Stand by Me (1986)

 How many times have I watched "Stand by Me"? I came upon it at some point at every time of the day since I was a kid. It's a film that has spoken to me at every point in my life. I see this film's influence until this very day. So many "Stand by Me" kids on a journey of some kind, adventuring to some destination, calling each other names, poking fun at each other, sharing experience, carrying around emotional baggage that furthers their bond, enduring hardships that bond them closer, and goofing off with each other. 

I recall at the time that my parents didn't want me to watch "Stand by Me" due to the language, but we all cursed as friends, so it was just true to life. Stephen King knew that. Late 50s or the late 80s, we were hanging out, talking about our lives, sharing stories, and cursing. I had bullies like Ace (Kiefer Sutherland) in my life who made my school life miserable. What these kids suffered, I did. When characters' pain is relatable, there is just this understanding. We pretended action film plots as kids, and our imaginations were open. My tragedy was the loss of my father when I was 6. Gordie's (Wil Wheaton) was his brother. The parents shellshocked I understood seeing how my mother was haunted similarly. I spent time outdoors with my brother, went on walkabouts, traveled thereabouts, and the time went by. 

The film gave us these kids who had their problems at home (the drunk, abusive father who pressed Teddy's (Corey Feldman) ear against an oven, Gordie's brother (John Cusack) killed in a jeep accident that leaves his father and mother lost in grief, Chris (River Phoenix) had a terrible experience with a teacher that left him traumatically hurt, and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) is the obese kid whose weight is often always the butt of jokes, although he's just an innocent and naive kid) but with the film's journey--to find a dead kid who went off to pick blueberries and was supposedly hit by a train when it got too dark--they all get away on this trip to talk about whether or not Mighty Mouse could defeat Superman, if Gordie should continue with his writing and how Chris insists he not give up on it (the parents not realizing what gift their younger son had because their older dead son was a football star-to-be), and a train nearly plowing into them while crossing a bridge. The junkyard man and his cute dog that was supposed to be a menace, leeches that attach when they cross dirty water, and the silly story of a hot-dog eating contest resulting in lots of vomiting make up highlights that have remained on the nostalgic minds of us who relive them over and over again.

The film has this helluva young cast for the bullies, too: Sutherland as the sadistic lead bully with the likes of Gregg, Riley, and Siemaszko as members. They love to knock down mailboxes, pick on kids, and knife nicknames into their arms when not playing chicken and nearly having head-on vehicular crashes. Sutherland wants to find that dead kid after a few of his crew stole a car and found themselves out of town, locating the body. Eventually the two groups locate the body, and a gun Chris confiscated is used to make sure one of them gets dibs on claiming the find. It is that moment of "standing up" that provokes my own memories of fighting back after having enough of being picked on. Sutherland brought that same presence of danger to "The Lost Boys" a year later.

I think the heart and soul of the film, besides the unity of kids on a trip, is Chris and Gordie's bond. They had pain, and neither was ashamed to share that pain with each other. Even as an adult (Richard Dreyfuss), he remembers this particular time in his life, this particular experience. Chris made it as a lawyer killed in a meaningless throat-stabbing at a fast food restaurant, while Gordie listened to his good friend and became a writer. That Gordie would revisit this walk to a body as a writer, it was a bringing form to memory. We can all do that with a blog post or podcast or written word...bring to life those from childhood. A fireside talk about subjects we might find inconsequential today, listening as the hounds bark at a distance, the eventual discovery of dead kid Ray on the mind, one of them always standing watch with Chris' confiscated gun. 5/5