Stand by Me (film)
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| Stand by Me | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Rob Reiner |
| Produced by | Bruce A. Evans Andrew Scheinman |
| Written by | Stephen King Bruce A. Evans Raynold Gideon |
| Starring | Wil Wheaton River Phoenix Corey Feldman Jerry O'Connell Kiefer Sutherland |
| Music by | Jack Nitzsche |
| Cinematography | Thomas Del Ruth |
| Editing by | Robert Leighton |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 8, 1986 (limited) August 22, 1986 (wide) |
| Running time | 88 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $8 million |
| Gross revenue | $52,287,414 |
Stand by Me is a 1986 coming of age, adventure-drama film directed by Rob Reiner. The title comes from a song with the same title by Ben E. King (which plays during the closing credits), while the story itself is based on the novella The Body by Stephen King.
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[edit] Plot
The film is narrated by an adult 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, Gordie (Wil Wheaton), and his friends Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) and Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) learn from their friend Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell) that the dead body of a boy named Ray Brower, who was struck by a train while picking blueberries in the woods, has not been found. While under his porch looking for his buried jar of pennies, Vern overheard his older brother talking about finding the body while in the woods with a friend. The boys then embark upon a two-day journey near Castle Rock to see and find the body.
Gordie is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories and writing, rejected by his father following the death of his football-star older brother Denny (John Cusack) in a Jeep accident. Chris is from a family of criminals and alcoholics and breaks the generational curse, he is usually stereotyped accordingly. Teddy is an eccentric and physically deformed after his mentally unstable father (whom Teddy sees as a war hero who "stormed the beach at Normandy") held his ear to a stove and nearly burned it off, thus forcing him to wear a hearing aid. Vern, overweight and timid, is easily scared, and thus often picked on.
Through the boys' misadventures and conversations, the viewer learns about each character's personality. Gordie's talent for storytelling pegs him as the most likely of the four to have a promising future.
The film also contrasts a gang of bullies called the "Cobras," who are led by local hood John "Ace" Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland). Crucial to the story are the often sophomoric interpersonal exchanges among the four main characters.[1] The boys find the body in the end, but decide to leave it to the authorities to deal with. They also refuse to allow Ace to take the body away after Gordie threatens him with a gun.
The film ends with the boys returning home to Castle Rock and saying goodbye to each other. The Writer states that Vern later married and became a fork-lift operator for a lumber company in Castle Rock and Teddy tried to join the military, but due to poor eyesight and his ear they refused to let him in, he eventually served jail time and now he was doing odd-jobs around Castle Rock. Chris later moved out of Castle Rock and became a lawyer. However, The Writer reveals that Chris was recently stabbed and killed when he tried to break up a fight in a line at a fast food place. The Writer then finishes his memoir and takes his kid and his friend out swimming.
[edit] Gordie's campfire story
During a scene where the boys are sitting around a campfire, Gordie tells a story about an obese boy named Davie Hogan, but because of his weight everyone, including his family, calls him "Lardass". All his life, Lardass has been beat-up and picked on until one day, the day of the county fair pie eating contest, Lardass decides to get revenge. Lardass enters the contest without admission and is harassed by the crowd as he takes the stage. However, just moments earlier, Lardass drank a bottle of castor oil and swallowed a raw egg. During the contest, Lardass imagines that the pies he is eating are filled with "rat guts" until it makes him sick causing him to vomit on the person next to him. Eventually, it causes a "barf-o-rama" amongst the crowd as Lardass happily watches. When asked about what Lardass does next, Gordie replies: "I guess that he celebrated with a couple of cheeseburgers."
[edit] Production
Most of the movie was filmed in Oregon. Brownsville, Oregon, stood-in for the town of Castle Rock. Scenes along the railroad tracks were shot near Cottage Grove, Oregon, along the right-of-way now used as the Row River National Trail. The scene where the boys outrace a locomotive across a trestle was filmed at Lake Britton, near McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, California.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Character |
|---|---|
| Wil Wheaton | Gordie Lachance |
| River Phoenix | Chris Chambers |
| Corey Feldman | Teddy Duchamp |
| Jerry O'Connell | Vern Tessio |
| Kiefer Sutherland | John "Ace" Merrill |
| Casey Siemaszko | Billy Tessio |
| Gary Riley | Charlie Hogan |
| Bradley Gregg | Richard "Eyeball" Chambers |
| John Cusack | Denny Lachance |
| Marshall Bell | Mr. Lachance |
| Frances Lee McCain | Mrs. Lachance |
| Bruce Kirby | Mr. Quidacioluo |
| Scott Beach | Mayor Grundy |
| Kent W. Lutrell | Ray Brower |
| Richard Dreyfuss | Gordie as an Adult/The Writer |
[edit] Soundtrack
- "Everyday" (Buddy Holly) – 2:07
- "Let the Good Times Roll" (Shirley and Lee) – 2:22
- "Come Go with Me" (The Del-Vikings) – 2:40
- "Whispering Bells" (The Del-Vikings) – 2:25
- "Get a Job" (The Silhouettes) – 2:44
- "Lollipop" (The Chordettes) – 2:09
- "Yakety Yak" (The Coasters) – 1:52
- "Great Balls of Fire" (Jerry Lee Lewis) – 1:52
- "Mr. Lee" (The Bobbettes) – 2:14
- "Stand by Me" (Ben E. King) – 2:55
[edit] Award nominations
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
- Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay (Raynold Gideon & Bruce A. Evans)
- WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Raynold Gideon & Bruce A. Evans)
- Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Rob Reiner)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Director (Rob Reiner)
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Stand by Me (film) |
- Stand by Me at the Internet Movie Database
- Stand by Me at Allmovie
- Stand by Me at Box Office Mojo
- Brownsville, Oregon Stand by Me film locations from Brownsville Chamber of Commerce
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