Review of Stand by Me (1986) by Nathan A — 22 Sep 2017

Well, I finally recieved my 25th Anniversary Edition (Blu Ray) of Stand By Me. I originally saw Stand By Me back in 2003, which my best friend introduced me to. Very fitting considering what the movie is about, Stand By Me is a coming of age story about four pre-teen friends. Based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King, in which these four friends set out to find a young kid's dead body. Stand By Me is directed by Rob Reiner and is his personal favorite movie that he has made. The film is set in the summer 1959 in town of Castle Rock Oregon, Gordie (Wil Wheaton) has just lost his brother (John Cusack) in car accident. Gordie and his friends Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) learn of Ray Bauer, the boy who died when he was hit by a train. Vern learns of the location of boy's body and tells Gordie and the others. The four decide to set off on journey and recover the body and become famous home town heroes.

On this adventure the boy's discover themselves and who they are. The story is also loosely based on King's actual childhood, I personally believe most guys can relate to this story. I think Gordie is the character I identify with the most, kinda being the shy and creative one. Gordie's goal is to find the body, hoping it will help him finally get approval from his father. Gordie feels his dad hates him and wishes he died instead of his brother. Chris acts as Gordie's main support and best friend, though Chris is considered an outcast and no good hood. Gordie know's Chris is a much better person than his reputation precieves him as.

Vern is the fat kid slash scaredy-cat. Vern tends to get picked on, especially by Teddy. Teddy is the wild one with a nutcase father, who once almost burnt his ear off. While on their journey the friends camp out and talk about regular things most twelve would talk about in the 50's. Being The Mickey Mouse Club, Goofy, and eating Cherry Flavored Pez. Stand By Me has great performances by it's cast, the acting is very top-notch. I would say River Phoenix gives the best performance here, it's sad he's no longer with us. Whil Wheaton is right up there with him though, both had great chemistry together.

I've probably seen Stand By Me around fifthteen times and it remains as one of my all-time favorite movies. It's my second favorite Reiner film, the blu ray is much improved over the dvd. The dvd was definitely looking dated, glad I decided to up grade. Now if you wanna know how the story ends you'll just have watch it for yourself. I'm sure most of you have seen this or atleast heard of it. I will just say I highly recommend it, one the best films of it's kind and one the best movie's of the 80's. Everytime I hear the song Stand By Me by Ben King, I think of this movie. Actually when this film released, King's song reached #1 for the second time in 1986, after originally been released many years earlier.

And yes I love remade music video for the song. Anyways, Stand By Me has stood the test of time. I mean it's been 25 years and this film is still as strong as it ever was. So if your reading my review and you haven't seen this, I encourage you to seek it out. The blu ray was just released about a week ago and it's worth the purchase if wanna get rid of the old dvd copy. I just just wished the blu ray came with a soundtrack, like the dvd did. Guess you can't have it all.... also one more thing, the 25th anniversary edition comes with a picture in picture commentary. The commentary is with Rob Reiner, Corey Feldman, and Whil Wheaton. I found this commentary very imformative, and is worth watching if your a hardcore fan of the film.