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Written by Raynold Gideon and Bruce Evans; directed by Rob Reiner; starring Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix. Released to DVD on March 22, 2005. Thanks in part to directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese, the films of the ’70s have become known for their in-your-face grittiness and cinema verite style of filmmaking. In the early ‘80s, somewhere around the time of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, this sense about film began to change. Suddenly able to compact the drama of seven movies and put it all into one, studios began churning out a host of movies that were filled to the brim with cheap, maudlin sentiment. In retrospect, it shouldn’t be too surprising to see that Cameron Crowe’s name is inextricably linked with the words ‘maudlin’ and ‘cheap sentiment’, but at the time, this was a fairly new development on the film front. Spurred on by the growing gen-Xers and the first real rise of political correctness, these movies quickly found a large audience. Characters emoted, enemies would ultimately cry together and entire archetypal journeys would take place over the span of a day. It was like reading Homer on speed. Of these entries into the annals of cinema, two stand out as being the tent poles of the burgeoning genre: John Hughes’ Breakfast Club and Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me. Adapted from Stephen King’s novella, "The Body", and set in the early 1950’s, Stand By Me is the story of four friends Vern (Jerry O’Connell), Chris (River Phoenix), Gordie (Wil Wheaton) and Teddy (Corey Feldman) who are whiling away their time in the sixth grade. When Vern overhears a conversation about the location of a dead body some fifteen miles outside town, he and his three friends grab their sleeping bags and head out into the woods to have a look. Along the way they laugh, they cry, they learn about themselves and come to a better understanding about the curious ways in which life works. Stand By Me is a gorgeous looking film with two major stumbling blocks that ultimately sink the project: Reiner never gives the viewer any place to take refuge from the horrifically troubled lives of its characters and the fresh-faced youngster all talk and think as if they were well-adjusted 40-year old psychologists. Like the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) Jim Thompson novel, there is no straight man in Stand By Me. All of the characters, including those in the most minute supporting roles seem pulled from the dysfunction of various Raymond Carver stories and are chalked full of the kind of torment, anguish and pain that you wouldn’t wish upon anyone, let alone a child of twelve. Narrated by Richard Dreyfuss, the middle-aged version of Gordie, the viewer is introduced to the group of four friends in a nostalgic voiceover. In the midst of these ‘good’ memories, we learn how Teddy was permanently disfigured by a member of his family–his father once pushed his ear to a hot stove–and how Chris too comes from a bad family–if he can stay out of jail, that might be a plus. After another few minutes, we learn that Gordie himself is dealing with the recent death of his older brother, Dennis (John Cusack). With this information all thrown at the audience in the span of a minute or two, it’s truly hard to make a connection with any of the boys. They are worthy of our sympathy, but it is incredibly hard to identify with them. There is also the problem surrounding the boys’ prescient ability to see their futures unfolding before them. In one of Stand By Me’s more interesting (and unbelievable) scenes, Chris and Gordie are talking when Chris makes the statement that Gordie should distance himself from their quartet. Chris continues on by telling Gordie that he has to do this because he has success written all over him and the other three boys are only going to drag him down. It’s a valid point and holds more than a shred of truth to it, but what sixth grader would, or could, ever connect those dots and then go so far as to suggest the conclusion to their friend? When I was twelve I had two things on my mind: baseball cards and Superman. The farthest that I projected forward was to the beginning of the next summer vacation. Trying to get around the concept that four elementary school children could figure out their life paths and learn what they will fight for in the span of less than 24 hours is a pretty tough pill to swallow. Wheaton, Phoenix, Feldman and O’Connell all deliver commendable acting performances in Stand By Me–O’Connell in particular stands out as the pudgy and picked upon Vern–and Reiner deserves credit for coaxing such nuanced and believable work out of young children, I just hate to think of how good this film could have been if someone had simply suggested toning down just a small portion of the script’s ingrained melodrama.
chris neumer yes, it's true: There was another film called Stand by Me made in 1994 starring an actor named Poon Fong Fong. |
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