Date: 1986
Director: Rob Reiner
Actors/ Characters: Wil Wheaton/ Gordie Lachance, River Phoenix/ Chris Chambers, Corey Feldman/ Teddy Duchamp, Jerry O'Connell/ Vern Tessio
Summary: After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy.
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I recently rewatched Rob Reiner's Stand By Me the film that really launched his directorial career. I knew I liked Stand By Me but until this rewatch I don't think I quite realised how much I love this film. Over the last couple of days my thoughts keep circling back round to the four boys (Gordie, Chris, teddy and Vern) and their journey through the woods to find the body of Ray Brower.
On a surface level the film is a simple story; it's about a group of young boys, bored during the summer, who venture out to find the body of a boy who died days before. Upon watching Stand By Me you know that the film is not as simple as it first seemed. The film is packed full of symbolism if you only stop to notice it. The train tracks, which the boys travel along the entirety of the film, represent the path from boyhood to adolescence, sometimes the boys stray from the tracks and other times they have no choice but to walk the path set out for them. The narrative has obvious overtones of growing up and the inevitability of that happening. At the start of the boy's quest to find Ray Brower they are seemingly child minded boys with no cares in the world but as the story progresses the realities of their lives catch up with them. Teddy comes ot realise his father is mentally ill and abusive, Chris realises his life is destined to go nowhere and Gordie realises that he can never live up to his brother's legacy and is a disappointment to his father.
The ensemble of characters in the film is flawless and functions wonderfully. Each member of the group brings a different quality to the table. Chris is the obvious leader and Gordie is his second in command, his right hand man. Teddy is the fun loving, kooky friend and Vern is the blatant comic relief. The relationship between the four boys and the effortlessness of the actors chemistry is one of the reasons why I think Stand By Me has stood the test of time. Boys will always be boys, no matter the year.
I would say that the film definitely carries a note of hopelessness and pessimism. Chris' death bookends the narrative, we go into the story knowing that his is going to die and end learning more about his death. This sets up the story in a bleak an hopeless way illustrating that the film is going ot focus on the end of something, and that something being the boy's innocence and youth. Ultimately I think the film is trying to send a message to the audience: you aren't young forever and life is not always fair. There are plenty examples supporting this message one being the death of Ray Brower; he was boy around the same age as Chris and the gang yet he unfairly met his end before the narrative of the film even began. This suggests that sometimes you don't fulfil your purpose in life and that's just how it is.