"I was twelve going on thirteen the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of nineteen-fifty-nine. A long time ago. But only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only 1281 people, but to me it was the whole world..."

Summary

Stand By Me is the story of true friendship and the loss of innocence. It brings all childhood insecurities, fears, and dreams into sharp, crystal-clear focus. It begins, as childhood stories often do, with curiosity. Four friends, each with his own emotional baggage, decide to go on an adventure: to find the dead body of a boy who has mysteriously disappeared. Our quartet, being young and adventurous, see the excitement as outweighing the possible dangers and risks.

The group consists of Chris Chambers, a very bright, outspoken boy, full of bravado on the outside, yet full of insecurity on the inside. Chris is intelligent, but being constantly beaten by his father, as well as having to live down his brother's bad reputation, have made him fearful and hopeless in regards to his future. His best friend is Gordie Lachance, a boy also full of fear for his future. Ever since his popular, older brother was killed in an accident, Gordie has become "the invisible boy" to his parents. They no longer see him or hear him emotionally. Physically they are there, but emotionally they are not. Then there is Teddy Duchamp, the son of an emotionally disturbed man who has abused him all his life. Teddy lives in constant denial of his childhood pain and creates a fantasy world in which his father is a good, loving hero. Vern Tessio rounds out the quartet. Vern is a fairly fat, clumsy boy who is constantly being pushed around by his older brother.

On the journey to find the body of this dead boy, our heroes discover themselves first and foremost. Each boy, in his own way, has to face his fears, but not alone; they all have each other to lean on. This movie is about true friendship in the purest sense...the ultimate acceptance of who you are with no strings attached. These boys love and accept each other with all their frailities and insecurities, and they do not expect anything from each other; they just love each other. This is what true friendship is all about. Along the way to their discovery, the boys have to face outside dangers, like the junk man and his dreaded dog, "Chopper". They are also being closely followed by Ace Merrill and his gang of hoodlums, including Chris' older brother, Eyeball. These older boys have decided that they want to find the body first, so off they go in pursuit. But it's the inside dangers that the movie focus on. Chris' insecurities of being able to break the pattern of his family's reputation is brough out in a poignant scene with Gordie. Gordie, in turn, shares with Chris the burden he bears of being a poor substitute for his brother who had died.

The climax of the movie occurs toward the end, when our quartet of young heroes reach their goal and find the dead body of the missing boy. Just at the moment of their triumph, they are stopped in their tracks by Ace's gang. Being afraid of them their whole lives, our heros could easily back down. During their journey, however, they discovered inner resources of strength and courage. And, in the end, they stand by each other and do not back down. They had faced their fears and had become stronger for it. Ultimately, the boys eventually go their separate ways, and the closeness of that summer journey is never repeated. But the lessons they learned and the love they shared with each other endures. These boys, in a short summer, learned the ultimate human lesson: that fears are meant to be shared, that love is meant to be shared, and that we are stronger and braver when we stand together.

Cast

After extensive auditions, videotaping various pairs and quartets of kids to test their on-screen chemistry, River Phoenix was cast as Gordie's best friend. He was quickly followed by Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell. They formed, under director Rob Reiner's sure hand and use of techniques for improvisational acting, an astonishingly believable acting ensemble.

(Descriptions have been adapted from Baseline's Encylopedia of Film)

Wil Wheaton (Gordie Lachance)
A willowy, doe-eyed young actor who has convincingly played smart and sensitive kids in films and TV since age nine, Wil began his career appearing in commercials at age seven, and gained respect with an effective starring role in Stand By Me. He later achieved celebrity as Wesley Crusher, budding boy genius and eventual acting ensign, on the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994). He began concentrating on features in the early 1990s with limited success in the absurd but entertaining Toy Soldiers (1991), as a troubled preppie cadet turned terrorist fighter, and in the talky, stagy December (1991), as a thoughtful pacifist reacting to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

River Phoenix (Chris Chambers)
River was convincing as a bespectacled, brainy youngster in his feature debut, Explorers (1985), but Stand By Me was his breakthrough. He gives an impressively mature performance as a knowing, tough kid in this poignant coming-of-age drama. That same year (1986) he played Harrison Ford's eldest son in Peter Weir's The Mosquito Coast. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in Running On Empty (1988), but will forever be remembered for his role in My Own Private Idaho (1991) and as Chris Chambers in Stand By Me. Chris's life is ultimately the stuff of tragedy, as was that of the actor who brought him to life on screen. Death by itself is not tragic, but a death that could have been avoided certainly is, and most regard River's passing in 1993 as a tragedy. Director Rob Reiner had this to say about River: "I did get the sense that he was searching and confused about things, and insecure... He didn't have a lot of technique - you just turned the camera on, and he would tell the truth."

Corey Feldman (Teddy Duchamp)
Corey was already a veteran child actor by the time he appeared in Stand By Me. He is well-known for his role as Mouth in The Goonies (1985). He is also famous for the "Corey and Corey" movies (with '80s teen idol Corey Haim) such as License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989).

