Stand By Me Review

Stand by Me was released in 1986. It was directed by Rob Reiner. The film stars Will Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell and in an early role for him, a very young Kiefer Sutherland.

Here is what I thought was good about the film.

The story – an author writes about a childhood experience he had when he was twelve years old. That experience being that he and his group of friends went in search of a dead body that one of them found out about.

Acting - Most of the characters in this movie are definitely portrayed by people who are trying to give their performances the best they can. But I will say this, you most likely will end up liking other actors in this movie better than others. Two actors that definitely stand out are Will Wheaton and River Phoenix. I believe the reason   they work so well is that they are supposed to be best friends. And it is shown several times throughout the film that the friendship between the two characters is certainly undeniable. And they both act as if they have been best friends for a long time very well. They are definitely one of the most enjoyable things about the film.

Screenplay - now I was perfectly happy with most of the screenplay.   There is a surprisingly good scene between Kiefer Sutherland and Jerry O'Connell that reminded me of a character Kiefer Sutherland would portray years later. The screenplay was written by Bruce A Evans and Raynold Gideon. I would have to rate the screenplay average. I'm not saying it was bad but there were occasionally funny moments from some of the characters.

Cinematography - the cinematography for the film is by Thomas Del Ruth. What I liked about the cinematography were the shots done for the scenes that take place in the daytime. Even though most of the cinematography is clear to see, what you will notice about the daytime scenes is that it is quite bright since the film takes place during summer. I believe the reason it is bright during daytime is to show the viewer that the characters are living in a very warm place. If that is what was trying to be achieved, then I think the cinematographers got what they wanted. The cinematographers in my opinion could not possibly have picked a better time to do their cinematography.

Music – the music for the film was composed by Jack Nitzsche but in the way of original music for the film there is not much. Most of the film's music is made up of songs that were around during the setting of the film. The only thing that helps this music of the film is the title song Stand By Me that is probably in my opinion the soundtrack’s only thing that helps it to stand out. All the other songs in it – or similar - you would find in other films that take place in the 1950s.

Here is what I thought was not that good about the film.

How long it took for Kiefer Sutherland to make his appearance - I enjoyed Kiefer Sutherland's performance in this film. But I do feel he was slightly underused. What I'm trying to say is that he has very good acting skills and potential, but this was early in his career for him. I just didn't think his potential was used to the fullest and best of his abilities, that is all on that matter.

Flashback sequences - the film contains a few flashback sequences which at first I was fine with but eventually the flashback sequences just felt annoying to me because they were holding up the main story. But they were essential to the film because they were showing what life was like for a character before he and his family suffered a rather unfortunate tragedy. The bad thing about all the sequences are that as they happen, the longer I knew I would have to wait before seeing the end of a story I was finding very interesting and engaging.

Lack of character development - very few characters in the film get their fair share of development. At least with the characters played by Wheaton and Phoenix you get from both of them a fair amount of development. Everyone else in the movie does not get half as much development. Very early in the film you get a quick summation of the four main leads, two of whom are very well developed later. For the other two leads, apart from the quick summation all you get about Feldman's character is what can only be described as a very small amount of development. And as for O'Connell we really only hear about some other things he likes to do in his personal time when not with his group of friends.

Storytelling sequence - there is a scene where Will Wheaton's character (who wants to be a writer when he grows up) tells an idea for a story he has to his group of friends.  Now as I said, I felt fine with them at first, but they eventually become annoying because I felt they were delaying the film's very interesting main story. The storytelling sequence starts with Wheaton explaining his idea to his friends. What I did not like was that the idea had to be told through an entire sequence rather than just sticking to Wheaton and his friends around a campfire telling his friends his idea as he was in the beginning. And to me the whole idea of turning Wheaton's story into an actual scene felt completely pointless. It had absolutely nothing to do with the main story and worst of all it is the longest non-story-related sequence in the film which makes it in my opinion the worst scene is the entire movie.

Train tracks scene - there is a scene where Feldman jumps on to the train tracks and he sees a train coming. He is hoping to be able to dodge before it has the chance to hit him. What I find wrong about all this is we are not given an actual reason or motive why he wants to do something like this. He just randomly decides he will jump on the tracks to see if he can dodge the train or not. But even I knew that only one of two things could possibly happen to him, and in the end one of those is what eventually happens to him at the train tracks.

In conclusion, Stand By Me is a very enjoyable film. Good plot, good acting, good cinematography. If Rob Reiner was trying to make a coming of age film that could easily be enjoyed years later he did it and he did a fantastic job. Also, if the film is supposed to have some kind of message I think it has two. One being something Corey Feldman's character says halfway through the movie. What he says is "you’re only young once". The second message I think the film is supposed to have is showing anyone who watches the film what a great time in life childhood was for them.  

Thank you for reading.