A Film To See Before You Graduate - Stand By Me

Everybody knows that University is a time for moving out, moving on, meeting new people and making new friends. But it is also a time when old friends are left behind and sometimes forgotten. For this reason, Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me is essential viewing for students: a bittersweet coming-of-age drama about four friends on the brink of adolescence.

In the final days of their summer, Chris (River Phoenix), Geordie (Wil Wheaton), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O’Connell) decide to take an overnight trek to the location of a dead body – that of a missing boy who appears to have been hit by a train – where they plan to phone the authorities and collect a reward. However, what the four friends learn along the way turns out to be far more important than what they find at the end of their journey, and the lessons they learn about life and death, evil and morality force them to grow up quickly.

The four young leads are excellent: each character wrestles with his own personal demons, and the actors are each given their chance to shine. Chris is tired of his unwarranted bad reputation; Geordie is struggling for his parents’ admiration after the death of his older brother; Teddy’s abusive father has been locked away in a mental institution and slightly-chubby Vern is often the subject of bullying. Throughout the course of the journey, the boys fall out, make up, confess and confront their fears and ultimately face their own mortality. The scenery is gorgeous, the soundtrack is full of classics, Kiefer Sutherland is suitably menacing as the local bully, and the closing lines – “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” – are sure to evoke a sense of nostalgia and revive fond childhood memories.

Stand By Me is simply a brilliant film about friendship, growing up and growing apart that everybody can relate to. And it might just make you pick up the phone and call that friend that you haven’t heard from in a while.

 

CMD