A few times in the past I watched a little 1986 movie in HBO. A 1986 movie adaptation of Steven King's The Body (part of his book Different Seasons, which also has The Shawshank Redemption, also adapted into a movie) it's the story of 4 teenage boys in the 1950s' on their greatest journey of their lives on Labor Day weekend. It was directed by Rob Reiner. It also had a great soundtrack and theme song of the same name by Ben E. King.
Now, I've begun to rediscover this classic coming of age movie.
You know it? It's Stand By Me.
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| The 4 friends I once knew before... |
The movie begins as a old Gordie Lachance (Richrad Dreyfuss) suddenly reads a newspaper article on the death of his long time friend, Chris Chambers, by then a successful lawyer by profession. Shocked by the news, he then begins writing a memoir on the great walk he had, as a 12 going on 13 year old teen, in 1959 with 3 other best friends.
The next scenes are a visual retelling of that walk. Gordie (Will Wheaton), Chris (the late River Phoenix), Teddy Dechamp (Corey Feldman) and fat Vern Tessio (Jerry O'Connell), surprised about the news about a dead boy's corpse in the forest, go on a two day journey to retrieve it, send it to the authorities, and come back as heroes. The only problem: the town gang, the Cobras. Among its members who want the rewards go in their favor were Ace, the gang leader (Kiefer Sutherland) and Eyeballs Chambers (played here by Bradley Gregg).
Why the strong friendship? Gordie's brother (played by John Cusack) died months earlier leaving him along with bad parents. Chris had a gangster brother and a bad father. But Teddy and Vern (who also had a hood brother) were best friends and were to be trusted, as Gordie and Chris were too.
To make the summary short: All the way they experience the best and worst of times, but in the end, they were truly friends and heroes. Truly enough, that Labor Day weekend was when their fading childhood spirits in them were active, now they are facing the challenges of teenage life. But boys will be boys, and friends will be friends, by the way. For a long time.
In the end, as Dreyfuss ends his narrative of the story with a remembrance of those years and a question to all if they had any friends as his, we all know that friends do separate but reunite and forever stay.
In real life, this was reflected in what the main actors had done after this. Too bad that River Phoenix had passed away 19 years ago, but he and Will Wheaton were best buddies and was a promising actor all along. Will has become a writer and a blogger (his blog is here: wilwheaton.typepad.com/) and has made a name for himself in the movies and in television. Jerry also has a great movie career (SBM was his first) and Corey has a modest one and did complete in this year's Dancing on Ice in the UK.
We all know that Kiefer had a great movie career on the rise after this.
26 years on, the legacy of this movie lives on. I too had the best friends when I was 12-14 in my school in Makati, but those were truly the best years before I moved on to high school, just like Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern.
I truly had such friends. Jesus, did anyone had?
To cap it off here's a MTV of the title track of the same name, with Ben E King and with River and Will on it!
Hope you follow me on Twitter at @JMRamos0109, y'all, and like this post! Also, if you like Stand by Me, comment on this.
HOOYAH
- JM
P. S. I never had any friends later on, like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?
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