Stand By Me | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary

[@weirdtrashcinema]

River Phoenix was incredible in this movie. What an incredible talent cut short.

[@moonlitegram]

Yup. But at least his brother went on to be a great actor as well. So the talent in that family wasn't completely cut short.

[@jculver1674]

Yeah, back in the day everybody thought he was going to be a huge star when he grew up, and I remember finding out when he OD'd, it was incredibly sad. Likewise, Corey Feldman was great in this, he was another child actor who got into drugs and it ruined his career. It ended up being Jerry O'Connell, who played the overweight Vern, that ended up having the biggest career out of the group.

[@JP-cc6yn]

Yes. Touted to be the "next great".

[@kinzer1756]

@@jculver1674I wouldn‘t say O‘Connel‘s career is bigger than Joaquin Phoenix‘s.

[@jculver1674]

@@kinzer1756 Joaquin Phoenix isn't in this movie.

[@edfrancis66]

“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?” This line continues to resonate - I've had 2 close friends all the way from age 6 till now, over 50 years later. And no, I never had any friends like them later on -- those were the years when we had all our little adventures. They seemed a lot bigger then!

[@td811]

Can’t believe they cut that line from the edit! Especially since they were commenting earlier in the movie about having friends like that or being friends like that

[@crimsonda]

Same. My group of friends from childhood till adulthood were the best. Some moved away and you kind of lose touch, and the two that stayed have both passed away. I've never had friends like that again and it feels harder to make friends now. But the memories are fantastic.

[@pete6099]

@@hendrikscheepers4144 During Covid I got in touch with my 3 best friends from school that I hadn't seen for nearly 30 years. We had zoom meetings together then met up last year and even went on a trip to Naples earlier this year. 1 of the only good things to come from covid.

[@jmhaces]

Same here. I'm in my mid-forties and two of my closest friends to this day have been my friends since elementary school, and I actually met one of them in kindergarten. I have other close friends I met later in life and I love them, but those two guys are brothers to me.

[@iconocast]

amen

[@kellymoneymaker3922]

This, like The Green Mile, followed the book almost word for word. King does a great job of developing wonderful and believable characters.

[@MusikCassette]

as long as he doesn't make the movie.

[@Jar0fMay0]

I don't know, what about the bullies. In King's novels, bullies are always exaggerated

[@danooc1]

This was in the same book as Shawshank Redemption.

[@ashscott6068]

@@TheStormblooper-mc6bq When you think about it, MOST book endings suck. They always feel either too abrupt or too drawn out. If you want good endings, stick to short stories. Or at least novels with a small number of characters.. The more characters, the more sucky the ending..

[@jtoland2333]

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[@raydurz]

"I'm a mog-half man, half dog. I'm my own best friend."-Barf from Spaceballs.

[@thestingman2966]

I was thinking that too.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

This is the first time I've heard the suggestion that Goofy is half-man, half-dog, and it reminded me that Quentin Crisp, author of *The Naked Civil Servant,* who was a flamboyant gay man and lifestyle guru sometimes compared to Oscar Wilde, early in his career wrote a satirical novel called *Chog,* about the offspring of a (human female) prostitute and a dog. *The Naked Civil Servant,* incidentally, was famously filmed for British television in a 1975 production starring John Hurt.

[@clash5j]

What's really bad is that Will Wheaton revealed on the Michael Rosenbaum show Inside of You that his character Gordie had it comparatively easy in his home life compared to Will's own. Will had a Father who resented his success as Will was basically supporting the family at a young age and a Mother who was pushing him to act when it never really appealed to him. He no longer has any contact with his parents

[@sparkie4604]

Entertainment business parents are the fucking worst

[@Lightningrod75]

Oh, love Inside of You! Hadn't seen the Wheaton episode. Gonna go look that up.

[@whatareyoulookingat908]

It makes sense that he's so screwed up. He has a lot of pent up anger towards a LOT of people.

[@cpmahon]

So sad that this year is the 30th anniversary since River Phoenix died. Such a great talent lost far too soon. This is one of my favourite films of all time.

