Stand By Me (1986)

 

Most people know Stephen King for his insane amount of horrorstories that he has written through the years. Rightly so. It's hard to understate the influence King has had on authors, not just in the horror department. But sometimes, just sometimes, people forget that King also wrote the occasional different type of tale. 

There are also many adaptations of King's works out there, but they're not always that great. Sometimes the creators didn't really get the source material, sometimes it just didn't gel on screen, but on occasion, there are glorious films made from King's work. 

This is one of the best, hands down. 

After his friend from days long gone by is killed, a writer reminisces about that one hot summer when he and his friends were twelve. Why this particular summer? Because this was the summer they found out a young boy had been killed by a train and they decided that they would set out to find the body. Maybe it would make them famous. At least, that is the idea with which the four friends set out. 

You have Gordie Lachance, who is a clever kid and loves to write stories but whose parents never seem to see as they lost his older brother to an accident. The older brother was a sports jock and good at it. This is pretty common in a lot of places where people place more reverence to sports than something cerebral. There's the doofus of the gang, Vern Tessio, who found out about the body because he eavesdropped his hoodlum brother; Teddy Duchamp, a kid with some serious mental issues due to an abusive home and Chris Chambers, Gordie's best friend and a boy of whom everyone assumes he will turn out like a no good bum, just like his dad. These four friends set out on the traintracks, talking about... well, a lot of things kids that age talk about. Along the way, we get to known them better and learn that not everything is as it seems. Chris in particular has a very touching story, in which it is clear that people's preconceptions can often scar kids for life. 

Yes, it isn't always easy to hear, but it hits home rather hard. 

There are some antagonists in the form of Chris' older brother and the gangleader, played by a gleefully evil Kiefer Sutherland, but they don't form the basis of the film in any way. 

Also: this was the era when Sutherland usually played an absolute prick and he was damn good at it. Sometimes, it is rather good to be bad. 

So why is this film so good? For starters, the child actors are all excellent, River Phoenix at the front. He plays Chris and darnit, it is so very true that this guy died way too young, because if he was already this good at about twelve years old, who knows what else he might have pulled off? Such a shame. Will Wheaton is also solid as Gordie, but as he is the stoic centre as our narrator, he has to stay fairly neutral most of the time. To offset this, you have the ever present Corey Feldman as Teddy, being goofy and crazy as only Feldman can pull off, even if he tends to be an acquired taste. Rounding off the group is Jerry O'Connell, who is funny as Vern, but clearly the least impressive of the quartet at this age. 

The cinematography is top notch; the pacing is wonderfully slow, pulling you in closer to the hearts and souls of our protagonists and even though the story doesn't have an actual climax, it will imprint itself on your heart. This is all about an emotional journey, more than the actual one and by golly, does director Rob Reiner pull it off. 

Is this recommended viewing? Absolutely. It's beautiful in almost every way.