Based on Stephen King's novella THE BODY, director Rob Reiner's STAND BY ME is the disarmingly tender and subtly sublime story of four kids on the precipice of early adulthood who embark upon a quest. There's Gordie (Wil Wheaton), the intelligent, creative one with the obviously bright future. His best buddy, Chris (River .. Read more
| Starring | River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell |
|---|---|
| Director | Rob Reiner |
| Genres | Drama |
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Based on Stephen King's novella THE BODY, director Rob Reiner's STAND BY ME is the disarmingly tender and subtly sublime story of four kids on the precipice of early adulthood who embark upon a quest. There's Gordie (Wil Wheaton), the intelligent, creative one with the obviously bright future. His best buddy, Chris (River Phoenix), hardens his image in order to hide the pain from the physical abuse he endures at home, all the while harboring the hope of escaping that image. Rounding out the foursome are Vern (Jerry O'Connell), the pudgy tagalong, and Teddy (Corey Feldman), a loyal and funny but troubled kid with a death wish.
When the four boys hear about a dead body 20 miles down the railroad tracks from their small Oregon town, they clandestinely set upon the unwieldly journey to lay eyes on this rare find. Amid numerous misadventures, Gordie, Chris, Vern, and Teddy savor what may be their last chance to revel in the simple life of children; around the corner is a future that could tear them apart, not to mention a tough teen gang who desires local fame by finding the body first. Enhanced by excellent performances and an engaging plot, STAND BY ME ranks among the best of the myriad coming-of-age films to dot the 1980s cinematic landscape.
| Starring | River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Wil Wheaton, Jerry O'Connell, Richard Dreyfuss, Marshall Bell, John Cusack, Bradley Gregg, Gary Riley, Casey Siemaszko, Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Oliver |
|---|---|
| Director | Rob Reiner |
| Studio | SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 25 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Eighties Greats |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Subtitles | Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish |
| Released | DVD: 04 Dec 2000 Production year: 1986 |
| Format | DVD |
Rob Reiner made his name as a director with his debut feature, the satirical This Is Spinal Tap, and proved his versatility two years later with this coming-of-age drama. It's a smart, sensitive, 1950s-set tale taken from the unlikely source of Stephen King's story The Body. The rich dialogue and the intelligent performances, from the likes of Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix, are a joy to behold as four school friends set out to find the corpse of a missing boy.
"...While Reiner succeeds in building the story around Wheaton's convincing vulnerability, he also has achieved a rare feat of getting equally empathetic and outstanding performances from everyone else in the cast..."
Wow this is a lovely film. From the fantastic soundtrack, through to the gorgeous visuals, and the exceptional performances from such young leads, it's massively endearing. The plot doesn't really matter - this film is mainly concerned with charting the loss of youth and innocence as four friends go on a daytrip with the intention of catching sight of a dead body. Their friendship is real in all the right ways - teasing and joking, telling gross-out tales, shyly revealing their adolescent hopes for the future - they perfectly capture the fear and enthusiasm of youth. It's also very moving, not least because one of the film's more tragic characters is played by River Phoenix, who himself died at a young age.
Stand By Me is one of those movies that, for me, I can watch over and over. The story isnt all that complicated or exciting, but it rolls nicely along. The soundtrack is great also. Really nice acting from River Phoenix and I also loved Vern :) Even though it has serious/sad moments, its real easy to watch and a pretty feel good movie.
Actor Jerry O'Connell became an object of fun for a group of drunk baseball fans after he asked them to stop ruining his pal Gary Sinise's day at the ballpark. The two stars were watching a game at the Dodgers stadium in Los Angeles when the fans recognised Sinise from Forrest Gump and started referring to him by his amputee character, Lieutenant Dan. At first it was fun, but when the fans didn't stop, O'Connell decided to do something about their behaviour - only to receive a backlash about... Read more