[@christoffesedao3579]

Not to get dark, but I have to mention that he was poisoned while at the Viper Room. It was not a “heroin overdose”. Jealous actors doing the Devil’s work. So sad.

[@Serai3]

He would have been in his 60's. What a career he'd have behind him.

[@cpmahon]

@@Serai3 I agree, I'm sure that he would have had a brilliant career behind him and probably ahead of him still. He would have been 53 this year, I know he would have been the lead in so many films.

[@agenttheater5]

@@cpmahon Joaquin would probably still have had a great career as well, would've been interesting to watch the brothers career grow together. Apparently River often said that compared to Joaquin his talents were nothing.

[@mournblade1066]

@@Serai3 No he wouldn't. He was my age. He would have been 53 this year.

[@grife3000]

The film is set in 1959. According to the internets, $2.37 would buy 9.5 gallons of gas or 11 loaves of bread or 2 pounds of T-bone steak or 33 newspapers or ~5 pounds of bacon or 13 Coca Colas in the 26 ounce green glass bottles. Houses were $10,000, cars were $2000-$4000.

[@carlosspeicywiener7018]

An ounce of gold was 38 dollars... We used to be a proper nation.

[@synaesthesia2010]

$2.37 was about $25 in the '59

[@dabreal82]

​@@carlosspeicywiener7018minimum wage was $1 ($7.25 in today's money, less than modern minimum wage) segregation and open racism was still a thing. It was perfectly acceptable to beat your wife. Doctors told people smoking and drinking was healthy... great times...🤪

[@jakey3887]

$2.37 is about $24.34 today.

[@Jar0fMay0]

​@@dabreal82it's never been ok to beat your wife but it's become a lot easier to report it

[@mojoshivers]

I love that King wrote one book that collected four novellas that spawned Stand By Me and Shawshank Redemption, plus a third less successful movie called Apt Pupil. Three movies out four stories is not a bad batting average, especially when two are considered modern classics.

[@justinlee8784]

Wasn't Green Mile a short story or novella too? Or just not part of that collection?

[@v1ct0r326]

@@justinlee8784 The Green Mile is well over 800 pages long. Not part of an anthology.

[@deanromanado5850]

Spt Pupil wad once messed up movie. Was pretty good

[@mojoshivers]

@@justinlee8784 Green Mile originally was done as a 6-part series, with each installment coming out 2 or 3 weeks from each other. King said he was trying to recreate how novels were released in like Dickens’ time, with publishers milking out the opportunity to make customers buy multiple times instead of one time. I was working at a bookstore if its original publication and it was a real phenomenon for those two months.

[@mojoshivers]

Just saw it was monthly installments. My bad. My memory saw it as a shorter duration between installments.

[@DerickJansen]

You drew a parallel to IT and it's for a very good reason. This movie is based on Stephen King's 1982 novella The Body. King has a penchant for portraying older kids and adults as real shitty human beings.

[@Hapsard]

I think there must have been a really nasty bully in Stephen King's youth.

[@TupocalypseShakur]

​@@HapsardMaine is a fucked up place, because he has nothing nice to say about it

[@ashscott6068]

Stephen King even said that ths story was a dry-run for It. I don't remember where. Either in On Writing, or in the foreword of some book.

[@babalonkie]

I remember watching this just before IT... you could feel the connections. This film was scary as a kid... let alone IT.

[@DesScorp]

And government. Don't forget that the government is always a villain in King novels.

[@charlize1253]

The movie takes place in 1959, and that explains a lot about the two dads (Wil Wheaton's passive-aggressive dad and Corey Feldman's mentally ill dad). They would have grown up during the Great Depression and probably fought in World War Two -- Corey Feldman says twice that his dad stormed the beach at Normandy, and if the kids were 13 in 1959, then they were born in 1946 right after the war ended and the troops came home, and Wil Wheaton's older brother was a senior in high school, so born in 1941 right before the war started. So the dads both might have had PTSD. Even if the dads didn't actually fight during WW2, they lived with wartime food rationing, shortages, curfews, and blackouts. Because of those two major traumatic events during their formative years, many men in the 50's were very repressed if not worse (and that also explains a lot about why their kids grew up to be the anti-authoritarian rebels of the 1960s).

