Stand By Me Movie Review (1986)
A film about four 12-year-old boys on a secret quest to find a missing boy’s body, Stand By Me is a touching coming-of-age story that is arguably the best movie ever made about preteens.
Watching Stand By Me again in the movie theater is not a privilege I ever thought I’d get again. I remember the first time I watched it in the movie theater in 1986. I was 9 years old, and my father assured me that I would like it. He was right, I loved it, but I didn’t fully understand what I was watching. I just knew that the Barf-O-Rama was hilarious, I had a huge crush on Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix, and I was scared of seeing the missing boy’s dead body.
Over the years, this has become one of my very favorite films, just like it is for so many other people. It is an intimate study of the years that take you from childhood to adulthood. A time that can’t really be quantified, and, somehow, Rob Reiner – based on the story The Body by Stephen King – did it better than anyone.
Stand By Me is about Gordie Lachance, a 12-year-old boy living in a small town, who hangs out with his best friend Chris and their two other pals, Teddy and Vern. When Vern overhears his older brother and a fellow gang member talking about a dead body that they found by the railroad tracks, Vern approaches his friends to go find Ray Brower, the missing kid, first. They set out, with sleeping bags in hand, not knowing that the leader of the older gang, Ace, and the other members wanted to find the body too.
There are so many special things about this film that it would be impossible to list them all, but there’s a reason it was re-released in theaters for its 40th anniversary. The fact that adult Gordie narrates the story after learning that Chris has just died sets the tone for the rest of the movie. This is not just a film about four boys on an adventure – it’s about one weekend that changed their lives, but it really was just for that weekend.
Each of the four preteens has a separate moment where they cry. They are vulnerable with each other because they are still children (“Alright, Mickey’s a mouse. Donald’s a duck. Pluto’s a dog. What’s Goofy?”), even though they’re right on the cusp of being teenagers (“Have you guys been watching The Mickey Mouse Club lately? I think Annette’s tits are getting bigger.”). But these boys are safe together, even if it seems like every other person around them, their parents and other adults included, is not.
The Barf-O-Rama scene never gets old, but my favorite parts are that #1 Gordie thinks that 180 lbs is incredibly heavy for a human, so that’s how much he says Davie “Lardass” Hogan weighs (and he’s supposed to be the heaviest kid in town with a “hyoid problem,” according to Vern) #2 When everyone starts barfing, they all barf blueberry pie, whether they’ve eaten it or not #3 While Davie is sitting back and watching the results of his experiment, he has a whole blueberry resting in his ear.
Keifer Sutherland is right up there with the best psychopaths on film as Ace. He is the kind of guy who would stare down Dolph Lundgren in his prime, and while Lundgren begins thinking he’s going to win, Ace whips out his knife and uses it.
Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell are all incredible, both separately and together. The trust and relationship that these boys must’ve had with each other and Rob Reiner while shooting this film – what a gift.
I have watched Stand By Me dozens of times, and I cried twice while watching it in the movie theater tonight. It won’t be the last time.
“Come on you guys. Let’s get moving.
Yeah, by the time we get there, the kid won’t even be dead anymore.”
Runtime: 89 minutes
Motion Picture Rating: R
Languages Spoken In The Film: English
Should You Watch It? Yes
Did I Cry? Yes, I always do
My Rating: 5/5 Stars
Available: To rent on Prime Video or may be available for free on other streaming platforms
