‘Stand by Me’, a great movie about boys going through hard stuff, turns 40

You probably remember Stand by Me as a coming-of-age movie about childhood friendship and nostalgia for youth and the past, set in the ‘50s and made in the ‘80s, starring four child stars of the time, and featuring nearly wall-to-wall use of lovely, vintage pop music, including Ben E. King’s title song.

But underneath all of that, Stand By Me is dark, dark, dark. It’s about the search for a child’s dead body, and also features a dead older brother, lots of abusive and terrible (if mostly unseen) parents, bullies who are appallingly sadistic even by the standards of ‘80s movies, and 12-year-old boys smoking cigarettes.

Oh, and those leeches.

Adapted from Stephen King’s 1982 novella The Body, Stand by Me was released on August 22, 1986, 40 years ago next week. Rob Reiner directed it as his third feature film, and it was part of his generational run in the ‘80s and ‘90s, following Stand by Me with The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and A Few Good Men, all in a row. After Reiner’s death last December, Stand by Me was among the best-remembered of his many films.

Stand by Me is one of a bunch of ensemble movies from that time period (like The Goonies, The Outsiders and The Lost Boys) that featured large casts of young actors, most of whom went on to prominent careers as adults.

Those four kids are Gordie (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Vern (Jerry O’Connell). They’re all about 12, all have terrible home lives, and have all been through some pretty terrible stuff by that point.

Gordie’s beloved older brother (John Cusack) is dead, and his dad pretty much invents the “the wrong kid died” trope from Walk Hard. Teddy’s dad is in a mental institution, Chris is “from a bad family,” and Vern is bullied for his weight. A gang of evil bullies, led by Kiefer Sutherland, torments them all.

The boys live in the Oregon town of Castle Rock, relocated from the Maine of most of King’s stories, and while King is vocal about disapproving of a lot of the adaptations of his work, he’s always praised Stand By Me. Not every director can crack Stephen King’s work, but Reiner certainly could, and he would name his production company Castle Rock Entertainment.

The entire movie is set on the last weekend of summer, after the boys learn the body of a missing kid from the next town over, Roy Brower, is in the woods somewhere, and most of the film is spent searching for it.