[@coachstubudgell1242]

And then they became the Viet Nam warriors......... Good observation.

[@lylacscorner3643]

Very good observation, I like that. Minor correction, the war started in 1939.

[@Tijuanabill]

"I would worry about cougars." "They usually have bars." /starts a slow clap

[@icooley7391]

Hahaha, George! Simone- "I would be afraid of cougars." George- "They're usually in bars."

[@robspore5046]

"I'd be afraid of cougars". "No, they're usually at bars" OMFG! Brilliant throw away line!

[@RealJustinCrow]

When you know the real life story /situation with Wil Wheaton and his parents, you can't help but feel he's channelling some very painful home truths in that scene with River. He always said, as an only child, that River was the big brother he always wanted and now calls his TNG costars his family. Thank goodness he's happy now because there's some real pain on display here. Ps Keither sutherland is awesome

[@promisemochi]

it's so heartbreaking when you realize each of these boys (aside from jerry, who has said as much) were suffering through something horrible IRL. jerry has even said he regrets sort of being this "happy go lucky" kid and not really aware of the suffering at the time. but i think it was will who told him to cut that mindset out, and that he was just a kid too himself. they (aside from river, rip beloved) have spoken about how this film was very healing for them and something they really needed in their lives. i'm so happy this film was able to bring them together and that they're still close to this day. rob reiner seems to have been very good to them as well. one thing i remember him saying was one of his biggest regrets as a director in his entire career was he screamed at the kids over the train scene. he said yelling at them like he did is something he'll always regret. when i think about how some directors are today, especially to kids, seeing that really makes me know he truly cared for those boys and it's just really moving to see that he was so upset by that. this movie is so healing to me and knowing that it's something that was healing to the cast as well....that's just very powerful.

[@whatareyoulookingat908]

I definitely feel for him but he became quite the jerk himself in life. Entirely bitter and quick to anger. Who is to say he's any better? I admire though that he is married still which is a rarity in Hollywood.

[@amitabhsharma3916]

The movie is an emotional ride but what happened with River irl is what actually makes me weep whenever I see the movie. I think only Jerry O'Connell among the 4 leads made it out intact from the movie, achieving some semblance of sanity and happiness eventually in his life

[@josefstalin9678]

Dude got to grow up and marry Mystique. Mans living every nerds dream

[@zmarko]

You guys are going to love this one, I think. It's such a magical movie. It really makes you reflect on your past. And Rob Reiner is such an amazing talent. He can literally direct any genre. Drama, Horror, comedy, romantic comedy, whatever.

[@hayatotheninja]

The book ending was a little more brutal as it delves deeper into Ace and his revenge. Ace also appears in the book Needful Things. Stephen King was my teen years and continues to impact my reading today! Glad you liked this flick!

[@monalucas4254]

Rob Reiner is such a good director and so respectful of the original stories/books, like this one and Misery. Along with Spinal Tap, he also did Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men and so many more. He has such a range. And yes, River is stunning in this movie and still is. P.S. I love your reactions and your interactions with each other. Thanks for all the fun.

[@evilervcowart6234]

I live in the mountains of northeastern Alabama (which is located in the southeastern part of the U.S.), and I'm 47 years old; so I was 11 when Stand By Me came out. It resonated with my close circle of friends and I because we did quite a bit of camping. I received my first gun for Christmas when I was 12...a Marlin bolt-action .22 rifle. I had been going target shooting with my parents for a couple of years prior and had been taught firearm safety and that guns were not toys; so I was allowed to take my .22 into the woods (for target shooting...I was never particularly into hunting) unsupervised. At 13, a friend and I were allowed to spend a week camping alone on some of his family's property albeit a few miles from the nearest occupied house. We took enough food and water for twice the length of our excursion just to be on the safe side. We also took a boom box, plenty of batteries, my rifle, and a shotgun; there are coyote where we were and possibly black bears and mountain lions as well (though sightings were extremely rare and suspect). Obviously there were no cell phones in those days, but our parents were confident that we could take care of ourselves if need be...and they were correct. It sounds cliché but times were, indeed, different back then. And I had an absolute blast! Still love camping and target shooting to this day.

