Oct 18, 2011

Stand By Me

Movie Poster.
Today I'll write about one of my favorite movies of all times, though it is not an exploitation movie, it is a timeless piece that has aged like the finest Chilean wine. This movie is made for those who share & had a strong friendship with a few of the good old fellows from your home town. It has the spirit of every friend you had. The tough, the fat, the brave and the shy guy, they're all in here. They just don't even make friendship the way it used to be, where a mere fieldtrip could be a fantastic adventure looking for hidden treasures, sharing stories and mostly being ourselves despite the consume campaign media is forcing us to fit into.

Our friends, everyone's friends.
Stand By Me, a master piece on all its angles its brilliantly directed by Rob Reiner, and based on Stephen King's short novel "The Body". Oh yeah! let's not forget the four main characters played amazingly by Will Weathon, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman & Jerry O'Connell, and I mean these were kids acting, and they blew many old farts asses just in the opening sequences of the movie.

If nostalgia is your thing, this is your movie. No iPhones, no laptops, no internet, no expensive toys, no nothing at all, just four friends looking for the time of their lives. God, I still remember the thousands of adventures I had in my dad's Lot, the many other adventures we had in the park near our house, and boy I don't wanna get personal but this film is just made to define everlasting friendship.

We're on our way.

So, rumour has it, that a dead body is somewhere near the little town of our four pals, so as soon as they hear about it, they set their minds to finding the dead body at any cost. They tell white lies to their parents and hit the road by walking through the railroad to finally find the body near a lake or river ( I don't exactly remember it)  but, the walk will not come easy, in fact they will have to face each other's inner fears & demons to accomplish their mission. 

I gotta be honest, these are some of the best characters I have ever seen on film, we start with Gordy. Gordy is an intelligent writer who lost his big brother, his idol, in a car crash recently and can't get any love or respect from his father and it's obvious that he gets it from his friends. That's what keeps him going. Chris is the leader of the gang and Gordy's best friend, he comes from a very bad family and is dubbed the bad seed everywhere, he's the kid who you knew in school and just knew he'd turn out bad, but there's a deeper side to him. The speech that River Phoenix turned out for Chris was so beautifully dilvered as a child who's been disappointed so many times by an adult.

We're the misfits.
Teddy is another bad kid sort of speak, he has a bad home life where his father is crazy and nearly killed him a few times. He has a quick temper, but you can tell that his friends keep him down to Earth and help him through the worst times. Then there's Vern, the funny fat kid who is pretty much scarred of everything, and in some ways is the 4th wheel. Still, Vern you can tell is a great friend and the other's appreciate him despite how he can hold them back.

They carry good toys.
The problem is that there are four scumbags also looking for the dead body, and yeah these scumbags are bad tempered. Led by Ace Merrill (played by Kiefer Sutherland) so, eventually at one point in the film the scumbags will meet our pals, and the outcome is a lesson about how  friendship, and I mean true friendship can prevail over anything.

Scumbags are brave when in packs only.
Fuck you fucking fuck, the body is ours.
Overall, a movie I recommend to everyone around the globe, you see we all were kids, and we all had the greatest friends. Now, being an adult I sorely miss those days, don't you?

Here's the movie trailer:

1 comment:

Flashback-man said...

Esta película también es una de mis favoritas. como curiosidad casi ninguna película que se a adaptado de los libros de Stephen King's son fieles a la novela y de gusto del escritor. Esta tiene la salvedad, que la historia fue inspirada en el propio King's, que tubo un viaje con algunos amigos por la linea del tren.

También se puede ver las perdidas que deja la violencia, según el autor toda perdida es violenta, según con el cristal con que se mire, se refleja en la muerte del hermano del protagonista y el final también ejemplifica eso.