Stand by Me

15

Set in 1959, this bittersweet picaresque tale follows four young friends who set off across Oregon on a dangerous, but memorable and life-affirming journey in search of the corpse of a boy their age, who has been killed by a train.

Based on Stephen King's 1982 novella The Body, Rob Reiner's film is a story of loyal friendship for multiple generations, as it looks nostalgically to the cusp of adulthood from the vantage point of middle-age. Indeed, innocence, loss and the loss of innocence pervade the film both in it's central story but also in real life, then with one of it's stars River Phoenix dying tragically six years later in 1993 and now, with the recent murder of Rob Reiner and his wife in 2025.

Nonetheless the Stand by Me is an exuberant adventure and marvelous feat of cinematic storytelling as the boys venture deeper into the countryside. "Chopper, sic balls!"