Stand by Me - Stephen King's Best Movie

                                                  

Written by: Stephen King, Raynold Gideon, Bruce A. Evans
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Starring: River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, John Cusack, Richard Dreyfuss

"It was on the tip of my tongue to tell them about the deer. But I didn't. That was the one thing I kept to myself. I've never spoken or written about it until just now."

To call Stand by Me the best Stephen King movie might not seem like much to a surface-level fan of cinema. Obviously movies like Carrie, The Shawshank Redemption, and especially The Shining are well-known favorites, but he's also had plenty of clunkers like Dreamcatcher, Maximum Overdrive, and The Shining (1997). In truth, though, if you look through all his movies you'll find he's had a lot of films that are worth everyone's time. When I say Stand by Me is the best, I mean that statement has some weight to it.

My brother was always short growing up. When he and I played youth football he was the smallest kid on his team. The second shortest kid on the team was a guy named Dale Carnahan. They didn't have much in common besides football; Dale was like a yappy little chihuahua, while my brother was a bit more reticent. Neither my brother nor Dale were the strongest, fastest, or smartest, but they always put their full effort into every play when they put the pads on.

Stephen King did (and does) a lot of things I don't like very much, such as constantly repeating tropes and not knowing how to end a story, but one thing he does spectacularly is write children. No one writes children better than King. Even in a movie that takes place in 1959 with antiquated dialogue, it still feels fresh and real. Stand by Me may take place in the 50s, but it sure feels timeless. The only thing that's visibly out of place is the way the boys tuck in their shirts.

One game—I think it was against Walkersville—my brother was in at middle linebacker and was having a pretty miserable game. He didn't make a single tackle in the first half. My dad asked him why he couldn't tackle their runningback; he was getting the ball every play. It's the middle linebacker's job to make that tackle. Henry complained "I'm getting tackled on every play!" Nonsense, according to my dad: the offense isn't allowed to tackle, you know that. Dale listened to him, though.

Part of the reason Stand by Me works is the exceptional acting. This is a star-studded cast and everyone's giving it their all. John Cusack's in the movie for maybe two minutes and it's probably the best role of his life. Corey Feldman always gave memorable performances, but this is the one that'll stick in your memories forever. The raw emotion conveyed by River Phoenix and Wil Wheaton is immensely powerful, something any boy can connect with.

The second half began and my dad kept an eye on Henry. Sure enough, one of the opposing team's guards came up and just tackled my brother, a clear holding penalty. Before my dad could holler at the referee, POW! Dale came in like a bat outta Hell and absolutely leveled that kid. This was the kinda hit where you felt the earth give way for a second. That kid was drooling out his earhole when he finally came to. Henry never got held for the rest of the game. My family never forgot that.

It's not just Stephen King's best movie—it's Rob Reiner's best as well. Now that is a controversial statement: the man made nothing but sensational movies (until North) and while Stand by Me was certainly one of his best, they were all good (again, until North). There's something about this movie where's he's just a little bit better than on his other ones. Maybe it's the source material, but I think it's how he reacts to and interprets that source material. Reiner quickly clocks what King was trying to get across in "The Body" and actually improves it a bit in the cinematic adaptation. The song choices are perfect, the limited special effects are great, and there's this sense that every guy in the theater is deadly quiet because the movie feels like a window in their memories. 

About six or seven years later I was driving down route 28 to college for one of those dreadful early morning weekend classes. I was almost late, too; just past the bridge over Seneca Creek the traffic came to a halt. There were a couple police cars out there and maybe a fire truck; I wasn't sure what was going on. On my way back I saw two girls walking from the nearby grocery store with flowers in their hands. That's how I found out what had happened: late at night Dale went out drinking and got a ride back from a friend. The friend (whose name I will withhold) fell asleep at the wheel and smashed into a tree. Dale was killed instantly. He had just graduated high school the year before.

What makes Stand by Me so good—better than every other Stephen King movie ever made—is its universal resonance. Every man who was ever a boy knows the emotions this movie emits. There’s a certain camaraderie that boys seem to understand better than men. That’s what makes this easily King’s best ending. It’s an ending that stuns you for minutes, staring into the distance, thinking about what used to be and whether that feeling can ever be regained. From a guy who's not very good at writing endings, it features my favorite ending line in movie history:

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"