"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
—The Writer
Stand by Me is a 1986 Coming of Age film directed by Rob Reiner based on the novella The Body by Stephen King. Set in the fictional Castle Rock, Oregon (Maine in the original story) in 1959, the film is told through the recollections of the main character, Gordie Lachance, now a freelance writer.The twelve-year-old Gordie (played by TV's Wil Wheaton) and his three friends journey into the woods near their home to look at the body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking berries. Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character's personality. Each of the boys, for varying reasons, lives in the shadow of their fathers and older brothers. Gordie's talent for storytelling (as illustrated by his improvised short story "The Revenge of Lard-Ass Hogan") pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.The film contrasts the four main characters, who are depicted as well-meaning and relatively virtuous, with a gang of bullies called the "Cobras", who are led by local hood "Ace" Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland).See 1995's Now And Then for basically the girl version.
This Movie Contains Examples Of:
Abusive Parents: Teddy's ear is disfigured due to his father's pressing it down on a hot stove in a drunken rage. Chris's father is also violently abusive and Gordie's is emotionally abusive.
Chekhov's Gun: Literally. The handgun that Chris shows Gordie before the boys start their trip is forgotten until Ace and his gang show up and Gordie(movie)/Chris(book) uses it to scare them off.
Not quite. The kids each brandish the pistol when they take turns keeping watch at night.
Dawson Casting: Averted. All the boys are the same age as their characters or at least very close, except River Phoenix, who was fifteen. None of the older boys were under 20, Ace's gang, Gordie's brother, and Lardass.
Dies Wide Open: The late Ray Brower is found by the boys this way. They cover his face with debris.
Dramatic Gun Cock: Gordie defending himself against Ace and his switchblade knife.
Dysfunction Junction: This film cracks the mask of the seemingly picture-perfect and wholesome Everytown, America of the 1950s open with a baseball bat.
Enforced Method Acting: Wil Wheaton has written several times on his experiences making the movie. In one scene that involved the boys running from a train, Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell didn't look scared enough, so Reiner started screaming at them to make them cry. Afterwards, he felt terrible about it and comforted both of them. And to ensure that the child actors really looked intimidated by his character, Kiefer Sutherland supposedly bullied them in real life (although Wheaton doesn't recall it happening to him). The scene with the leeches in Wheaton's hand and...other places, however, was not real.
Reiner also asked River Phoenix to think about the biggest moment an adult had let him down when he had to cry during the campfire scene. He got very emotional and Reiner comforted him for long afterwards, but it paid off: the take was by far the best and the one used in the final film.
Everybody Smokes: They're 12, but all of the main four smoke. Even the generally wholesome lead, and the timid chubby one.
The Fifties: Although the book takes place in 1960, the movie is set in the summer of 1959.
Framing Device/Nostalgic Narrator: The Writer (aka the adult Gordie, played by Richard Dreyfuss) recalls and narrates the events of the film after learning that Chris was stabbed to death while trying to break up a fight at a restaurant.
Parental Abandonment: Only the hopelessly naive Verne has any semblance of a happy family.
Although he does have a jerkass older brother.
Gordie's parents barely can bring themselves to respond to his presence, and the novella makes it clear that this is not something that started after Denny's death - Gordie once swore at the dinner table just to see what would happen ("Please pass those goddamn spuds."), and the only response was his mother telling Denny that his aunt asked how he was doing.
Pinky Swear: Chris really really didn't know the gun was loaded.
Precision F-Strike: Sorta. He doesn't ACTUALLY say a swear, but the line is so spot-on that it FEELS like one of these.
Gordie: "Suck my fat one, you cheap dime-store hood!"
Sadist Teacher: One topic mentioned frequently throughout the first-half of the movie is how Chris stole money from the class. During a talk with Gordie, he reveals he'd given the money back to their teacher, but the teacher decided to spend the money on herself and still accuse Chris of stealing the money.
Space Whale Aesop: The book definitely has this. Don't go looking for dead bodies or you will acquire a death curse. But then, the book The Body was written by Stephen King. The film Stand by Me would cause you to forget that it is based on a book written by the horror master himself.
Spared by the Adaptation: Vern and Teddy. Vern dies in a house fire in the book, and Teddy kills himself and others by driving drunk. Though alive in the movie, their lives have gone absolutely nowhere.
Totally Radical: Averted. Both King and Reiner grew up in the period in which it was set, giving them knowledge of it and they realized that young kids tend to curse like sailors as they do here.
Treehouse of Fun: The boys hang out in one of these at the beginning of the film.
Troll: Milo when he taunts Teddy about his dad being a "loony".
The Unfavorite: Gordie's parents never show much affection to him, preferring Gordie's older brother. In flashbacks, it shows they didn't pay much attention to him, anyway. As it is, Denny (the brother) was the one who paid the most attention to him.
It's even worse in the book - Denny is a loving older brother in the movie, but in the book he doesn't interact much with Gordie, as they are 10 years apart in age, so there isn't much chance for it.
While it's not depicted in the film, King's original story has Ace and his gang giving each of the boys a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown after they return to town.
What the Hell, Hero?: While Ace has no problem threatening kids Gordie's age with knives, he thinks Gordie holding him and his friends at gunpoint is taken things too far.
'Ace: We're not gonna forget this, if that's what you're thinking. This is big time baby.
The "You Should Have Died Instead" factor is only implied in a dream sequence. True, they both criminally ignore Gordie after the accident, but they never go that far.
But was it an invented dream, or was he simply having a memory in the dream? The disdain they visibly treat him with means the line isn't exactly out of character.
You Know I'm French, Right? At the beginning of the movie, Chris, Teddy, and Gordie are sitting in their tree-house, playing cards, when Chris decides to tell a joke.
Chris: How do you know if a Frenchman has been in your back yard?
Your Mom: Lampshaded by the adult Gordie's narration, in which he comments that "finding new and disgusting ways to insult a friend's mother was always held in high regard." Also played straight:
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