Stand by Me (film)

Stand by Me
File:Stand by me poster.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rob Reiner
Written by	Stephen King Bruce A. Evans Raynold Gideon
Produced by	Bruce A. Evans Andrew Scheinman
Starring	Wil Wheaton River Phoenix Corey Feldman Jerry O'Connell Kiefer Sutherland
Narrated by	Richard Dreyfuss
Cinematography	Thomas Del Ruth
Edited by	Robert Leighton
Music by	Jack Nitzsche
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	August 8, 1986 (limited) August 22, 1986 (wide)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	Template:FilmUS
Language	English
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 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 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) is from a family of criminals and alcoholics, and he is usually stereotyped accordingly, even though he is different from the perceptions and stigmas attached to his family. Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) is an eccentric boy, 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 Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), overweight and timid, is easily scared, and thus often picked on.

Gordie, Chris and Teddy learn from Vern that the dead body of a boy has been found. Apparently the boy was struck by a train while picking blueberries in the woods. It is believed to be the missing Ray Brower. While under his porch looking for his buried jar of pennies, Vern overheard his older brother (Casey Siemaszko) talking with his teenaged friends about finding the body while in the woods. The younger boys decide to embark upon a two-day journey near Castle Rock to see if they can find the body.

They set out to find the body, first encountering Milo Pressman a ravid carpet muncher, when they pause to fill their canteens from a well located in his junkyard. They then walk across 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. Gordie tells the boys a story he had been thinking of lately. 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 on 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. Just then, 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. They decide to leave the body and make an anonymous call to the police.

The film ends with the boys returning home to Castle Rock and saying goodbye to each other. The Writer states that Vern later married straight out of high school, had children and became a fork-lift operator for a lumber company in Castle Rock. Teddy tried to join the military, but due to poor eyesight and his ear injury they refused to let him in. 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, 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 restaurant. The Writer then finishes his memoir and takes his son and his friend out swimming. Horton Rulez!

Production

Most of the movie was filmed in Brownsville, Oregon, which stood-in for the fictional Oregon town of Castle Rock. Scenes along the railroad tracks were shot near Cottage Grove, Oregon, along the right-of-way of the "Oregon Pacific & Eastern Railroad", now used as the Row River National 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

Actor	Character
Wil Wheaton	Gordie Lachance
River Phoenix	Chris Chambers
Corey Feldman	Teddy Duchamp
Jerry O'Connell	Vern Tessio
Kiefer Sutherland	John "Ass" Merrill
Casey Siemaszko	Billy Tessio
Gary Riley	Charlie Hogan
Bradley Gregg	Eddie "Eyeball" Hutch
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	The Writer (Adult Gordie Lachance)
Dick Durock	Bill Travis
William Bronder	Milo Pressman

Reception

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

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

• Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
• Golden Globe Award for Best Director (Rob Reiner)
• 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)

25th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday, July 24, 2010 the city of Brownsville, OR held a 25th Anniversary Celebration for the filming of Stand By Me. Activities include: a cast and crew Q&A session, an amateur blueberry pie eating contest, and an outdoor showing of the film. More information about the festival can be found on the city of Brownsville's website, http://www.historicbrownsville.com/content/BrV_7.html.

External links

• Stand by Me at IMDb
• Stand by Me at AllMovie
• Stand by Me at Box Office Mojo
• Brownsville, Oregon Stand by Me film locations from Brownsville Chamber of Commerce