[@ridleysaria]

Simone, I never get tired of your random silly intros. And George, I never get tired of your puzzled reaction to her. Too cute of a duo.

[@CraigKostelecky]

Even if I don't like a movie they're reacting to, I'll always watch the start to see Simone's intro. :)

[@mom_life393]

Even tho I'm a 70's baby, I can relate to this movie. Adults found kids to be a nuisance and parents really didn't pay attention to us. There was no thought of our mental health. And being gaslight was the norm. You were taught to suppress your feelings and have no emotion. No one cared about your problems. Families reputation was way more important than the happiness of any one. You put on a facade and don't dare do anything to bring shame to your family. For me, my uncle liked to be inappropriatly touchy and feely with me when I was 5. My mom walked in and caught him. The way it was handled was by telling me I can't say a word. If my grandparents find out it would devastate them as my uncle was their favorite child. My entire family was emotionally stunted. Told not to make waves or confront anything. Just sweep the problems under the rug and ignore them. Holding grudges was common as well. This was the norm. It wasn't until the 2000's, when mental health started being addressed. When I was growing up, if we started to cry or get upset our feelings were immediately invalidated and then we were threatened with "you want me to give you a reason to cry" meaning we would get whipped with whatever was in reach. For me it was a belt. Had to be out of the house from sun up to sun down. We usually had one friend that their parents would allow us to come in and use the bathroom and give us a drink. In the 80's they literally made a commercial for tv saying that it's 10pm do you know where your kids are? Parents had to be reminded they had kids. The gun is a metaphor as well as a literal sign of protection . Gives them strength and courage that they lacked. It seems that kids back then were educated quite young about guns and proper use. A quite common gift for boys as young as 5 years old was a BB gun. Also a lot more families lived in rural areas and on farms and also hunted as there were grocery stores and pantries but they had mostly dry goods like flour and dried beans and things like that. People back then had gardens and would hunt their own meat. So as soon as a boy was big enough to hold a gun they would be taken out to the fields. The more people, the better chances of getting a k!ll. As far as smoking. It was marketed on tv shows, movies, magazines, radio, and on billboards aimed for children. They had cartoon characters like Joe Cool for Camel that would ingrain into kids minds that smoking was cool. Seeing your favorite celebs smoking and that if you want to be just like them you need to smoke. Kids are the easiest to be manipulated and the general public had no regard for health. No one knew at the time, how addicting they were or the health issues one could develop. My grandma started smoking at age 9. My mom started at 13. It was quite common. There weren't any warning labels on the cigarettes back then. When I was 10-12 years old, my mom would give me some money, write a note and call the gas station down the road and have me walk down to buy her a pack of cigarettes. My grandma developed COPD and then throat and stomach cancer. My mom still smokes. This movie is a coming of age story. Everything they did and experienced was (except for the dead body) was a common occurrence. Our friends were our safe space. To be able to discuss anything as most of our families ignored us. River Phoenix was such an incredible actor. One of my favorite childhood actors. If you want to see more of his incredible acting skills, I highly recommend watching "My Own Private Idaho". It's my favorite film from him.

[@louuu573]

it's sad that this was the norm. i'm sorry about the things that you've experienced, i hope it's okay to say that

[@kenny240]

Guns, at that time, were quite common for kids to have and know how to use. Up until I think the 70s (80s in some areas), kids would often have rifles in the back window of their trucks at school. It only became taboo, and illegal later.

[@njsmith8614]

kids at my high school kept hunting rifles in their trucks' gun racks into the mid to late 90s - at least in season.

