Stand By Me at 40: Rob Reiner’s seminal coming-of-age saga remains a bittersweet triumph

The late director’s sensitive and detailed adaptation of Stephen King’s novella has an authenticity that so many imitators could never replicate Coming-of-age metaphors don’t get any blunter than a group of preteen boys following a set of railroad tracks to a classmate’s dead body, a sobering testament to the fragility of life and a sign that their own futures are not guaranteed. The Stephen King…