Product Description

SET IN OREGON IN 1959 PORTRAYS THE LIVES OF FOUR FRIENDS WHO GO ON AN OVERNIGHT CAMPING TRIP TO FIND A MISING TEENAGER'S BODY BUT UTLIMATELY FIND OUT A LOT ABOUT THEMSELVES. SPECIAL FEATURES: SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, SPANISH, PORTUGUES, CHINESE, KOREAN AND THAI AND MUCH MORE.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2753 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 2000-08-29
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 88 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
A sleeper hit when released in 1986, Stand by Me is based on Stephen King's novella "The Body" (from the book Different Seasons); but it's more about the joys and pains of boyhood friendship than a morbid fascination with corpses. It's about four boys ages 12 and 13 (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell) who take an overnight hike through the woods near their Oregon town to find the body of a boy who's been missing for days. Their journey includes a variety of scary adventures (including a ferocious junkyard dog, a swamp full of leeches, and a treacherous leap from a train trestle), but it's also a time for personal revelations, quiet interludes, and the raucous comradeship of best friends. Set in the 1950s, the movie indulges an overabundance of anachronistic profanity and a kind of idealistic, golden-toned nostalgia (it's told in flashback as a story written by Wheaton's character as an adult, played by Richard Dreyfuss). But it's delightfully entertaining from start to finish, thanks to the rapport among its young cast members and the timeless, universal themes of friendship, family, and the building of character and self-esteem. Kiefer Sutherland makes a memorable teenage villain, and look closely for John Cusack in a flashback scene as Wheaton's now-deceased and dearly missed brother. A genuine crowd-pleaser, this heartfelt movie led director Rob Reiner to even greater success with his next film, The Princess Bride. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
Looking back on the popular 1986 film 14 years later, director Rob Reiner has several great stories to tell about his breakthrough hit. Reiner's folksy commentary and a new 35-minute featurette (with new interviews from the cast) illustrate how much of the film draws from the personal experiences of Reiner and novelist Stephen King. Both the featurette and Reiner's commentary touch on the tricky casting of the film (starring four adolescent boys), the problems with finding the right narrator (finally performed by Reiner's childhood friend, Richard Dreyfuss), and the ironic sadness of River Phoenix's death (whose character's premature death triggers the flashback that comprises almost all of the film). Descriptions of the production's originial producer-screenwriters and long-shot logistics are, unfortunately, relegated to the liner notes. Also contains an isolated musical score track (punctuated by several early rock favorites), production notes, the MTV video of the title song, and digitally remastered audio and video. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Much better sound than the Special Edition
I purchased the Special Edition of this movie recently and couldn't believe that the audio was monophonic. I was thus pleasantly surprised to see that in this edition of the DVD they restored the original multi-channel soundtrack. Even the casual listener will notice the difference immediately.

To my knowledge the movie itself is the same as on the Special Edition (no added or cut scenes) so I won't waste your time commenting on that. I just wanted to bring attention to the fact that the Deluxe Edition of this movie is the ONLY one any serious movie collector should consider.

Stand By Me: The novella, the movie and the DVD
"Stand By Me" is a classic coming of age movie about growing up and friendship and the pain of disillusionment when the adults you depend upon let you down. Highly recommended.

In this review I'll focus mostly on the relationship between the movie and the Stephen King novella it is based on, and the DVD extra material that closes the ring.

The movie "Stand By Me" was made in 1986. It is based on a novella published in 1982 and the story takes place in 1959 (movie) or 1960 (novella). But the story is timeless - the conflicts and the difficult transition from child to adult apply to every generation.

There is a lot of trivia (pop songs, slang expressions, TV shows, etc.) from 1959/1960 in the movie and the novella, but this doesn't really anchor the story to that era. Every generation has it's own trivia that is very important to that generation. But today's generation can smile at the trivia of 47 years ago and still see the parallels between that trivia and their (to them) much more wonderful trivia.

The movie is based on a novella by Stephen King called "The Body". This is one of Stephen King's best stories, and is well worth reading or, if you like audio books, listening to. The audio version lasts almost six hours and is read by Frank Muller. Highly recommended. If you'd prefer to read the story yourself then you should buy the book "Different Seasons", a collection of four Stephen King novellas including "The Body".