[@apulrang]

This is true. But it's also true that despite appearances, there has been a long-term sentiment in the U.S. against the easy access to guns. It ebbs and flows, And there are big regional differences. In the '50s, I think a lot of cities had pretty strong gun control laws ... stronger than now. That's partially because they hadn't been challenged much yet, because there was less of a dedicated "pro gun" lobby until the '90s or so. I would guess that sentiment on guns is more polarized and extreme now than it was in the '50s. But in rural areas like this one, guns were pretty common and accepted as a normal part of life. On the other hand, I suspect that kids this age having a HANDGUN like that would NOT have been considered okay, even then, and in that kind of setting.

[@kenny240]

@@apulrang I agree. It was generally long guns. And handguns weren’t as common for kids of this age.

[@DravenMercer]

Even early 90s there were guns in the trucks at the high school, tho I grew up in a small Florida town.

[@fuzzballzz36]

I went to school in the '70s and '80s and my friends had the rifle racks.

[@MrDevintcoleman]

My dad was born in ‘45 and started smoking when he was 14. He quit 30 years ago and is a healthy 77 but apparently it wasn’t uncommon among kids who were allowed out on their own at a young age, which was most kids. It actually reminds me of another excellent movie, The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys. It’s an incredible coming of age movie but with rebellious pubescent teens in a highly religious setting, and an amazingly unique use of occasional animation to portray the characters’ imaginative representation of the real world.

[@michaelblaine6494]

I was 15,even in the 90s it wasn’t completely out of the ordinary but that was probably the last generation where smoking at any age was prevalent. There are always smokers but the late 90s is when most indoor public places went completely smoke free. It was a golden age I tell ya😜 cough cough💨

[@gymratt17]

Also many younger people don't realize how easy it was to buy cigarettes. They were in vending machines and kids regularly bought them for their parents even at local stores.

[@MrDevintcoleman]

@@gymratt17 very good point! Kids running down to the corner mart to buy cigarettes for their parents was super common!

[@DesScorp]

Yeah, it wasn't advertising that got kids to smoke. It's that every single dad (and most moms) smoked, and smoking was considered a rite of passage to adulthood back then. You looked cool when you lit up like James Dean in a movie. Every son wanted to be cool like his old man, and every girl wanted to rebel and hang out with the "fun boys"... who all smoked.

[@simonfrederiksen104]

considering that the surgeon generals report about smoking came out in '64 that's hardly surprising.

[@synaesthesia2010]

easily one of the best films from the 80s. a very simple plot but it's driven by the fantastic performances from its excellent cast

[@promisemochi]

i adore this movie so, so much. river was absolutely incredbile. the line "no man, he just doesn't know you" is something i've held onto for years regarding some personal issues from my own childhood. it completely changed my perspective of certain things and allowed me to heal from things. it's a remarkable line. so simple and yet really powerful. river was one of those people who you could just see his soul shine through in every little thing. the more i've read about him and seen his interviews the more touched i am by the person he was. it's a shame we lost him so young. this entire movie is just so beautiful. i love the friendship among the boys and the little moments, like when we find teddy's dad was at normandy and has ptsd that he's passed down onto teddy through his treatment of him and the complexity of their relationship. teddy knows his dad was a good and brave man who came back broken and loves the man that he was, while navigating the man he is now. it's such a heartbreaking thing and narratively done so well here. i have a great grandfather who served in WWI and while i never met him, my heart aches for the man that he was and the things he had to see and endure. this movie is something that, from the outside, looks so simple. and yet it is so powerful .

[@jmhaces]

To me one of the saddest things in this movie and the original short story is how both Vern and Chris's older bothers are part of the older gang and they not only don't do anything to protect them from Ace at any point, but actively participate in the bullying. None of the kids have an older brother. Teddy is an only child, Vern and Chris have shitty older brothers and Gordie lost his.

[@shainewhite2781]

One of the best coming of age movies ever made, based on the short story, The Body, by Stephen King. RIP, River Phoenix.

[@McPh1741]

Such a great, sad, movie. As a kid watching it back then, the pie eating contest was my favorite scene, and still gets me. But, watching it as an adult, I see the movie for the story it tells. It had a great cast of young talent at the time. Who would have guessed that out of the 4 main kids, the guy playing Vern the fat kid (Jerry O'Connell) would go on to have a pretty steady and successful career, become a Kalvin Klein model, and marry supermodel Rebecca Romijin. I remember him for the time travel show "Sliders" back in the day.

