Stephen King's coming of age story The Body, has been brought to life by Rob Reiner, Raynold Gideon, and Bruce Evans in the spectacular 1986, film, Stand by Me. It stars Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix as best friends in a small 1950's Oregon town. Within this 88 minute masterpiece, you'll experience thrills, chills, laughs, and an unnerving need to throw up.
It all starts when a dead body is found on the outskirts of Castle Rock, Oregon. When Chris (Phoenix), Gordon (Wheaton), Teddy (Corey Feldman), and Vern (Jerry O'Connell) hear about this, they decide to go on an epic adventure to find it. All is fun and games until Vern's older brother and his gang of scoundrels go searching for the body as well. With dilemmas like a ruthless game of chicken and a river full of leeches, the two gangs go to all lengths until they meet up and all hell breaks loose. With deep conversations and hilariously immature outbursts, this movie never loses tension and will keep you satisfied to the very end.
The movie takes place in Castle Rock, Oregon, and its surrounding counties, in the year 1959. Most of the film is shown on the train tracks in the county, which brought a lot of lighting and setting options to the movie. That, plus the music, camera work, and costumes, give the movie a great 1950's feeling. The mood of the different scenes is normally set by the sound, or lack of it. Such as, when the mood is calm or serious, there is very little noise in the back ground, normally only crickets. The camera work is always still during those moments, which helps keep the tension.
Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix, give the strongest and most believable performances as best friends, Gordon and Chris. The two have great chemistry and bring a lot of emotion to the film's story. The two have scenes together, where they talk about their positions in life, death, and the future. In these scenes you can barely believe that they were 12 year old kids, because of the intensity and emotion. Aside from them, Kiefer Sutherland is the best actor in the movie. He is smart, witty, and brings a larger-than-life feeling to his character. Those traits are uncommon, but they are welcome to this bully character.
The theme of this movie is painfully obvious. Be a kid when you're a kid, or you will regret it for the rest of your life. In the scenes between Chris and Gordon, they continually talk about this, and by the end of the film, it's obvious that it's the main point. Another good point is made, right near the end of the film, by an adult Gordon. He says that he never had better friends, than the ones he had when he was twelve. That really adds on to the prior theme, of being a kid, because a big part of being a kid is having friends. When this film was released it was not only vastly popular but it gave a real kick start to the directing career of Rob Reiner. Reiner had only previously directed two movies, This is Spinal Tap, and A Sure Thing, both of which were only met by modest success. After this movie, he went on to direct many blockbusters within many genres, such as Misery, A Few Good Men and, The Princess Bride. Since the genres are so vastly different, the only thing that can be said about his films is that he has made one of the greatest contributions to the film industry, of any modern director. For a final note, this film is fantastic and although it is not for everyone, it's like The Basketball Diaries and is important for teenagers to see.
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