Stand By Me (original 1986; edição 2006)

Stand By Me (1986)

Wil Wheaton – Gordie Lachance
River Phoenix – Chris Chambers
Corey Feldman – Teddy Duchamp
Jerry O’Connell – Vern Tessio
Kiefer Sutherland – Ace Merrill
Casey Siemaszko – Billy Tessio
Gary Riley – Charlie Hogan
Bradley Gregg – Eyeball Chambers

Screenplay by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, based on the novella “The Body” from Different Seasons (1982) by Stephen King
Directed by Rob Reiner

Colour. 89 min.

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Well, it’s better than Apt Pupil (1998). That’s the best I can say about it. The most notable thing about it is that it started the King Curse on the screen. Here we have River Phoenix three years before he became world famous as the young Indy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and seven years before his death at the age of 23. Twelve years later, Brad Renfro was an “apt pupil”; ten years later still, he was dead at the age of 25. Anyway, Stand By Me is a fine movie on the whole, stylishly produced and well directed, with strong performances by Phoenix and Wheaton in the leads, and with Kiefer Sutherland (then 20) in his career-defining role of a tough and dumb guy. All the same, to me it feels like another pale shadow. Perhaps that’s inevitable considering the great deal of cutting that must be done to turn even a longish short story into a screenplay. Besides, the King original is above all a character study. That’s a hard thing to bring off convincingly on the screen. There is one relatively significant change in the scene around “The Body”. Though I won’t spoil it for you, I must say it is effective rather than apposite. It is quite out of character. Otherwise the script follows the novella very closely indeed, but the movie captures very little of its charm, depth and poignancy. I haven’t read the tons of glowing reviews it has received, but I suppose they were written by people who saw the movie as kids when it was first released, have never read Stephen King’s “The Body”, or have simply opted for the safer, blander and much more superficial treatment on the screen. ( )

Stand by me - Ricordo di un'estate.
Regia di Rob Reiner. Con Corey Feldman, River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton.
* Un semplice ma ricco film tratto da un romanzo di Stephen King. Quattro ragazzi, il tenero Gordie Lachance, il saggio Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp occhialuto estroverso e Vern Tessio, il ciccione pauroso (tutti con problemi con il padre) decidono un giorno di partire da Castle Rock, nell'Oregon dove abitano, per una escursione verso il bosco, incamminandosi lungo i binari della ferrovia. L'occasione è anche eccitante, Vern ha sentito il fratello parlare con un amico del ritrovamento del corpo di un ragazzo. Battendo sul tempo una banda di ragazzi, i giovani esploratori incappano nel cadavere.
Avventura; col; 96; USA 1986
Golden Globes 2 nom; Oscar 1 nom.

Fonte: Il Farinotti ( )

Four friends hike for a day to find a dead body.

It's weird that this movie is as good as it is. Its components are things I don't usually like in movies, but in this case they all come together to make something quietly poignant.

Concept: D
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.0/4 ( )

Based on Stephen King short Story- The Body - 89 minutes