Do you have 1h30 to devote to a film and have you subscribed to Netflix? Stop looking for what to watch and rush into one of the finest treatments of the end of childhood in cinematic history.
A timeless classic of cinema, one of the most beautiful films about childhood, Stand by Me is currently available on Netflix: in 1 hour 25 minutes, the film will touch you deeply. But be careful, because it leaves the platform on Saturday September 30.
The story takes place during the summer of 1959, in Oregon. A teenager goes missing, but his four friends learn that he was cut down by a train and that his body is found deep in the woods. Wishing to find out for sure, Gordie and his comrades set off in search of the body, to discover the truth for themselves and be the first to be able to announce it to the public.
Columbia Pictures
Before talking about the film itself, we must mention its young cast. River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell and Wil Wheaton are the young heroes of Stand by Me, where he rubs shoulders with Kiefer Sutherland and John Cusack. The film is directed by Rob Reiner and adapted from the novel The Body by Stephen King by the author himself, supported by Raynold Gideon and Bruce A. Evans.
“I never had friends again like I had in my twelfth year. God, aren’t we all the same?” This sentence still resonates in the heads of all Stand by Me spectators. It is an almost definitive film about the end of innocence, the transition from adolescence to adult life.
Columbia Pictures
What immediately grabs the viewer is the disconcerting naturalness with which the young actors interpret these characters: one would think we were watching a documentary as their relationships ring true and realistic. We believe they were taken from life, and we owe this feeling to Rob Reiner, who was able to extract incredible performances from them.
If Stand by Me had to be summed up in one word, perhaps it would be “heartfelt.” Everything in this story, even the extravagant story of the pie-eating contest invented by Gordie, seems to us to be in place and is perfectly in line with the state of mind of the young heroes at the moment when it occurs.
Columbia Pictures
The expedition of the four boys is obviously a pretext. What interests King and Reiner is the way in which a tragic and very real event will mark a group of young people for life by making them immediately lose all sense of carefreeness. The conclusion of the film, very moving, will most likely upset you, but to be sure, go to Netflix!