Jerry O'Connell (Vern Tessio)
Jerry had no credits previous to Stand By Me, but has since appeared in several films and TV series. His most recent work includes the films Jerry Maguire (1996), Joe's Apartment (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and the TV series Sliders (1995-1997). About the making of Stand By Me, he said that he and the other three in the lead roles totally became their characters for the summer of 1985, when the film was shot. Their rowdiness on-screen often manifested itself off-screen. The quartet's motel swimming pool mysteriously drained itself one night.

Kiefer Sutherland (Ace Merrill)
Kiefer began acting at age nine, appearing in stage productions. He established himself in Hollywood with several vivid roles in some memorable youth-oriented films of the mid-'80s: the small-town bully in Stand By Me, one of Sean Penn's hoods in At Close Range (1986), and a charismatic teenaged vampire (with Corey Feldman) in The Lost Boys (1987). He has done his best work in ensemble films including Young Guns (1988) and Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992). River Phoenix said this about Kiefer: "I worked with him for a total of four days and my impression of him was that he was a very centred guy, very into character... I remember being with the guys and feeling very destructive. I was taking dirt clods and bombing his car and we just totally wrecked it. The other guys dared me to do it, so I did. They knew it was Kiefer's car, I didn't. When I found out, I was scared for my life... I saw him at the restaurant and he goes 'Hey River, come over here!' and I was choked up. But I just went over and said, 'Kiefer, I'm really sorry.' And he goes, 'No, no, I'm just saying how're you doing.' But I wanted to confess and he said, 'Don't worry about it, it's a rental car, they washed it off'. I was nervous, because I didn't know if he was going to pull out the switchblade and slit my throat or what."

Richard Dreyfuss (The Writer)
Mr. Dreyfuss's character's few scenes were originally done by another actor. Mr. Dreyfuss was hired to reshoot them and redo the voice-over narration.

John Cusack (Denny Lachance)
Popular, promising young lead of the late 1980s, John has turned in fine performances in many engaging movies, including Eight Men Out (1988), the affecting, bittersweet love story Say Anything... (1989), and the contemporary film noir The Grifters (1990). He also starred in Rob Reiner's The Sure Thing (1985). Like sister Joan Cusack, with whom he has appeared in several films, he remains active in the theater.

Director

Rob Reiner
Adrian Lyne, who was set to direct this film, was forced to hand it over to Reiner when 9 Weeks (1986) ran over schedule. Rob Reiner began his film career as an actor and gained prominence for his role in the landmark TV series All In The Family (1971-1978). His directorial debut was the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He has since then established himself as a major director. Reiner strongly identified with the central character, Gordie, a sensitive introverted twelve-year-old. In a 1986 interview, he said "I grew up thinking my father thought I didn'ít have any talent. I love him now and I adored him as a kid, but I felt inferior. And conquering these kinds of feelings is what the film is all about." In 1990, he directed and co-produced another Stephen King adaptation, Misery.

Writer

Stephen King
Stephen King wrote the novella The Body, on which Stand By Me is based. It is one of the four stories in the collection Different Seasons. It's not a horror story and far from what the public associates with the author's name. The characters are based on real people and their feelings and dialogue are close to King's personal experiences. The story itself is not. A college roommate told him about an incident involving the search of a dog that had been struck by a train. King said this about his version of the story: "I wrote a story about these kids who walk down a railroad track to find the the body of a boy. I didn't think anybody would be interested in going to look at the body of a dog... I took a lot of things that I had felt when I was a kid and put them into the main character... Never believe a writer when he seems to be offering you autobiography, because we all lie. We all edit and we say, well, this is what happened... So it's mostly a lie." After all of the major studios in Hollywood had passed on it, the screenwriters Raynold Gideon and Bruce Evans along with Adrian Lyne convinced Embassy Pictures to buy the rights to it and they began writing the screenplay version. Andy Scheinmann also helped with script rewrites. Stephen King was reportedly deeply moved by the picture, saying it was perhaps the only one to really capture the human flavor of his writing. He sadly noted that his three friends from that time period in his life had all died, unable to see themselves and their impact on the screen.

Soundtrack

The film was retitled from The Body to Stand By Me after the classic Ben E. King song that became the film's major theme. Instrumental versions of the song are beautifully reorchestrated throughout by composer Jack Nitzsche, and the original is used as well. It became a hit on both sides of the Atlantic and gave Ben E. King's career a nice boost. A music video of the song was made, featuring the singer performing with River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton. The film's soundtrack album climbed the charts, featuring other oldies such as:

• Everyday by Buddy Holly
• Let the Good Times Roll by Shirley and Lee
• Come Go With Me by The Del Vikings
• Whispering Bells by The Del Vikings
• Get a Job by The Silhouettes
• Lollipop by The Chordettes
• Yakety Yak by The Coasters
• Great Balls Of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis
• Mr. Lee by The Bobettes
• Stand By Me by Ben E. King

There were also some songs that were in the movie, but mysteriously, were not on the soundtrack, like Rockin' Robin by Bobbie Day, Come Softly To Me by The Fleetwoods, and Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home) by The Impalas.

Links

The Official River Phoenix Mega Site


"...I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"