I wasn't supposed to like Rob Reiner's Stand By Me. I was 15 going on 16 in the summer of 1986 and had little interest in seeing a movie about a bunch of 1950s-era 12-year-olds slogging through the backwoods of Oregon in search of a dead body, even if it was based on a Stephen King short story. I had hated The Goonies and Explorers the previous summer, quickly writing off both as unfunny, borderline intolerable kiddy fare. I was more interested in testosterone-infused action movies like Top Gun, Aliens and Raw Deal.
Maybe it was the overwhelmingly positive reviews. Maybe it was the enticing R rating. Whatever the case, I relented and dragged my butt to the local five-plex one sultry August afternoon and instantly fell in love with four goofy tweens.
Stand By Me opens on a middle-aged man (Richard Dreyfuss) sitting quietly in his car along a deserted stretch of road. Deep in thought, his eyes pass to an obituary of a man fatally stabbed. As he begins to narrate the story of the first time he saw a dead human being, we're transported back to the small town of Castle Rock, Oregon, circa 1959.
It's the Friday before Labor Day and 12-year-old Gordie Lachance (Will Wheaton) is making his way to the tree house he and his friends have been hanging out at all summer. After gaining access with the secret knock, we meet Chris Chambers (the late River Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamp (Cory Feldman). Both are tough-talking, cigarette-smoking misfits, a stark contrast to Gordie's quiet and reserved demeanor. Soon the pudgy, dim-witted Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) arrives and asks the trio if they want to go see a dead body. It seems Vern's older, equally doltish brother and a buddy know where to find the remains of a missing local boy who disappeared earlier in the year.
Bored and eager for one last summer adventure, the four grab their sleeping bags and set out to claim the body and become heroes. Little do they know, Vern's brother and his gang, led by the menacing Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland), have the same idea.
What sets Stand By Me apart from similar films of it kind is the honest complexity of its characters. These four boys aren't one-dimensional brats without worries and witticisms to spare: they're damaged, frightened kids unsure of what awaits them once they step out from the fading twilight of childhood.
Gordie has lost his older brother, is ignored by his parents and thinks his natural ability as a storyteller is a waste of time; Chris knows he'll never be able to shake his "bad seed" reputation and is destined to live a crappy life in Castle Rock forever; and Teddy, with his deformed ear and obsession with war, lives in the shadow of his "loony," institutionalized father.
We all know kids like these, grew up with them. And while I can't say I used the "F" word at 12 as frequently as these guys do (the film is rated R solely for language), they all have such an easy, natural relationship with one another, you can't help but want to go back and spend a lazy summer afternoon discussing the physical attributes of Annette Funicello with them.
Both Wheaton and Feldman shine as Gordie and Teddy, displaying remarkable range for performers their age. One minute they're ensconced in childlike goofiness, the next they're baring their soul in a raw outpouring of emotion.
The standout here, though, is Phoenix. This may be Gordie's story to tell but it's Chris Chambers who is the steady hand and wise-beyond-his-years conscience of the group. Just 14 years old at the time of filming, Phoenix masterfully breathes a quiet toughness and vulnerability into Chambers, molding him into a truly one-of-a-kind character we'll remember forever. (Such was Phoenix's talent that he would earn an Oscar nomination just two years later for Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty. )
The real praise, however, should be reserved for actor-turned-director Reiner who took four virtually unknown, mainly inexperienced kids and elicited these incredible, indelible performances, forging a timeless coming-of-age film that speaks as strongly today about youth and finding your place in this world as it did 25 years ago and will 25 years from now.
There's a line at the end of Stand by Me that has always stayed with me: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" Indeed.
Stand By Me is available on 25th-Anniversary Blu-ray and Special Edition DVD.
