Stand by Me (film)
Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Rob Reiner. Based on Stephen King's 1982 novella The Body, the film is set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, in 1959. Stand by Me stars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell as four boys who set out on a journey to find the dead body of a missing boy. The film's title is derived from the 1961 song of the same name by Ben E. King, which plays during the film's closing credits.
Released in the United States on August 22, 1986 by Columbia Pictures, Stand by Me received positive reviews and was a commercial success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and for two Golden Globe Awards. Rolling Stone has called Stand by Me "a staple of youthful nostalgia" and "the rare movie that necessarily gets better with time".
Plot
In 1985, writer Gordon "Gordie" Lachance reads a newspaper article about the death of his childhood best friend, Chris Chambers. In an extended flashback, Gordie tells about his experiences on Labor Day weekend in 1959, when he was 12 years old.On that weekend, Gordie is with Chris and their two other friends, Teddy Duchamp and Vern Tessio, in a treehouse in their hometown of Castle Rock, Oregon. Vern tells the other boys that he overheard his older brother, Billy, talking with his friend Charlie about finding the dead body of a missing boy named Ray Brower outside of town. Billy did not tell the police of his discovery because doing so would likely have led the police to discover a car theft he and Charlie committed. Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern decide to look for the body, believing that the discovery could make them local heroes. After Chris steals his father's Colt M1911A1 pistol, he and Gordie run into town bully John "Ace" Merrill and Chris' older brother, Richard. Ace threatens Chris with a lit cigarette and steals Gordie's Yankees cap; the cap had been a gift from Gordie's older brother, Denny, who had died in a car crash earlier that year.
The boys begin their journey. After stopping at a junkyard for water, they are caught trespassing by owner Milo Pressman and his dog, Chopper. Milo calls Teddy's mentally ill veteran father a "loony", blaming him for Teddy's almost burned-off ear. An enraged Teddy tries to attack Milo, but the other boys restrain him. The four continue their hike, and Chris encourages Gordie to fulfill his potential as a writer, despite his father's disapproval. Later, Gordie and Vern are nearly hit by a passing train while crossing a trestle.
In the evening, Gordie tells a story he created about the fictional character of David "Lard-Ass" Hogan, an obese boy who is constantly bullied. Seeking payback, Lard-Ass drinks a bottle of castor oil and eats a raw egg before entering a pie-eating contest. During the contest, Lard-Ass throws up deliberately, which leads to mass vomiting among the other contestants and the audience. Gordie calls the event a "barf-o-rama".
Later that night, Chris tells Gordie that he hates being associated with his family's poor reputation. He admits to having stolen milk money at school, but says he confessed his theft to a teacher and returned the money. Nevertheless, he was suspended from school, because the teacher kept quiet and pocketed the money. Devastated by the teacher's betrayal, Chris breaks down and cries.
The next day, the boys wade across a swamp, discovering that it is filled with leeches. Gordie faints after removing a leech from his genitals. After Gordie regains consciousness, the boys continue hiking and locate Ray Brower's body. The discovery traumatizes Gordie; after asking Chris why his brother Denny had to die, he cries, stating that his father hates him. Chris comforts Gordie and asserts that his father simply does not know him.
Ace and his gang arrive to claim Ray's body and threaten to hurt the boys if they do not leave. When Chris refuses, Ace draws a switchblade. Gordie uses Mr. Chambers' pistol to fire a warning shot and comes to Chris' defense. Ace demands that Gordie turn over the weapon, but Gordie refuses, calling Ace a "cheap dime store hood". Ace vows revenge and leaves with his gang. Gordie and his friends decide that seeking recognition for finding Ray's body would be wrong; instead, they report it anonymously. They arrive home the next morning and part ways.