[@kerrissedai6857]

I don’t know I feel like Kiefer Sutherland’s career isn’t anything to belittle.

[@matthewfike4491]

Tomcats was a ridiculous gross out comedy Jerry O’Connell was in.

[@McPh1741]

For sure. Most everyone went on the have steady careers of varying success. Casey Siemaszko was in 3 o’clock High and Biloxi Blues along with other movies and TV appearances. Everyone knows all about Will Wheaton and Cory Feldman and John Cusack.

[@gregall2178]

@@McPh1741 *" Casey Siemaszko was in 3 o’clock High and Biloxi Blues along with other movies and TV appearances."* The remake of Of Mice And Men with Gary Sinese and John Malkovich 🙂

[@edvinrosenqvist524]

When River Phoenix was auditioning for the role, he did the scene about the milk money. The producers cried becaused they were so moved by his performence. And then he got the role.

[@Bad_Miracle]

I think that TV show you guys were thinking about is "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" where the "midnight society" would sit around a camp fire and tell scary stories. I used to watch it everyday after school growing up back in the 90s! :)

[@katwebbxo]

That's what I was thinking too. I just rewatched the show last year after not seeing it for almost 20 years lol.

[@Bad_Miracle]

@@katwebbxo Rewatching the whole series again actually sounds like a good idea! I guess I know what my weekend plans are now lol. I am so ready for the nostalgia!

[@katwebbxo]

@@Bad_Miracle Have fun! A lot of it was better than I remembered lol.

[@Serai3]

Gordy Lachance is King's stand-in. These were his friends when he was a kid. Chris Chambers was his best friend, and he did become a lawyer, and he did die the way the film says he did. King took these kids he knew and stories he'd written early on, and wove them into this tale of friendship and sudden adulthood. Rob Reiner cast the characters by looking for kids who embodied them: Corey Feldman was angry, River Phoenix was precociously wise, Jerry O'Connell was good-natured, and Wil Wheaton was depressed. They all fit perfectly. King has said that River played Chris so well that he had to leave the auditorium and go cry in the hallway.

[@ergoat]

Fewer juvenile smokers by the decade, but a certain % of Maine kids (where the novella by Stephen King is set) were smoking (and inhaling) at age 12 well into the late 90s (the legal age for buying cigarettes was 13 until 1994 or so, then it became 18). Great reaction!

[@promisemochi]

i was a 90s kid and i remember seeing smoking sections of the high school that was connected to our middle school. several kids i knew in 7th and 8th grade smoked and would often steal their parents cigarettes. the 90s don't feel like that far off (maybe because i just don't want to admit otherwise lol) but things were vastly different

[@cassu6]

@@promisemochi True, I'm an early 2000s kid and even in primary school I knew a few kids who smoked and the amount of kids who either smoked or used snus rose the older we got. Although at the end of high school I definitely noticed there being a lot fewer kids who used tobacco products. Not sure how it's nowadays, probably kids still use them quite a lot in the town I grew up in, since it's that kinda place lol. Definitely less than when I was in school though.

[@moonlitegram]

This is a movie I've revisited often throughout my life. Its so well made in every facet. And even though it takes place in the 50s and was made close to 40 years ago, I still feel like its something that just about anyone can relate to in some way or another.

[@promisemochi]

i stopped trying to count how many times i've seen it. i first saw it like 10 years ago and every year i watch it several times. it's a good comfort movie and one that's always there when you need it.

[@0okamino]

This movie _is_ a good friend.

[@moleman1976]

One of my all-time favorite movies, for the reason you expressed at the end - I love seeing boys be emotionally honest with each other. That openness is generally reserved only for your best friends, and I've been blessed to have friends that I've been able to open up to and that have opened up to me. Just a wonderful, wonderful movie!