The movie and the novella are very similar. There are, of course, many small differences, for example the town of Castle Rock has been moved from Maine to Oregon, there is more coverage of the older juvenile delinquents and less coverage of Gordie's stories and of Gordie as an adult, the place where the bloodsuckers are encountered is different, etc., etc. The biggest difference is that in the novella Chris is the main protagonist, or hero if you like, while in the movie it is Gordie. Still, this movie is truer to the written source than most movies based on books are.

So why did Rob Reiner make these changes, and what on earth did Stephen King think of them?

Here's where the magic of DVD extra material comes in. The "Special Edition" (2000) and "Deluxe Edition" (2005) DVDs both include a 35-minute documentary "featurette" called "Walking the Tracks: The Summer of Stand By Me", which was made in 2000. Stephen King, Rob Reiner and all of the major actors in the movie (except River Phoenix, who died in 1993) participate.

In this documentary film Rob Reiner tells that he identified personally more with Gordie than Chris, and therefore decided to make the movie Gordie's story. And Stephen King says that he respected Rob Reiner's decision and thinks that "Stand By Me" was the first movie adaptation of his work that really fulfilled the spirit of the story.

Stephen King also says that many of the things that happen in "The Body" and in "Stand By Me" are things he experienced himself in his childhood. This makes the story somewhat autobiographical, with Gordie being in some ways the young Stephen King. In the novella "The Body" this is quite pronounced in that an adult Gordie is telling the story in the first person, and also tells how he's now become a successful writer of horror books.

So the bottom line is, if you like the movie then read or listen to the novella. And after you've read the novella and seen the movie, check out the DVD featurette that ties them together.

Rennie Petersen

Reiner's Classic Tale of Boyhood Friendship Shines
Okay, I admit it. Like Rick Blaine in Casablanca, I am a "rank sentimentalist." As such, there are many movies that can bring me to tears: E.T., Summer of `42, Casablanca...no matter what era they were released or who directed them, there will always be movies that will jerk some heart-felt tears out of this mostly action-adventure film watcher.

Stand By Me, Rob Reiner's 1986 bittersweet coming of age story based on Stephen King's novella The Body, is definitely one of those movies that move me.

Starring Wil Wheaton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), River Phoenix (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), Corey Feldman (The Lost Boys), Jerry O'Connell (Sliders, Joe's Apartment) and Kiefer Sutherland (24), Stand By Me tells how a group of four boys goes into the woods in search of the body of train-struck Ray Brower, hoping to recover it before a gang led by Ace (Sutherland at his meanest, menacing best) does.

Reiner, working from a well-written screenplay by Raymond Gideon and Bruce A. Evans, excellently captures King's nostalgia-tinged story's mix of drama, comedy and even a bit of horror. He coaxes very natural acting from his four main actors, particularly from Wheaton, Phoenix, and O'Connell. Even Feldman, a child actor I really did not like in other films before his career flopped, is heartbreakingly poignant as Teddy Duchamp, the son of a mentally-ill World War II veteran. Despite being scarred by his father's harsh punishments, Teddy is proud of his father's wartime service. One of the best scenes is his confrontation with the mean junkyard operator of Castle Rock, where Teddy's conflicting emotions of anger and love for his dad are summed up by his tearful yell of "My father stormed the beach at Normandy!"

The heart and soul of this movie comes from the friendship between Gordie Lachance (Wheaton), the sensitive would-be writer, and Chris Chambers (Phoenix), a bright kid who seems destined for disgrace because he comes from the wrong part of Castle Rock. Chris projects a tough shell to hide his inner turmoil, while Gordie is having trouble coping with a family tragedy.

Reiner shines as a director capable of mixing moments of comedy (watch for a hilarious exchange revolving around the mystery surrounding Goofy's identity -- "Mickey's a mouse, Pluto is a dog...so what's Goofy?"), drama (an encounter with an approaching train), and a wickedly gross revenge story told by Gordie involving a very large boy and a pie-eating contest.

A particularly effective narration by Richard Dreyfuss (who plays the adult Gordon Lachance) adds just the right mix of wry humor and bittersweet nostalgia, and Jack Nitzsche's gentle and subtle score, with its interpolation of the classic rock 'n' roll song "Stand By Me" just heightens the poignancy of this affecting tale of boyhood friendship.