Stand By Me (1986)

Never cut it for me.

A classic. Can't think of a better one.

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

River Phoenix's best performance. The film is great because it's unsentimental, which is the complete opposite to the vast majority of films about childhood, particularly ones made today.

I always choke up at River's last scene. He's walking away as a voice over tells how his character died. Then he's just gone.

I never understood the hype of "Stand By Me". It's perfectly competent, but it's utterly average and sort of maudlin, even banal. Eh, to each his own.

A Christmas Story is much better at portraying childhood.

How many times did your mother say, "No, because...."?

How many times did your stupid friends dare you to do something like lick a cold pole?

How many times did you go to the bathroom for some privacy only to have someone banging on the door saying, "I gotta get in"?

How many times did some relative give you crap for Christmas?

How many times did Lil Orphan Annie fake you out?

So many more truths can be mined from A Christmas Story. It's like a Shakespeare play.

I agree OP. It's a classic.

One of the few films that made me cry, even before River Phoenix died.

I love the way the story is set in the summer of 1959, so you get this bridge between the 1950s and 1960s which kind of mirrors the loss of innocence of the kids and their transition to adulthood. It gives the film this deep melancholy, which is what makes it so moving, I think.

OP, it's the best boy childhood film. I do love the film but it's really a boy movie. Are there even any women in the film beyond those fat ones who puked on the Order of Antelope dudes? There aren't a whole lot of girl childhood films and our experiences, especially historically, are very, very different. (Cue SJW trans avengers attack!)

As for it not being sentimental, R4, I think R3's quote disproves that. (I hate that quote in the film.) I think the whole sentimental ending, part of which is described in R5, almost ruined the film. They should have just walked home at the end sans voiceover and left Dreyfus and his whiny children out of it.

r11 I disagree that it's sentimental. There's a difference between genuine sentiment and sentimentality. STAND BY ME really earns the sentiment it displays because it shows the whole gamut of emotions of childhood. These aren't idealized, phony characters, they're human beings and they're brilliantly written and portrayed in the film. There's a solid truth to that sentiment in the end.

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no one else liked the film?

[Quote] There aren't a whole lot of girl childhood films and our experiences, especially historically, are very, very different

Lmao

There's nothing funny about that, R15. It happens to be true.

"Radio Days" is better.

Crooklyn is fantastic, but since it's a black girl some people probably can't step outside of themselves.

Wasn't Now and Then (1996) supposed to be the girl version?

Basically R19.

How many gays have watched Now and Then for Devon Sawa's nude scene?

How old was Devon in that scene??

I've never heard of Now and Then. Christmas Story is good comedy. However, in my opinion, Stand By Me is the best coming-of-age film about boyhood.

R22, a teenager, like I was when I watched it.

A Christmas Story wears thin after repeated viewings. Stand By Me doesn't..

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Anyone have any idea what R15 is laughing about?

R15 was probably laughing at R11's assertion that "there aren't a whole lot of girl childhood films" because it's bullshit.

Go ahead and name good films about girlhood.

I love Stand By Me but my favourite film that depicts childhood is Tree of Life. I understand and appreciate that many people hated the film, but for me it perfectly captured childhood, those moments between siblings and how our parents unintentionally hurt and shape us.

The problem with Tree of Life, R30, is that this truly beautiful, sensitive film about childhood is berried under this pompous existential Mammoth. What a pity.

Correct R28.

[quote]Go ahead and name good films about girlhood.

Little House on the Prairie

Anne of Green Gables

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Miracle Worker

The Parent Trap

The Secret Garden

R29, Bridge to Terabithia. Though it centers on a boy, a girl is the true star. The film honored the book and the girl character.

Don't forget Little Women, R33,!

Getting back to Stand by Me, I loved the relationship between Wil Wheaton's and River Phoenix's characters.

Stand by Me was an awesome movie. It almost didn't get filmed. In the end, Norman Leer stepped in and funded the production by writing a 10 million check. He believed in Rob Reiner and funded the movie without a distributor.

Little House on the Prairie

Anne of Green Gables

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Miracle Worker

The Parent Trap

The Secret Garden

Hate to break this to you guys but none of these speaks to girls' real childhoods the way Stand By Me speaks about boys' real childhood experiences. Stand By Me, as the title alone suggests, is about boys and their relationships with each other and how that shapes their childhoods and lives from that point forward. Do any of these films you've listed for girls seem like real girls normal, everyday experiences to you? Do any of them even include friends who are other girls as part of the main story? Maybe Anne of Green Gables but even that was ultimately a romance. And, come on...the Miracle Worker? Diary of Anne Frank? Do you think these are relatable for girls or reflect the average girl's real life experiences?