Back in 1985, Gordie is finishing a memoir about the events of Labor Day weekend in 1959. He notes that Vern and Teddy drifted apart from him and Chris in junior high. Chris later became a lawyer, and Gordie eventually lost touch with him. Recently, while attempting to break up a fight, Chris was stabbed to death. Gordie writes that despite not having seen Chris in over a decade, he will miss him forever. He ends his narration with the following words: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
Cast
Production
Development
The film was adapted from the Stephen King novella The Body. Bruce A. Evans sent a copy of The Body to Karen Gideon, the wife of his friend and writing partner Raynold Gideon, on August 29, 1983, as a gift for her birthday. Both Gideon and Evans quickly became fans of the novella and shortly thereafter contacted King's agent, Kirby McCauley, seeking to negotiate film rights; McCauley replied that King's terms were $100,000 and 10% of the gross profits. Although the money was not an issue, the share of gross profits was considered excessive, especially considering that no stars could be featured to help sell the movie. In response, Evans and Gideon pursued an established director, Adrian Lyne, to help sell the project.After reading the novella, Lyne teamed up with Evans and Gideon, but all the studios the trio approached turned the project down except for Martin Shafer at Embassy Pictures. Embassy spent four months negotiating the rights with McCauley, settling on $50,000 and a smaller share of the profits, and Evans and Gideon spent eight weeks writing the screenplay. Evans and Gideon asked to also produce the film, but Shafer suggested they team up with Andrew Scheinman, a more experienced producer. Embassy was unwilling to meet Lyne's salary for directing the film until Evans and Gideon agreed to give up half of their share of profits to meet Lyne's asking price.
Lyne was going to direct the film, but would not have been available to start production until the spring of 1986. Reiner, who had just started his directing career, was sent the script by Scheinman; his initial reaction was that the script had promise but "no focus". After Lyne withdrew from the project, Reiner signed on to direct in September 1984.
In a 2011 interview, Reiner discussed his realization that the film should focus on the character of Gordie:
"In the book, it was about four boys, but...once I made Gordie the central focus of the piece then it made sense to me: this movie was all about a kid who didn't feel good about himself and whose father didn't love him. And through the experience of going to find the dead body and his friendship with these boys, he began to feel empowered and went on to become a very successful writer. He basically became Stephen King."
Reiner has said that he identified with Gordie, as he, too, struggled with the shadow of fame cast by his comedian father, Carl Reiner. The writers incorporated Reiner's suggestions, producing a new script by December 1984 for Embassy's review and approval.
Days before the shooting started in the summer of 1985, Embassy was sold to Columbia Pictures, which made plans to cancel the production. Norman Lear, one of the co-owners of Embassy and the developer of All in the Family, gave $7.5 million of his own money to complete the film, citing his faith in Reiner and the script. However, since Embassy also would have distributed the film, once the film was completed it had no distributor. The producers showed a print to Michael Ovitz, head of the powerful Creative Artists Agency, and Ovitz promised to help them find a distributor. Paramount, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros. all passed on the film; Columbia Pictures production head Guy McElwaine screened the film at his house, because he was feeling ill, and the positive reaction of his daughters convinced him to distribute the film.
In March 1986, Columbia Pictures, concerned that the original title, The Body, was misleading, renamed the film Stand by Me. According to screenwriter Raynold Gideon, The Body "sounded like either a sex film, a bodybuilding film, or another Stephen King horror film. Rob came up with Stand by Me, and it ended up being the least unpopular option." The film's name is derived from Ben E. King's 1961 song, "Stand by Me", which plays during the ending credits.
Casting
In a 2011 interview with NPR, Wil Wheaton attributed the film's success to the director's casting choices:Feldman recalled how his home life translated into his onscreen character: " thinking they're going to get hit by their parents because they're not doing well enough in school, which will prevent them from getting a work permit, which will prevent them from being an actor." O'Connell agreed that he was cast based on how his personality fit the role, saying "Rob wanted us to understand our characters. He interviewed our characters. I tried to stay like Vern and say the stupid things Vern would. I think I was Vern that summer." Reiner and the producers interviewed more than 70 boys for the four main roles, out of more than 300 who auditioned; Phoenix originally read for the part of Gordie Lachance. Ethan Hawke auditioned for Chris Chambers.
Before filming began, Reiner put the four main actors together for two weeks to play games from Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theater and build camaraderie. As a result, a friendship developed among the actors. Wheaton would later recall, "When you saw the four of us being comrades, that was real life, not acting."
Before settling on Richard Dreyfuss to portray the adult Gordie, Reiner considered David Dukes, Ted Bessell, and Michael McKean.