When it comes to writing these reviews, I often try to connect something I see in the movie to one of my varied life experiences.  In the forty-three plus years that God has blessed me with to this point, I have been further blessed to have seen and done much.  It is only in the last ten to fifteen years that I have been learning to appreciate it all as gifts from God.  This includes the good and the bad.  Since God only wants good for us, it is easier to see His hand in them.  The difficult moments in life are trickier.  I know many Christians who have abandoned their faith because of various struggles, not being able to see the grace at work.  Getting back to how this works when I see a film, these moments come to mind based on something I see, which I then use to entice you to read further.  As we shall see, this is the method used by Gordon “Gordie” Lachance (Richard Dreyfuss), the main character in Stand by Me (1986).

Gordie is sitting in his car in the opening shot of Stand by Me reading a newspaper.  A headline grabs his attention, talking about a fatal stabbing.  It takes him back to when he is twelve-years-old (Wil Wheaton), the rest of the film being narrated by his older version.  He and his three friends, Chris Chambers (River Phoenix), Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman), and Vern Tessio (Jerry O’Connell), have a tree house where they hang out, playing cards and smoking cigarettes.  This is 1959, so I guess this is more socially acceptable.  Vern is the last to arrive on this particular day, and he brings some serious news.  While digging for a can full of pennies he had buried and lost track of, he overhears his older brother Billy Tessio (Casey Siemaszko) tell a friend and fellow gang member, Charlie Hogan (Gary Riley), about a dead kid named Ray Brower.  Though this is never implicitly said, it seems that the gang had a hand in Ray’s death.  Billy and Charlie also talk about the body’s location being a few miles outside of town along the railroad tracks.  After Vern relays this information to the other three, it is decided that the next day they will go to find the corpse.  By doing so, they believe they will be lauded as heroes.  In order to accomplish this, they have to all lie to their parents about what they will be doing for the next couple of days.  For Gordie, this takes on a different meaning.  At home, Mr. (Marshall Bell) and Mrs. Lachance (Francis Lee McCain) are still mourning the loss of Dennis “Denny” Lachance (John Cusack), Gordie’s older brother.  Denny was considered the bright one in the family, likely going on to play football in college.  With him gone, Gordie is being ignored by his mother and his father does not speak to him much more than Mrs. Lachance.  This weighs heavily on Gordie as they begin their trek the next day.  However, they are not the only ones going after Ray Brower’s remains.  The other person keen to find it is John “Ace” Merrill (Kiefer Sutherland).  He is the leader of the gang to which Billy and Charlie belong.  While the others think they should stay as far away from it as possible, Ace wants to get to it first.  Since Gordie and his friends are bullied by Ace and his gang, they want to beat Ace to the body and expose his crime.  It is what keeps them going despite nearly being caught trespassing by the owner of a junkyard, being chased down the railroad tracks by an oncoming train, and getting eaten alive by leaches when they take a shortcut through a swamp.  I am skimming over some details here as the film is mainly a character study, the journey to the body being the backdrop against which they have their developments.  Put differently, it is a coming-of-age story.  This means that there is a lot going on, but it happens mainly through dialog that is tedious to describe.  While each of the four friends have their own little arcs, it is Gordie’s that is focused on the most.  What he is dealing with is Denny’s death and feeling like his parents think Gordie is no good.  As such, he starts saying that it should have been him instead of Denny.  It is his best friend in the group, Charlie, that provides the emotional support he needs to deal with these emotions.  Gordie does the same for Charlie, who has an abusive father and everyone assumes is going to turn out to be a bad guy.  The movies wants you to think this, particularly when he brings a real pistol with then for their journey, claiming it is protection for when they are camping in the woods.  The weapon comes in handy when they finally reach Ray Brower.  As they prepare to build a stretcher to carry Ray’s body back to civilization, Ace and his gang show up.  Charlie refuses to movie aside, telling Ace that he is going to have to kill him with the switch blade Ace has produced.  This is when Gordie pulls out the gun, fires it into the air, and then points it at Ace.  Ace backs down vowing to get revenge.  As for Ray Brower, ultimately the four decide to return home and call in an anonymous tip as to where he can be found.  When they get back to town, voice over Gordie talks about all their fates.  The important one is Charlie, who managed to get into college and become a lawyer.  It is his death that Gordie reads about at the beginning.  Being a writer as an adult, he decided to write the story you have now seen.

Movies like Stand by Me, being character studies, are rich fodder for a Catholic film reviewer.  It deals with some pretty significant issues, not to mention the all-important development of young people.  As a former youth minister, I can speak to the emphasis the Church places on such things.  Still, this is not something I want to get too deep into because it mainly involves me taking aspects of the film that are not intended to relate to Faith, but fitting that proverbial square peg into the round hole.  I do not mind doing this when I have nothing else to work with, but the film did provide me with a specific Catholic reference.  At one point, one of the gang members is complaining about how his girlfriend will not let him go all the way with her.  Ace responds by saying that this is because she is Catholic.  If he wants pre-marital sex, he needs to find a Protestant woman.  These are stereotypes, of course, inaccurate and completely unfair to our Protestant brothers and sisters.  At the same time, in a strange way I felt a little gratified.  Granted, it is set during a different time and place when they did not have the same values as today.  It also should be said that there are plenty of Catholics who commit the sin of pre-marital sex.  What I would love is that this stereotype about Catholic women were more accurate.  It is a cornerstone of our Faith to save sex for marriage, and there are reasons for doing so that I will not enumerate at this time.  Please feel free to do your own research, though.  This exchange with Ace is but a brief moment.  During the rest of the film, everyone, including Gordie and his friends, behave like horny young people.

It might surprise you, dear reader, to know that this was the first time I had seen Stand by Me.  I have viewed most of the classics from the 1980s, and reviewed them, but somehow this one slipped through the cracks.  It happens sometimes.  I am not sure I recommend this one as I would the others, but it does have some interesting moments in it.