STAN BY ME

Stand by Me is a film of honorable ambitions severely compromised by a creeping show-biz phoniness.

• Mencken Chrestomathy.
• More by Ben E. King.
• Urban Gypsy!

Reiner seems lost in his own cinematic wilderness -- button-down careful, almost afraid to move. Exquisitely captures the vulnerability not only of youth, but of the male identity. When you are an adventure-seeker stuck in that odd transition between early youth and adolescence, few movies resonate more than "Stand by Me. It is about the evolution of a writer, his relationship with his three closest friends and a situation that formed his talent -- and morbid fascination.

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Rob Reiner's bucolic, nostalgic drama is widely agreed to be one of the most successful adaptations of a story by horror master Stephen King. Gracefully blending raucous comedy with intense drama, the film is about the loss of innocence as well as the getting of wisdom. Shawshank aside, this is the best non-horror Stephen King adaptation of the bunch. Predominantly known for his horror stories, writer Stephen King released a book in called "Different Seasons".

It contained four novellas, three of which, went on to become successful Hollywood movies which were very far from most other adaptations of his work.

Stand By Me

By following the tracks, the friends' journey becomes more about them and their personal struggles and soon, the boyish adventure becomes about their experiences of entering adulthood. Delivered with a wonderfully nostalgic narration by Richard Dreyfuss and a good feel for 's Americana, this inviting and honest, coming-of-age, tale captures the spirit of youth like very few others. Reiner's feel for the time and the material is pitched so perfectly that you are completely transported back to this era. King's "Stand By Me". It's this very attention to detail that truly brings this affectionate and sentimental film to life, while completely involving you in the trials and tribulations of the four, endearing, youths at it's centre.

The four youths in question are embodied with charm and nuance by Wheaton, Feldman, O'Connell and, especially, Phoenix. They are so natural in their deliveries that the failed careers they would go on to have didn't merit the performances delivered here. Phoenix was the only one of the four who would receive critical praise, but sadly his life was cut short at the tender age of 23, making his performance all the more poignant. Rarely has a film captured the innocence and growing pains of young boys on the road to manhood and rarely do you ever get such a rich and heartfelt delivery.

It doesn't matter if you didn't experience the 's; stepped foot on an Americana front porch or played mailbox baseball. What matters, is that you identify with the characters' rite of passage and that it still perpetuates it's relevance. A wonderfully rustic and nostalgic gem, that's still as inviting and honest as it was on it's release. This is one of those timeless cult-classic's that will always find an audience to resonate with. For some, it's the last real taste of innocence, and the first real taste of life.

But for everyone, it's the time that memories are made of. Very good movie and story! Stand By Me is a story of how one event can unexpectedly change lives. It happens sometimes, friends come in and out of your life like busboys at a restaurant. What Stand By Me does is brings you back to a time when friendship was more pure and innocent and meant more.

You can't help but get caught up in the nostalgia. Perhaps this film means more to me for personal reasons but it is a wonderful film and it should be enjoyed by everyone. Based on Stephen King's Short story "The Body", "Stand By Me" tells the tale of Gordie Lachance, a writer who looks back on his preteen days when he and three close friends went on their own adventure to find the body of a kid their age who had gone missing and presumed dead.

The stakes are upped when the bad kids in town are closely tailing and it becomes a race to see who'll be able to recover the body first. A group of four tightly-knit friends living in a small Oregon town, circa , set out on foot to find a dead body. What could easily have been a routine Stephen King horror show is instead an often touching and nostalgic story about the purity and innocence of friendship before the teenage years and adulthood sets in and sours the deal.

Director Rob Reiner's best film by far, the subject matter will hit close to home to anyone who has ever had close friendships that crumbled before their time, regardless of what you went through together. It helps that the actors who portray the foursome - Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell and the later River Phoenix - are about as natural as they come and have seemingly strong chemistry with one another. Watching the story pan out, you truly believe these friendships are real, and for such young actors, they manage to handle the tender and emotional moments of this 90 minute film quite well.

The most notorious performance is that of Phoenix, whose budding career was tragically cut short when his life met an end eight years later at the hands of a drug overdose. While Phoenix manages to steal the show away from the lead, Wil Wheaton, it must be noted that the ensemble as a whole did an outstanding job.

The film focuses strictly on these four, with minor characters popping in and out of the past and present, and if the cast wasn't so strong, the movie would have easily fallen apart at the seams. With such a small running time, you'd think that the film is rather shallow, but such is not the case. Although more could have been expanded on possibly this film's only true flaw , the story flows naturally as you share the ups and the downs with its characters. It's got a significant amount of nostalgia, and it also has a bittersweet edge, both for its downbeat but true to life ending and for anyone who has lost similar bonds in their lives.

The last lines of the writer in the film rings truest and sums up the film nicely: A real genius film especially the storyline , that truly captures the real essence of a childhood. This film carries pretty much every emotion there is: It is a classic that every person young to old should definitely watch. More Top Movies Trailers Forums. Season 7 Black Lightning: Season 2 DC's Legends of Tomorrow: Season 4 Doctor Who: Season 11 The Flash: Season 5 This Is Us: Season 3 Saturday Night Live: Season 4 The Walking Dead: Weekend Box Office Results: Stand by Me View All Photos According to King, the title is derived from, and was inspired by, a spiritual written by Sam Cooke and J.

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The third line of the second verse of the former work derives from Psalm There have been over recorded versions of the song, performed by many artists. It was featured on the soundtrack of the film Stand by Me , and a corresponding music video was released to promote the film.

Later in the year, the line up of the Drifters recorded it, in tribute to him. In , Ben E. King was inspired to update the early 20th century gospel hymn by Charles Albert Tindley , which was based around the psalm , "will not we fear, though the Earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.

According to the documentary History of Rock 'n' Roll , King had no intention of recording the song himself. After the " Spanish Harlem " recording session in , King had some studio time left over. The session's producers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, asked if he had any more songs. King played it on the piano for them. They liked it and called the studio musicians back in to record it.

I remember arriving at our office as Jerry and Ben were working on lyrics for a new song. King had the beginnings of a melody that he was singing a cappella. I went to the piano and worked up the harmonies, developing a bass pattern that became the signature of the song. Ben and Jerry quickly finished the lyrics He worked on the lyrics together with Jerry, and I added elements to the music, particularly the bass line.

To some degree, it's based on a gospel song called "Lord Stand By Me". I have a feeling that Jerry and Ben E. Ben, of course, had a strong background in church music.

When I walked in, Jerry and Ben E. They were at an old oak desk we had in the office. Jerry was sitting behind it, and Benny was sitting on the top. They looked up and said they were writing a song. I said, "Let me hear it. Ben began to sing the song a cappella. I went over to the upright piano and found the chord changes behind the melody he was singing. It was in the key of A. Then I created a bass line. Jerry said, "Man that's it!

Stand by Me () - Rotten Tomatoes

Songwriting credits on the single were shown as King and Elmo Glick—a pseudonym used by Leiber and Stoller. King's record went to No. It also reached No. The song was not released on an album until it had been out as a single for two years. In , BMI named it as the fourth most-performed song of the 20th century, with about seven million performances. On March 27, , the Songwriters Hall of Fame announced that the song would receive its Towering Song Award and that King would be honored with the Towering Performance Award for his recording of it. The song uses a version of the common chord progression now called the 50s progression , which has been called the "'Stand by Me' changes" after the song.

For the year-end charts in the US, the song was the 63 song of [34] and 67 of From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. King from the album Don't Play That Song! Digging The Oldies Part 3". The actual reference is Psalm Did You Watch It? Archived from the original on January 1,