Favourites

Stand By Me (1986)

I thought it best to start my blog with my favourite film of all time - Stand By Me.

I found out about this film through listening to the song Stand By Me by Ben.E.King off of one of my parents albums. At the age of 14 I sat down at my computer ready to watch what I thought would be a pretty decent film, given the directing talent of Rob Reiner and the legendary acting of River Phoenix. One and a half hours later I was lost for words. And no it is not a deeply sad ending, in fact I think it's bitter sweet, but the ending is not important in this film, it's the content of it. The WHOLE film is
moving, right from the first scene where Gordie (Wil Wheaton) begins to reminisce, through to the bitter sweet goodbye of teenage friendships.

What really made me love it was that it was unique and as of yet I haven't seen a single film that lives up to its simplicity and incredibility. The plot isn't life affecting to anyone and the world wont end if they don't make it back from the train tracks, but that's what's so great about it! It will make you want to live in 1950s suburban America, stock up on cherry flavoured pez and really question what animal Goofy actually is.It's sentimentality works because of the unsentimental moments and honest portrayals of what boys of that age really think. It captures perfectly the adolescent quartet when they are young enough to be afraid, yet old enough to experience personal pressures bought to bear on all of them by the adult world and on top of this it's still hilarious.
I must have seen this film more times than my parents' age put together and it made me think twice about Kieffer Sutherland; Ace is scary as heck!!
Before watching Stand By Me I didn't watch many films before my time, but it quickly made me branch out and watch LOADS of classsics. I don't know what I was watching before...
It's an utterly timeless film that will forever be the best.

Favourite Quotes: "If I could only have one food for the rest of my life? That's easy-Pez. Cherry-flavored Pez. No question about it."
"Do you think I'm weird?"   "Definitely." "No man, seriously. Am I weird?" "Yeah, but so what? Everybody's weird."
"Alright, alright, Mickey's a mouse, Donald's a duck, Pluto's a dog. What's Goofy?"
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"