Happy birthday to one of the greats!
I was not aware that this movie was forty years old until very recently. I’ve been seeing Will Wheaton, Corey Feldman and Jerry O’Connell doing promotional videos together lately, and they’ve brought a smile to my face.
I don’t remember the first time I watched this movie. I was not alive to be part of it’s cultural, societal influence when it was released. I was certainly not part of the studio’s target demographic.
But I have never been able to forget it’s ending. I guess that makes it timeless, in a way.
Despite being released nine years before I was born, and set another thirty years earlier, I have felt the exact same way Gordie Lachance does when he’s writing the end of this story.
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”
Is this the greatest line ever written? It’s easily my favourite line in this movie, maybe in any movie I’ve ever seen.
It takes me back to when I was twelve and I had three close friends like Gordie did. But when you finish primary school and move to the next phase of your life, everything changes. Those days disappear before you even realise what’s happening.
I remember my last day of primary school. I walked out of school on a sunny day with my best friend. He got into his mother’s car and I got into mine. We were going to different secondary schools in September. I didn’t think at the time that I wouldn’t see him again for another four years. Life moved on and we became different people. I haven’t even seen him in over ten years.
Stand By Me reminds me of a loss of innocence. The penultimate scene encapsulates this feeling perfectly. The guys head back from their adventure before going their own ways. Vern (O’Connell) and Teddy (Feldman) slowly drift out of Gordie (Wheaton) and Chris’ (Phoenix) lives. “See ya in Junior High” they say before they all go their separate ways, both in the moment and then slowly throughout their lives.
“Friends come in and out of your life like bus boys in a restaurant.”
The reveal that Chris was killed really takes this theme even further. It seems so cruel and sudden that it always catches me off guard every time it happens. It’s probably because he was played by River Phoenix who also died too young. Although it tragically mirrors his real life, in a way it immortalises Phoenix.
I will always see him as this charismatic, tremendous force that was taken from the world too soon. Much like the character he so brilliantly portrayed in this movie.
“Although I hadn’t seen him in more than ten years, I know I’ll miss him forever.” Even Gordie and Chris grew apart.
It’s terrible getting old.