[@ComeOnIsSuchAJoy]

Goofy is an anthropomorphic dog, just as Mickey and Minnie are anthropomorphic mice and Donald and Daisy are anthropomorphic ducks. Pluto, on the other hand, is a regular dog.

[@danhuyck527]

Cougars. "They're usually at bars" OMG I laughed big time. 21:02

[@saytr4]

I remember when River was going to play Young Indy in the 3rd movie. We all thought "Yeah, that makes sense. River could pull that off". He did of course. Great talent. Camera loved him. We all knew he was the next big thing. Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Val Kilmer, Tom Cruise.. that level. Didn't work out that way. RIP River.

[@313Capricorn]

The soundtrack to this film is incredible. Listened to it dozens of times on road trips when I was a kid.

[@PastHisPrime336]

Being from rural North Carolina, the gun scene was not an issue because they had the gun, it was concerning because they had no experience with it. The scene where Wheaton pulls the trigger without checking the chamber made them having it a potential issue. By the time I was 13 I had been introduced to rifles, shotguns, pistols, and bows and regularly went on skeet and turkey shoots. Turkey shoots are where you competed with shooting targets to win processed and ready to cook turkeys. I was in high school in the early-mid 90s and we had 16 and 17 years olds who would drive their trucks to school and park in the parking lot with rifles and shotguns hanging on their truck gun racks every day. We never thought twice about it.

[@patrickmyers2888]

This is a movie my parents made a conscious choice to show me at a young age, and it’s very important to me because of that. It’s so much fun to watch you guys enjoy it and see the importance of it just like I did when I was a kid. Love the reactions.

[@Cadinho93]

"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?" Stand by Me is a timeless film. Stephen King's story is skillfully brought to the screen under the direction of Rob Reiner and the 1950s are brought back to life just as successfully as Stephen King so often does in his stories and novels, with the slicked back hair, the hot rods, in the film and excellent '50s soundtrack.

[@therenegade79]

Yes the Simpson episode where Homer finds a body is a reference to this movie. Family guy also did a parody, featuring Ricard Dreyfuss narrating. With one of the best lines ever, at the end "Where are they now narration: "Cleve(Vern) grew up and went on to marry Rebecca Romijn. Actually, I'm not even joking about that. The fat kid from Stand By Me is now married to Rebecca Romijn. Can you believe that? I swear to God. Look it up on the internet. Doesn't that piss you off" Also, yes Wil Wheton was on TNG, but Jerry O'Connell (Vern) was in Sliders, but voices Commander Jack Ransom on Star Trek Lower Decks.

[@visualartsbyjr2464]

I was 14 when this came out. Acting was great and still holds up. The sound track is a bop! Due to moving around so much in my youth I didn’t relate to the life long friends… hunting, outdoors, etc were a large part from what I recall. I got a .22 for my 12th birthday and was taught how to shoot various rifles, shotguns, & gun safety. Handguns were not a part of it, even with my various friends.

[@smavtmb2196]

Good movie Simone's reaction to the leeches was amazing. I remember seeing this in the theater, and was only a couple years younger then the main characters. I felt like I was not just on the adventure with them, but part of their group. Wow time flys by. It's so tragic River Phoenix is gone.

[@loxley75]

That was such a flashback watching that again! I havent seen that movie for about thirty years and had forgotten how good it is! So strange seeing it now as an adult!

[@synaesthesia2010]

was at mt parents last year and it came on on a channel she had the TV set to. my dad isn't one for watching films and he'd only seen small bits of it before but couldn't remember much. he sat through the whole film and thoroughly enjoyed it, first time i'd seen him enjoy a film for years

[@lilevil2045]

yes family guy and the simpsons did parodies of stand by me. my favorite part of the parody when at the end the narrator says can you believe the chubby kid from stand by me married a sports illustrated swimsuit cover model. lol true story. jerry oconnell and rebecca romijn

[@sydhamelin1265]

Stephen King has a theme with adults and bullies, and some people think it's lazy on his part, but I think it's that he really relates to the absurdity and cruelty of the people who have authority and abuse it. He still remembers what it's like to be an outcast kid.

