Depending on your perspective, Stay with Me can be seen as a coming-of-age story or a road trip. "Stay With Me" draws grit from a balanced bittersweet account of the good old days, Rob Reiner's intuitive ability to see through a child's eyes and the writer's brutal grasp of what's to come combined results. Rob Reiners' 1986 film Stand By Me marks its 30th anniversary today, and while it made a relatively modest $52.3 million on its original release, it has become a staple of young people's nostalgia for his childhood and adult skills . . Rob Reiners' 1986 film Stand By Me, based on Stephen King's novel The Body, one of the greatest films of all time. [Sources: 0, 4, 5]
Rob Reiners' Stand By Me (1986) was a major turning point, a turning point for both the director and Stephen King's films, which had become a joke at the time. Rob Reiners, on the other hand, is drawn to "The Body," one of four hidden stories in King's massive non-horror collection, Seasons (1982). Rob Reiners reminded me of how much I love Stephen King's non-horror movies (Stand By My Side, The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile are my favorite Stephen King adaptations). These roles are also hugely risky for them, but Rob Reiner sees his actors stay honest and surprisingly sober, save for one scene presented as beautifully, rudely and unfettered as a child's unbridled imagination . [Sources: 2, 6, 7]
It's also very interesting to watch teenagers make a movie that doesn't have a story for kids and actually digs a hell of a lot. His own characters (and, among the older gang's less differentiated roles, Kiefer Sutherland) have the depth and insight that makes each character fly and live for days after Stand By Me. [Sources: 2, 4]
Then, on top of that, there's the fact that the story that takes place here is told in retrospect by the main guy who grew up in what was then today. You'd think a movie about four teenage boys in the 1950s looking for a corpse looking for a corpse might get boring, but there are so many layers to the story that you'll be stuck from start to finish. . . . However, the more subdued narration of four boys embarking on a two-day journey to a dead body is much more comfortable as a cinematic narrative. [Sources: 4, 9]
'Stay With Me' Focuses on the Foursome, Gordy (Wil Wheaton), Chris (River Phoenix), Teddy (Corey Feldman) and Verne (Jerry O'Connell), Gordy (Wil Wheaton) Teddy (Corey Feldman), summer 1959, on a two-day hike to see a corpse deep in the woods. When Verne Tessio tells writer Gordy Lachance, his best friend and what Teddy Duchamp has heard, four boys who hope to become local heroes decide to go find the body. His own hero, determined to be the hero of the city once the body is found, will combine their alibi to meet their first dead. [Sources: 2, 3, 9]
Goonies never say they're dying; Four neighborhood kids are stuck in a maelstrom of abuse and abuse that is usually passed on from parent to child. In the summer of 1959, all of his friends realize - with the unfailing foresight that young people have in films like Stay with Me - marks the end of their intimacy, as they will be torn apart in high school. When old Gordy (Richard Dreyfus) recounts the fate of his three friends at the end of the film, we learn that they have parted ways as a group, while Vern and Teddy have stayed close. [Sources: 1, 5, 10]
One of the most imaginative segments of Stand by Me is a visual re-creation of the story Gordy tells Gordy's friends. Most of the time, though, the saddest character of Stand By Me comes from the four kids who struggle with their own personal issues. The main focus of Stand By Me is the friendship between these guys, and the way it's explored is rich and layered. [Sources: 0, 4, 9]
The script was very well thought out and "Stay with Me" brilliantly portrays the values of friendship and living together. Stand By Me, one of the few King adaptations that can be called a masterpiece, is understandably loved by many. Yesterday I watched Stay with Me for the first time in a year and a half (I'm 17) and I really enjoyed it and it's definitely one of my favorite Stephen King adaptations. [Sources: 8, 10]
Of course, Stand By Me has many remarkable qualities besides being the best adaptation of Stephen King's literature. What "Stay with Me" can do is send readers back to some of the less famous and less bizarre King stories to see if some of the lesser known kings can fit in with a Stephen King novel. The film (and the Stephen King short story it's based on) is set in a time we're all familiar with, as the last days of naivety begin to give way to the horrific truth of the adult world. [Sources: 2, 5, 9]
The title was wisely changed to Stay with Me, and the story itself showed King looking inward, painting a story of deep friendship, childish guilt, death, and precious time lost forever. According to screenwriter Reynold Gideon, Stay with Me sounded like a movie about sex, a movie about bodybuilding, or another Stephen King horror movie. The film's screenplay, based on the Stephen King short story "The Body", was adapted by Reynold Gideon and Bruce Evans. [Sources: 3, 6, 7]
Stand By Me was director Rob Reiners' third film and was unlike any of his previous work, the brilliant mockumentary It's a Spinal Tap and the solid romantic comedy Sure. A year later, Rob Reiners will showcase his passion for oral storytelling in The Princess Bride, but in Stand By Me, the tall tales help add nuance to a particular lifestyle. The body itself becomes the center of this tension between myth and reality; these characters lose the feeling that they will find the remains of a boy and a boy wrapping it around like an adventure. [Sources: 0, 5, 10]
