55

Awards and nominations

Nominations

References

  1. ^ Stand by Me at Rotten Tomatoes
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