Stand by Me ***** (1986, Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland) – Classic Movie Review 396

Rob Reiner’s 1986 American coming-of-age film Stand by Me stars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell as four kids who trek to find the body of a missing boy.

River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell star in the 1986 film Stand by Me as Fifties small-town kids who trek to the Oregon wilds to look for the missing body of a local teenage boy.

Director Rob Reiner’s 1986 version of Stephen King’s rites-of-passage tale, The Body, is a very engaging, warm-hearted, appealing retro-style movie.

River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell star as Fifties small-town kids who trek to the Oregon wilds to look for the missing body of a local teenage boy – found by a gang of older boys. Along the way, rough lad Chris Chambers (Phoenix), sensitive Gordie Lachance (Wheaton), flamboyant Teddy Duchamp (Feldman) and the tubby, easily scared Vern Tessio (O’Connell) smoke, swear and tell tall tales.

Thanks to Reiner’s crafted direction and a well-honed screenplay by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A Evans and the skill and charisma of the young actors, this is a beautifully observed, attractively sentimental and winningly played movie.

If you want to quibble, you could say it is just a slight touch thin and inconsequential, and also slightly marred by many anachronistic four-letter words. But none of that matters. Stand by Me is a lovely film, packed with tasty humour, eerie suspense and sweet nostalgia. It is certainly one that Phoenix will always be remembered for.

Richard Dreyfuss narrates the story as ‘The Writer’, Stephen King’s part-autobiographical character here.

Kiefer Sutherland as gang leader Ace Merrill, Casey Siemaszko as gang member Billy Tessio (Vern’s older brother), Gary Riley as gang member Charlie Hogan (Billy’s best friend), Bradley Gregg as gang member Richard “Eyeball” Chambers (Chris’s older brother), Jason Oliver as gang member Vince Desjardins, and John Cusack as Gordie’s older brother Denny Lachance are also in the cast.

King is very much in his wistful, nostalgic mode, seen again to advantage in Hearts in Atlantis (2001). Both King’s novella and the film are set in the town of Castle Rock, but in the book that is his usual setting of Maine and in the film it is Oregon. Reiner borrowed the name for his production company.

Among the golden oldies on the soundtrack, Ben E King sings the splendid old Jerry Lieber-Mike Stoller 1961 hit ‘Stand by Me’, truly a golden oldie. It plays during the closing credits. The film’s title of course derives from the song title. preferred over the title of Stephen King’s original 1982 novella The Body. In March 1986, distributors Columbia Pictures renamed it over concerns that The Body was a misleading title.

Martin Shafer at Embassy Pictures gave the greenlight to the film, but days before shooting started in summer 1985, Embassy was sold to Columbia Pictures, who planned to cancel it. But Norman Lear, one of the co-owners of Embassy and the developer of Rob Reiner’s TV show All in the Family, gave $7.5 million of his own money to complete the film. But then it had no distributor until Columbia Pictures production head Guy McElwaine screened the film at his house, and the positive reaction of his daughters convinced him to distribute it.

King’s agent asked for $100,000 and 10 per cent of the gross profits for the film rights, but eventually settled for $50,000 and a smaller profit share.

Like the book, the film is set in the fictional town of Castle Rock in 1959. Brownsville, Oregon, stood in for Castle Rock.

It was shot from June 17, 1985 to August 23, 1985.

The film was a major box office success in North America, earning $52,287,414, against its $8 million budget.

In 2016, King said that Stand by Me was his favourite film of his work, along with  The Shawshank Redemption.

In 2011, Wil Wheaton attributed the film’s success to the director’s casting choices: ‘Rob Reiner found four young boys who were the characters we played. I was awkward and nerdy, River was cool and smart, Jerry was one of the funniest people I had ever seen, and Corey was unbelievably angry.’

Reiner went on to film King’s book Misery in 1990 and score another notable success.

Running time: 89 minutes.

Release date: August 22, 1986 (US).

The cast

The cast are Wil Wheaton as Gordie Lachance, River Phoenix as Chris Chambers, Corey Feldman as Teddy Duchamp, Jerry O’Connell as Vern Tessio, Kiefer Sutherland as gang leader Ace Merrill, Casey Siemaszko as Billy Tessio, Gary Riley as Charlie Hogan, Bradley Gregg as Richard ‘Eyeball’ Chambers, Jason Oliver as Vince Desjardins, Marshall Bell as Mr Lachance, Frances Lee McCain as Mrs. Lachance, Bruce Kirby as store owner Mr Quidacioluo, William Bronder as junkyard owner Milo Pressman, Scott Beach as Mayor Grundy Richard Dreyfuss as The Writer (adult Gordie), John Cusack as Denny Lachance, Madeleine Swift as Waitress, Popeye as Chopper, Geanette Bobst as Mayor’s Wife, Art Burke as Principal John Wiggins, Matt Williams as Bob Cormier, Andy Lindberg as David “Lardass” Hogan, and Dick Durock as Bill Travis.

Rob Reiner (March 6, 1947 – December 14, 2025)

Rob Reiner made his directorial film debut with the heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984), followed by The Sure Thing (1985), Stand by Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally… (1989), Misery (1990), and A Few Good Men (1992), and The American President (1995).

Reiner rose to prominence as an actor portraying Mike ‘Meathead; Stivic on the CBS sitcom All in the Family (1971–1979), which earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards. 

Reiner, aged 78, and his wife, Michele, 68, were found stabbed to death at their home in Brentwood, Los Angeles on 14 December 2025 by  their daughter Romy.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 396

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