Stand By Me

If there was one movie I could choose to have my life most resemble, it would be Stand By Me. What kind of kid wouldn't want to go on an adventure to find a dead body and battle coked up Kiefer Sutherlands? Yeah, there's some sadness and degenerate material in the film, but when it comes down to the basics of childhood, this film explains it perfectly. Your pre-pubescent years are when you should be trying to go on quests and outrunning trains and jumping balls to the wall naked in water. Cause after that, I don't really know what can be as much fun. This is a story of friendship and childhood innocence and how it can be lost gradually over time or in an instant.

Stand By Me follows four friends (River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell) on their journey to recover the body of a missing teenager presumed dead. Along their travels, the friends grow closer and learn about each others fears and goals, strengths and weaknesses.

Kudos to Rob Reiner. His cast represents childhood individuality to a T. Every group has that scumbag who tries to be philosophical and defends his friends (Phoenix), an artist (Wheaton), the fat kid (O'Connell), and the lunatic who is the first to try drugs (Feldman). Each character brought to life the plight that each suffers in their respective environments. You begin to feel sorry for Feldman's character when you realize his father is in an insane asylum. Wil Wheaton's character is torn between accelerating in his writing and trying to please his father after the tragic death of his own brother. Most people don't realize the complexity to O'Connell's Verne. Verne is simple, but sometimes the most simple things are the most complex. Verne takes abuse from his friends, but it strengthens his inner-self and actually produces him as one of the strongest characters in the movie.

I'm starting to make a habit out of reviewing movies based on Stephen King novels. The man is so damn brilliant and terrifying. I won't lie, the first time I saw Stand By Me, I was expecting a killer clown to appear and take out a few of the friends. But Stand By Me is truthfully one of my favorite films. Friendship and how strong its bonds are takes center stage. No scene is this more evident than in the pond scene when the boys go jumping into a pond of water that would only be deemed acceptable in most Third World countries. When the group re appears from the water, they notice they are covered in leeches and begin, frantically, to peel them off. There is so much terror and frustration in this scene, but through it all, each boy helps the other. That's what true friends do, peel blood sucking worms off each other's peckers.

Stand By Me is a coming of age film. It's a story about the loss of innocence, and it's a tale of realizing the difference between what is supposed to be done and what needs to be done. I like to think I share this same kind of connection with my friends like I can just call them up one day and see if they want to come questing with me. I mean, that is what this movie is trying to tell its audience...that the friends you share crazy experiences with will always last in your memory, right? I don't know, I liked it alot. And like every single James Bond movie, it has a song with the same title. Kudos to you too, Ben E. King.