Stand by Me (film)
Stand by Me is a
1986 film directed by
Rob Reiner; the title comes from a
song with the same title by
Ben E. King (which plays during the closing credits) and is based on the novella
The Body by
Stephen King.
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Wil Wheaton: Gordie Lachance
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River Phoenix: Chris Chambers
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Corey Feldman: Teddy Duchamp
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Jerry O'Connell: Vern Tessio
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Kiefer Sutherland: Ace Merrill
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Richard Dreyfuss: older Gordie Lachance
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John Cusack: Denny Lachance
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Casey Siemaszko: Billy Tessio
Stand by Me is a
coming of age film set in
1959. The four main characters are the narrator
Gordie Lachance and his three friends Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio, all 12-year-old boys. Each is burdened with either a physical or emotional affliction: Chris belongs to a family of criminals and alcoholics and, despite his intelligence, is usually stereotyped accordingly, while Teddy is physically deformed after his mentally unstable father, who he sees as a war hero who "stormed the beach at Normandy" abused him. He must wear a hearing aid and large glasses. Vern is overweight and easily scared, and thus often picked on. Gordie, the most complex of the four main characters, is a quiet, bookish boy with a penchant for telling stories; however he has been rejected by his father after his older brother, Denny, was killed in a road accident.
The four set out to locate the body of Ray Brower, after over-hearing a conversation among older youths. Much of the film is concerned with this journey as they encounter adventures and interact with each other along the way.
* The time setting is moved back a year, from
1960 to
1959.
* Though both stories take place in a town called "
Castle Rock", the original
Stephen King story is set in
Maine, with the film in
Oregon.
* The opening scene, where Gordie recalls his childhood while sitting in his car as an adult, was not in the book.
* There were two additional boys in Gordie's "gang" (John and Marty DeSpain) who were out of town during the story. They are never mentioned in the movie.
* Both of Teddy's ears had been burned in the book, but in the movie only his left one is.
* The boys had no "secret knock" in the book.
* In the book, Vern had been looking for his jar of pennies for four years instead of just nine months.
* Gordie's short story entitled "Stud City" isn't in the movie.
* When Mr. Lachance calls Gordie's friends "a thief and two feebs", in the book it was Vern and not Chris that he defended.
* Gordie was a huge
Red Sox fan in the book, and his admiration for
Ted Williams was noted. This trait is never stated in the movie, and since Gordie is willing to wear a
New York Yankees cap, it makes it highly unlikely.
* Most of the scenes involving the older gang are unique to the movie. This includes the scenes where Ace steals Gordie's cap, when they play "mailbox baseball", and when they have a race together on the highway.
* The "pinky swearing" wasn't in the book
* In the movie the characters often give each other "two for flinching" by softly punching each other. They never do this in the book.
* Vern didn't bring a comb with him in the book.
* The boys never sang the theme song from
Have Gun â€" Will Travel in the book.
* In the book it was Gordie not Chris who wrestled Teddy off the tracks before he could attempt a train dodge.
* The store clerk's character is significantly different. In the movie, he is a kind and sympathetic man who is curious about Gordie's personal life. In the book, he was a grumpy person who tried to cheat Gordie of his money twice and yelled angrily at him as he left the shop.
* Gordie's two
flashbacks- of his brother giving him a lucky cap and of a family dinner- weren't in the book.
* The boys don't threaten to inform the police about Milo trying to sic his dog on Gordie in the movie.
* The line
"…going to see a dead kid, maybe it shouldn't be a party" was actually spoken by Vern in the book, not Gordie.
* Teddy and Vern never discussed who would win in a faceoff between
Mighty Mouse and
Superman in the book.
* In the book, Teddy hung by the wooden planks between the rails to demonstrate what to do if a train came while they were crossing the bridge. He doesn't do this in the movie.
* Vern didn't cross the bridge on all fours in the book.
* Gordie's tells the story of Lardass to his friends during an afternoon break from the walk, not during a nighttime campfire.
* The name of the mayor who serves as the announcer during the pie contest is changed from "Charbonneau" to "Grundy".
* In the book, all Lardass did to prepare himself for the pie contest was drink a bottle of
castor oil ; he didn't swallow a raw egg.
* The "Benevolent Order of Antelopes" weren't in the book.
* The pie contest is never declared a draw in the movie.
* Chris and Gordie's conversation about his writing career and what will be different when they are in
junior high takes place at a different time in the book.
* In the book Chris tells Gordie the truth about the milk money incident while they are walking on the train tracks, not while they are standing guard while the others are sleeping around the fire.
* The boys never talked about what kind of animal
Goofy is.
* The boys never went across a field as a shortcut.
* The boys don't find a
beaver dam at the swamp in the movie.
* The boys never argued whether or not they should go back after the leech attack.
* Minor differences: When the boys find the body, it is not raining, and Ray Brower's face doesn't have any insects crawling across it.
* Gordie didn't break down crying after they found the body in the book.
* The gang member who threatened the boys with a knife in the book was actually Jackie Mudgett, and not Ace.
* In the book it was Chris who pulled out the gun, but Gordie does it in the movie.
* In the book, Teddy argues quite a bit in the attempt to bring the body back with them, wheras in the movie, he quietly agrees to leave it where they found it.
* The book presents more details of the journey's aftermath. It described what happened when the boys came back to their houses, and an incident where Gordie was attacked by Ace but refused to turn him in.
*In the novel, Chris, Vern and Teddy all die. However, in the movie, only Chris dies.
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Kiefer Sutherland and
Corey Feldman both costarred in the
1987 film
The Lost Boys.
The Andy Milonakis Show parodies the movie, in a sketch where Andy says to Ralphie,"There's a dead body down by the train tracks, wanna go see it?" They enter Andy's living room, where Larry is laying on the floor next to a model train layout. Andy pokes him with a stick, causing him to wake up and the two are easily freaked out.
*On
The Simpsons episode
The Blunder Years,
Homer flashes back to his childhood, camping with 3 of his friends, and finding a dead body in the sewer. Also, in another episode when
Nelson comes running to the boys to tell them that the lemon tree has been stolen, he does the same stalling and gasping for breath act as Vern did.
*There is a reference to the film in the
Game Boy games
Pokemon Red and
Pokemon Blue. In the house of the main character of the game, press the A button while facing the TV there. The main character will say to himself: "There are four boys walking on some train tracks, guess I better get going."
*In the series "
Kids in the Hall" the film is parodied when in a scene where a couple come out of a theater and her boyfriend asks her : "wanna see a dead body". This is done numerous times afterwards and after those times it was done, the body strangled the boyfriend. This is a reference to where all the boys die in the book.
*In the films ending credits, at the end, it says "
Castle Rock Entertainment". This is an obvious reference to the name of the town the boys are in at the beginning of the film, and where they are at the end of the film.
*In both films
Boyz in the Hood, and the parody of the same film
Don't be a Menace, make references to 4 boys, and one says, "Ya'll want to see a dead body?"
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Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama*
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay (
Raynold Gideon &
Bruce A. Evans)
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WGA Award for Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Raynold Gideon & Bruce A. Evans)
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Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (
Rob Reiner)
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Golden Globe Award for Best Director (
Rob Reiner)
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1950s Nostalgia Films*
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Filming Location*
Positioning with Davie Hogan (some dialogue analyzed)
