Plot: What’s it about?
Back in 1986, when the world was still reeling from “Top Gun”, a little movie about four teenage boys came out. Based on a novella by the one and only Stephen King, who was known mainly for his horror novels, Stand By Me became an instant hit/classic. Directed by the one and only Rob Reiner, who has quite an impressive resume himself (This is Spinal Tap, The Princess Bride and A Few Good Men to name a few), the story was not at all like any of King’s other works. Stand By Me featured four generally unknown actors in Wil Wheaton, who went onto star in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Corey Feldman, one of the infamous “Corey’s” who has been in and out of trouble with the law, but at this time was just beginning to come into his own. Jerry O’Connell, who has just recently hit it big with his part in “Scream 2” and the slepper hit TV show, “Sliders” and…River Phoenix. Phoenix was probably the most ironic part of Stand By Me, even now moreso than then. It was Phoenix’s tragic death on Halloween in 1993 that he overdosed on drugs, and the character he played echoed what his real life was like.
The story was based on the memory of Gordie (Wil Wheaton and Richard Dreyfuss as an adult), who is thinking back to his favorite Summer. A Summer when his friends were still friends, a Summer when his brother had died and a Summer that was the last real time he had with his friends. Reading in the paper that his friend, Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) had just been killed, he thinks back to a time in his life that was special. Chris had come from a rough family, and was never really given a break. He had to work twice as hard to earn the same amount of respect that everyone else did, and that made him a better person. Word from Vern (Jerry O’Connell) is that a boy who has been missing for three days, has been killed and that his body is off the train tracks about 20 miles outside of town. Never having seen a dead body, the four boys head off on foot to see it first hand. Of course, no one knows that they’re going, as the information has been overheard by Vern and the local gang of thugs is off to see the same thing…and of course take credit for finding the body. As their journey progresses, the four seem to bond in a way that they had not before. Gordie, the most creative of the group is a writer and is used as a source for entertainment, though his homelife is not the same since his brother has died. Teddy (Corey Feldman) has dreams of going into the Army, but is forced to deal with the fact that he will probably never get that chance. He is also saddled with the fact that the person he admires most, his father, is abusive and not all there mentally.
It’s at this time that we see that the boys won’t ever be the same after their trip. It’s not the fact that seeing a dead body changes them for life, but the story is told in a first person retrospective; and we are told that this time was the best of his life. While minor squabbles and breakdowns by most of the major characters come out, Stand By Me is mostly something almost anyone can relate to. Rob Reiner’s direction is superb and the performances by the actors, as young as they are, are very good. As mentioned before, the most ironic thing about the entire movie (and this is echoed in the commentary) is the fact that River Phoenix’s character dies in the end (I’m not giving anything away, the movie starts with a front page headline about it). Though a short movie, Stand By Me will undoubtely withstand the test of time, as most movies of this calibur do. A new Special Edition does this movie right.
Video: How does it look?
Stand By Me is presented in it’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. This being a Columbia/Tristar title, it’s anamorphically enhanced and the picture looks great. While almost 15 years old now, the picture looks as if it was filmed last week. The image is free of any distractig elements like artifacting or shimmering. A majority of this movie takes place outside and during the day, therfore the image has a lot of natural-looking fleshtones and scenery. Speaking of scenery, the beautiful Castle Rock countryside looks great, but a few of my thoughts were dashed when it was revealed in the commentary that a lot of the scenes were done with matte paintings. Still, Stand By Me has never looked better.
Audio: How does it sound?
To my suprise, Stand By Me was presented in a mono soundtrack. I never had a chance to look at the previous DVD of this, but I was almost certain it was a Dolby Surround mix. Still, the soundtrack sounds very good and emits a LOT of sound for only being a Dolby 2.0 channel mix. The movie’s title song “Stand By Me” which has a video included is played and sounds good, as does the dialogue which is clean and undistorted. Also included is an isolated score of the music for the movie. I was a bit suprised that a mono soundtrack would have an isolated soundtrack, but it does…and it’s not a bad touch. On the whole, the audio is as good as it can be, though with all of our technology, I would tend to think that a decent-sounding 5.1 mix could have been made.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Labeled as a Special Edition, Stand By Me doesn’t contain a lot of extras. Now the extras that are included are nice, most noteably the feature-length commentary by Rob Reiner. While gaps in the commentary track tend to be a bit annoying, I guess I would find it hard to talk for 90 minutes straight. He recalls some of his favorite scenes and how he taught the kids “theater games” to get them to act, and lets us in on some secrets of the movie as well (look real close at those trees when the “body” confrontation is going on). Also included is an isolated score of the film, which is nice, though it’s in mono sound. Ben E. King’s video “Stand By Me” is also included, and as Reiner describes in the commentary, it’s the only song to be No. 1 and then be re-released in it’s original recording and be No. 1 again 25 years later…pretty impressive, and it says a lot about the movie. Some interviews of Stand By Me feature the director and the actors (now) as they look back upon their whole experience. It’s amusing to me to see Corey Feldman saying “Oh yeah…I loved making this movie…” something about it just makes me laugh. Overall, Stand By Me is a great movie, and with the supplements it’s a natural choice to buy this version over the existing version.
