By the mid-1980s, Rob Reiner had begun to build a very credible resume as a Hollywood director with the clever mock-rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984) and the underrated teen road romance The Sure Thing (1985). For his next project, he took his inspiration from an atypical novella by contemporary horror maestro Stephen King. The finished work, Stand by Me (1986), is a wistful coming-of-age narrative, a reflection on lost innocence infused with adventure and humor.

Upon learning of the death of a childhood friend, novelist Gordie Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss) drifts back in memory to 1959, and the most eventful summer of a boyhood spent in the tiny community of Castle Rock, Oregon. With high school in the offing, the 12-year-old Gordie (Wil Wheaton) spends his time hanging with three kids destined for vo-tech. The hard-edged Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) is smart beyond his years, and saddled with the low repute of his no-account family. Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman) is a smart-mouthed loose cannon, bearing scars from the abuses of his now-institutionalized father, yet still fiercely proud of the old man's record in WWII. A day's reverie in the tree house is interrupted when the chunky Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), none too swift in any sense of the term, breathlessly shares the biggest secret of his young life.

Vern, as it turns out, was eavesdropping on a frenzied discussion between his badass older brother Billy (Casey Siemaszko) and his cronies. While joyriding in a stolen car, the teens came upon the corpse of a local kid who had recently disappeared. Rather than go to the authorities and be asked questions they can't answer, Billy and his crew decided to keep silent. Realizing that the older kids will keep their distance, the boys concoct a plan to hike the 20 miles to the body's location, and reap the media attention and other perceived benefits from their "accidental" discovery.

Leaving excuses with their families for the requisite two-day absence, the boys set out on a journey marked by camaraderie, conflicts with one another and occasional physical peril. Matters get further complicated when Ace Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland), the bully amongst Billy's gaggle of punks, gets tipped to the secret, and becomes determined to take credit for the body's recovery.

Screenwriters Bruce A. Evans and Ray Gideon did a commendable job of both preserving the letter and capturing the tone of King's semi-autobiographical tale "The Body," originally published within the anthology Different Seasons. They received the film's sole Oscar nomination for their efforts. Between the period detail, a soundtrack laden with catchy pop songs of the era (including Ben E. King's rendition of the title tune), the comfortable pace at which the narrative unfolds, and the four engaging performances from the young actors, Reiner and his collaborators crafted an endearing and resonant effort. "I give a lot of credit for the movie's success to Rob Reiner," Wheaton stated in a 2000 interview. "He had the presence of mind to cast actors who were not too far away from their roles and he had the patience and everything else it takes to work with twelve-year-old boys. He did a great job." Stand by Me particularly helped establish Phoenix as the era's juvenile actor to watch, the first of a string of thoughtful performances that was ended too soon by his death from a drug overdose in 1993.

Sutherland, in one of his first film appearances, made a lasting impression as the callous thug Ace. A lot has been made of the saltiness of the four young heroes' discourse, which was sufficient to garner Stand by Me an "R" rating from the MPAA and to probably forfeit a chunk of its potential theatrical audience. It may not be to all tastes, but on the other hand, it's not a dishonest representation of twelve-year-old boys' capacity for swearing in each other's company. Hollywood has seldom had cause to regret mining King's oeuvre, and two other novellas of Different Seasons would ultimately be filmed as The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Apt Pupil (1998).

Producer: Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon, Andrew Scheinman
Director: Rob Reiner
Screenplay: Stephen King (novella), Raynold Gideon, Bruce A. Evans
Cinematography: Thomas Del Ruth
Film Editing: Robert Leighton
Art Direction: Dennis Washington
Music: The Chordettes, Buddy Holly, Jack Nitzsche
Cast: Wil Wheaton (Gordie Lachance), River Phoenix (Chris Chambers), Corey Feldman (Teddy Duchamp), Jerry O'Connell (Vern Tessio), Kiefer Sutherland (Ace Merrill), Casey Siemaszko (Billy Tessio).
C-89m. Letterboxed.

by Jay S. Steinberg