39 Years Ago, Rob Reiner Made A Stephen King Masterpiece That Defined An Era
How Stand by Me changed everything.
Where would we be without Stand by Me? As the world reels from the shocking murder of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer, it’s natural that some fans will turn to Reiner’s greatest films for comfort. And, one of those films is the 1986 classic Stand by Me, a film that created the modern pop culture world in more ways than one.
To this day, even as we’re constantly inundated with new Stephen King adaptations, Stand by Me remains a perfect King film, and in retrospect serves as a flashpoint of the modern era.
Mild spoilers ahead.
Set in 1959, but with a present-day framing in 1989, Stand by Me tells the haunting, tender tale of four young friends who have a grisly adventure involving the body of a deceased boy. If the trope of kids-find-creepy-things-in-a-field reminds you a bit of Stranger Things, it should. Hell, even last year’s Star Wars show, Skeleton Crew, started with a bit of a Stand by Me vibe. Riener’s direction captures the duality of King’s original novella, The Body, perfectly: This is both a nostalgic piece, a kind of suburban horror take on the time period of American Graffiti, and also a film that captures one of King’s favorite themes: Kids are weird as hell.
Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell as the core four boys, Stand by Me is like the moment, retroactively, that the 1990s were invented. Obviously, we tragically lost Phoenix in 1993, but his work before that point was incredible. Meanwhile, Wheaton and O’Connell went on to define a certain kind of nerdy 1990s vibe thanks to their massive roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and My Secret Identity, respectively.
But again, it’s hard to imagine Stranger Things ever getting made in 2016 without Stand by Me existing. Obviously, Stranger Things has evolved into a more complex and epic show, full of sci-fi world-building and various twists and turns. But the core tone of the series started as a kind of Stand by Me for the 21st century; instead of looking back on the 1950s, Stranger Things looks back on the 1980s. And, like Stand by Me, it was jump-started by kids trying to find another missing kid, presumed deceased.
Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Jerry O'Connell, Corey Feldman in Stand by Me.
Creepy suburban latchkey kids walking around on their own, encountering scary stuff, and confronting their own foibles is somewhat classic. But Stand by Me did all of that better than most, and in terms of contemporary pop culture, Reiner’s film delivered this kind of thing first.
It’s debatable that Stand by Me is the best Stephen King movie of all time, and equally debatable that it’s one of Rob Reiner’s best movies. But, if for some reason, you’ve never seen this dark, brilliant film, there’s no time like right now. The present will seem much clearer after you watch Stand by Me; and the past, a little stranger.
