Stand By Me (1986)
Pre-internet adventures of American adolescence.
Presentation:
A film mostly targeted toward men that captures the emotional feeling of baby boomers and millennials that grew up in post-war America. You have a brilliantly written coming of age tale of a band of friends and their call to adventure. Rob Reiner creates a future classic from Stephen King’s novel that influences a future generation of childhood cinema like It and Stranger Things. This film is particularly American in that it captures a lot of idiosyncratic habits of adolescents that you would see in Tom Sawyer such as ghost stories over the camp fire, bullying, girls and walking on railroad tracks with sticks. For those that were born in the 70s to 90s, this should definitely take you back to your youth.
Conclusion:
This is a classic that should speak to a whole generation for its adolescent adventure, which is often a recurring theme in Stephen King novels. This is one of his most memorable because of its cast, humor, adventure, relatability and iconic music. However like most Stephen King films, the premise is great but he often doesn’t know how to end his stories. But it might not matter when the adventure is so idyllic of how we romanticize the naivety of American adolescence. And this is in large part accomplished by a persuasively cruel performance from Keifer Sutherland. Whether Gen Z will be able to relate to the pre-technology childhood is something audiences will have to see for themselves. Still, I think it could be universally enjoyed as it’s one the greatest and most iconic coming of age adventures on screen.
Recommendations
Gorgeous drama with powerful performance by everyone except the lead.