Boy buddy movies are a dime a dozen. Girls get shit. That might be starting to change but stop pretending boys are the poor, ignored masses in the film world.

I think Return To Oz is a fairly accurate, if metaphoric, exploration of girlhood.

[Quote] Boy buddy movies are a dime a dozen. Girls get shit. That might be starting to change but stop pretending boys are the poor, ignored masses in the film world.

The fuck are you on about??

[quote]Hate to break this to you guys but none of these speaks to girls' real childhoods the way Stand By Me speaks about boys' real childhood experiences.

Hate to break this to YOU, but I saw Stand By Me when I was 19. While I thought it was a good movie, it didn't seem to me that it spoke about anyone's childhood that I knew. It was more a romanticized viewpoint of what boys childhood may be like. It was like the tv series "Wonder Years." It paints a romanticized viewpoint of childhood but isn't close to reality.

Who wants to see "reality" in movies, though? You get that for free 24/7. STAND BY ME may not depict most boys' childhoods in reality, but its continued success proves that it speaks to many about deeper truths. Come on, it's a great film.

Um what movie really does speak to a boy or girls childhood experience? Did any of you look for a dead teenager in 1959?

Harriet the Spy.

Lolita?

I was a few years younger than the boys in the film in 1959 (yeah, I am old) but grew up in that era. The film really reminded me of experiences I had in my boyhood and the boys I hung out with and how we drifted apart during Jr. High. I do not see the film as sentimental at all. There were elements/details that just brought it all back.

For girls, the Cher movie Mermaids.

r47, yeah, but that’s more teenagers. The Ricci role isn’t the focus. There are other films that do a decent job of showing what it’s like being a teenage girl. But I am having a hard time coming up with good depictions of realistic girlhood.

OK, I thought of one: The Spirit of The Beehive

Agreed. Very moving.

Love this film saw it today. The ending where River Phoenix disappears from the screen is extra moving because of what happened to him in real life. The hairs on my neck stood up. The whole movie has this sense of fate and melancholy to it.

"The Bad Seed" is more accurate.

Are the two lead boys in SBM meant to be in love? It was such an affectionate and tender friendship that their looks to eachother were almost romantic.

There's a few depressing things attached to this movie now in hindsight. River Phoenix only had 7 years left to live, and also Corey Feldman was probably being abused by Hollywood big wigs at that time too. It lends the film a darker layer when you consider this. Especially since Feldmans character is a bit crazy in the film.

R54 Rob Reiner said he cast Corey because he was so angry and that fit the character.

I am the same age as River and saw it 3 times in the theatre. I agree the film is deeply melancholy, especially the part about them drifting apart - after all they had been through, I couldn’t understand it. Still don’t.

R55 But that's what makes it so relatable. Friends in your life do come and go, people drift in and out of your life constantly. It's very strange. Stephen King is so great at tapping into that period if life. The ages of 11, 12 or 13. He obviously sees it as a defining time in his own life. It's all through his writing.

Best film about childhood?

Angela's Ashes

Whats everyones favourite moment in the film? For me its the leeches. Yuk

I think the two main boys were in love for sure. It's painful seeing how they can't truly tell eachother.

Times Square

It's a wonderful movie and holds up. Even Corey Feldman's presence can't ruin it.

There is a Reese Witherspoon that was good - Man In The Moon I think?

R61 I actually think Corey was perfect for that role.

As crazy as Corey is, he was in quite a few movies I really enjoyed watching when I was a kid (including this one of course). Heck, I still watch them as an adult.

R64 nothing wrong with that. I love The Goonies still. "Good enough for you, it's good enough for me....."

R65, exactly : )

I read online that The Goonies is considered racist nowadays because of the depiction of the Chinese kid.

“Do you think that the Trump presidency is scarier than a Stephen King novel?” the interviewer asked. “The short answer to that is yes,” replied King. “Yes, I do.”

Now to read the Dead Zone

I loved “Stand By Me” , “The Outsiders” and “Breaking Away” as coming of age stories even though I saw them as a girl and they are all about boys. I can find myself in another’s experience without it being explicit. I also enjoyed “Freaky Friday” and “Bridge to Terabethia” which have girls as the focus. Oh, and Nancy Drew was probably my biggest idol with her sports-car and her lesbian friends Nan and Bess.