A test of friendship

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, March 27th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a film returning to select theaters this weekend, marking its 40th anniversary. The film: Stand By Me.

WORLD’s Max Belz now on why this coming of age tale has stood the test of time.

MAX BELZ: The late Rob Reiner directed Stand By Me, and in an interview he reflected on what drew him to the story.

REINER: It was about him and this journey to see the body was something he had to do in order to come to grips with his relationship to his father and how his friends helped him see him through that difficult time because he felt his father didn’t love him…

Stand By Me is based on a Stephen King story called The Body, in which a group of boys intrigued by news of a missing boy, head out on an adventure. 

King, in turn, had been inspired by the 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, about boys who crashland on an island and have to govern themselves. The results in that book are not good. But in Stand By Me, the boys leave civilization behind in order to become more civilized. They have to face the unknown to come to grips with reality.

CLIP: I’m never going to get out of this town, am I, Gordie?

Reiner made this movie before The Princess Bride, one of the few Hollywood movies approved for viewing in the most guarded Christian homes in the 1990s. Stand By Me would not have made that cut. It’s rated R for profanity and coarse language throughout.

CLIP: It happens sometimes. Friends come in and out of your life, like busboys in a restaurant.

The film is framed by a voiceover from Gordie, played by Richard Dreyfuss. He remembers an adventure in the late summer of 1959 in Castle Rock, Oregon, when he and his friends search for the missing boy who might have been struck by a train.

CLIP: Hey guys, I bet you anything that if we find him, we’ll get our pictures in the paper.

The four of them strike out with their bedrolls through the forest to find the corpse. 

We follow their adventure and their confessions to each other about the pain in their own families. They are growing up.

CLIP: We knew exactly who we were and exactly where we were going. It was grand.

The boys talk big—trying to be tough and streetwise, but their journey reveals that they are insecure, finding their way through the forest, but also through life. 

Gordie’s parents ignore him, overcome with grief over the loss of their older son who died in an accident.

CLIP: Bible says in the midst of life we are in death. Did you know that? I lost a brother in Korea.

A junkyard owner mocks one of the other friends, Teddy Duchamp, about his dad who suffers from shellshock.

CLIP: What did you call me? / I know who you are. You’re Teddy Duchamp. Your dad’s a looney. A looney up in the nuthouse in Togas.

“He stormed the beaches at Normandy,” Teddy cries in defense of his dad.

Gordie’s boyhood friend and leader of the pack is Chris Chambers, played by an exceptional River Phoenix, the late brother of Joaquin. Chris delivers a moving monologue about the people in the town accusing him of being a thief, even though he righted his wrongs. He sees Gordie’s talent and encourages him about his writing.

CLIP: It’s like God gave you something, man. All those stories that you can make up. But He said this is what we got for ya, kid, try not to lose it. But kids lose everything unless there’s someone there to look out for them.

These boys are trying to find their way on this escapade, and the struggles on their quest strengthen them to take on the difficulty in other, more painful parts of their lives. They face dangers in the forest like howling wolves and leeches in a swamp. 

The search for the missing boy also causes them to face their own mortality.

CLIP: Why did he have to die Chris? Why did Teddy have to die? Why? / I don’t know. It should have been me. / Don’t say that. / It should have been me. / Don’t say that, man.

They enjoy teasing each other, but they offer genuine support. The events of the movie happen at the end of elementary school. It’s a rite of passage.

CLIP: That’s when a cigarette tastes best, after supper.

In literature, we have a tradition of coming of age stories: Great Expectations, Huckleberry Finn, and even The Catcher in the Rye. These stories show the change from the tomfoolery of youth to the responsibility of manhood. 

In our age in which many young men find themselves in prolonged adolescence, these stories are worth retelling.

I’m Max Belz.

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