Stand by Me (1986)
*** Burke Favorite ***
Dir: Rob Reiner
Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Kiefer Sutherland
There are coming of age stories told on film that I love, but I think I identify with Stand by Me in particular because it was the first rated R movie I saw. And, I was about the age of the primary characters when I saw it. As if that’s not enough, there’s the added detail that my Mom didn’t want me to see it. Game on! Seeing rated R movies as I was growing up was a source of friction between Mom and I. We had compromised with Bond films – those were always good for a go-ahead from Mom. But, I wanted to start seeing rated R movies as soon as I knew what they were! My obsession was such that I even resorted to bribery. Once, as we shopped in Home Video Library, (this was the first of several home video shops that we would rent these amazing devices called VHS tapes as I grew up), I distinctly remember offering my Mom $50 of my own money to watch Beverly Hills Cop. I believe her answer was something to the effect of a sigh, then a slight shake of the head followed by, “Absolutely not.” So, when I was in the sixth grade, my pals and I gathered in Chris Fry’s basement during a sleepover and inserted the amazing VHS tape labeled “Stand by Me” into this magical device called a VCR. As the movie started, I was filled with excitement. My experience with watching this film surely doesn’t compare to trekking to see a dead body, as the fellas in the film do, but…
Enough of my reminiscing, what is this movie about? It’s about growing into yourself, that’s for sure. You might even surmise that the theme in Stand by Me is something to the effect of, “To live a long, happy life, you must know when to rely on yourself and when to ask for help.” This particular story concerns a group of four pals, all about twelve years old, living in a small Oregon town in 1959. They are the classic movie foursome, aren’t they? You’ve got the brain, the smart guy, the introspective one in Gordy (Wil Wheaton), who just lost his older brother, poor kid. [Not to get off topic, but his older brother is played by John Cusack in a definitive example of “supporting role”.] There’s a fat kid in the group, the Jerry Lewis, the court jester in Verne (Jerry O’Connell, who’s now married to Rebecca Romijn – just sayin’). Then there’s the wild card, the nut ball, the guy that you never know what he’s going to do, Teddy (Corey Feldman). This piece of work is a product of his “loony” Father, who nearly burned Teddy’s ear off on the kitchen stove. And of course, there’s the A-Dog, the leader of the bunch, Chris Chambers (River Phoenix).
The catalyst to the story is Verne’s huge news: in looking for a jar of lost pennies that he buried under his front porch, he overhears his older brother and an associate of his discussing the location of Ray Brower, a kid that’s been missing and feared dead for the past several days. Now that the group knows the location of the body, this fearsome foursome decides to go find it, bring it to the cops and “get [their] pictures in the papers!”. Then, they slip each other some skin: if you don’t know what that is, watch the movie.
As mentioned, each of the foursome has their life challenges, if you will. The story is composed of their interaction with each other on opposite sides of a coin: there’s a “fun and games” level and a “growing up” side. A perfect example of this coin is in the junkyard scene. The fun portion of the scene is when the legend of the junkyard dog, “Chopper”, who is supposedly trained to “sick balls”, is revealed as a nice little Golden Retriever mix. The “coming of age” side is a little harder to watch, as the junkyard owner makes fun of Teddy’s crazy dad. Despite the fact that Teddy’s dad clearly likes to beat on him, Teddy goes absolutely berserk and tries to attack the junkyard owner: his friends have to pull him away, cussing and crying.
There are a couple of other key scenes that I want to touch on, beginning with the Lardo story. After their first day of hiking, the fearsome foursome sit around the campfire and smoke cigarettes and beg Gordy to tell them one of his stories. What results is, in my opinion, an incredibly challenging scene to pull off: the movie takes a complete pause to tell this little five minute story that Gordy has thought up about a bullied fat boy named Lardo and how he exacts his revenge on his town at the annual pie eating contest. It’s a testament to Rob Reiner’s direction that he can literally stop the action of the story (the search for the dead body) with a gross-out story told around a campfire and yet, use it to demonstrate the strengths of his main character, Gordy.
The other scene I wanted to comment on is early in the film, before the boys leave town. Gordy, wearing his Yankee cap, is walking with Chris to go meet the other fellas. On the way, they run into Ace, the town bully and leader of the “Cobras”. In another textbook example of “supporting character”, a blonde haired Kiefer Sutherland really drives you to despise Ace. In this first of Ace’s scenes, he takes Gordy’s Yankee cap – which was a gift from his deceased older brother – just to be a shit about it. When Chris steps up for Gordy, calling him a dirty word, Ace insists Chris take it back. Chris refuses, so Ace nearly puts one of his eyes out with a lit cigarette. Examples of Ace’s maniacal behavior are evident throughout the film, which makes the final confrontation between him and the group one of the most satisfying climaxes… However, this climax or “payoff” would be a half-cocked, trite exercise without the “plant” of Ace snagging the Yankee cap.
There are so many other parts of the film I like, but I’ve already written the shit out of this one: in closing, I just want to advise any female readers, that this is definitely a male dominated tale. You may wish to substitute a review of Beaches or Fried Green Tomatoes for this particular title?