[@Elurin]

I agree. But I think the story really comes from the mind of a child, as if he never came to understand and mature and appreciate the horror that his older generation had gone through. The adults of SK parent's generation and in the Story went through World War 2, most of the Adults (the men, mostly) in "Stand by Me" were very likely WW2 vets. That's not to excuse stupid or evil behaviour, but one can develop some amount of empathy when you realize this. SK writes with no empathy to authority figures whatsoever, very much like a very talented kid, but an emotionally damaged one.

[@sydhamelin1265]

@@Elurin I half agree with you. When he writes stories about kids, then yes, adults and older kids are often 'the enemy'. But when he writes about adults, that's not the case, then it's a mixed bag.

[@skiziskin]

Thank you for reviewing this. You do this better than anyone. Stand by Me is one of my top five favorite films.

[@robertbunting3117]

The intended audience never even batted an eye about some kids running around with a gun...or at least I never did, also River Phoenix was incredible. so destined to be huge

[@jculver1674]

It was pretty common back in the '50s for kids to have guns, especially in small towns. Less common when the movie came out in the '80s, but certainly not unheard of. I owned several guns as a teen in the '90s, and me and my friends would go camping in the hills and bring our rifles with us, but our parents made sure to teach us about gun safety and never, ever treat them like toys.

[@bobbabai]

Not really true. I grew up in the 1960s in Pontiac, Michigan at the edge of town. Some dirt roads, some paved streets. Some friends with comfortable families, some who really clearly didn't have much at all. Guns were not uncommon. We snuck a friend's older brother's .22 rifle out to a field and shot at a wooden shed about 50 yards away, no real concern at all for what was behind it (houses another 200 or 300 yards beyond). But the gun in this movie was pretty shocking for me. When I was a kid, no one carried a gun around, or at least you didn't know about it. No one ever brandished their gun that I ever saw. I never once saw a handgun of any kind. I don't know what the hell the adults were doing with their guns, but I did see a bunch of yokels with greased back hair climb into a Buick in the summer of 1967 with rifles. The story was they were off to Detroit to shoot up a bunch of ungrateful not-white people in the city who were rioting, with the idea of saving America from.... whatever.

[@raifthemad]

I'm from eastern europe and I didn't bat an eye either. Only think I'm freaking out about is the oompaloompas all have abysmal trigger discipline. The way they all hold their finger on the trigger makes me very nervous.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

@@bobbabai * cough * Rittenhouse!

[@bobbabai]

@@oliverbrownlow5615 I assume you're referring to Kyle Rittenhouse. I don't understand how his name is relevant here.

[@CharlesVanNoland]

Ah, you guys got an intro now! This film was my jam as a young boy in the 90s. I had my dad record basically the whole movie soundtrack onto a cassette tape for me and he gave me an old 70s stereo/cassette/radio/alarm/clock that was like an oversized shoebox that I listened to that tape on for years as a kid. I also recorded a mix tape off the radio with that thing. I still know all the songs that are in this movie because I listened to them all the time as a kid and have sung them my whole life. RIP Dad.

[@JamesSmith144]

"There's a movie on TV. Four boys are walking on railroad tracks. … I'd better go, too." Apparently this was a favourite film of the makers of Pokemon

[@0okamino]

When this came up, I knew it had to be my first reaction to watch today. I was sure it would land solidly with both of you, and I think it went beyond even what I was expecting. Watching this movie so many times, over decades, as I went from early adolescence to adulthood, what it meant and means to me has certainly changed, but that meaning continues to be important.

[@danfishman8584]

To answer your question George, as an older viewer (born mid 60s) who grew up in Texas, I wasn't put off much by the gun. But I was REALLY REALLY bothered by the bad trigger discipline. You never put your finger on the trigger unless you are going to shoot. I wish they emphasized this point in every movie.

[@Deined]

As an early middle-aged guy, I was worried about the kids' fingers on the trigger, too (though I don't I would've thought about it as much at their age, unfortunately). Given how shitty the kids' parents were, though, I doubt the kids were taught much about gun safety in the first place.

[@logankerlee]

Great video, you two! Enjoyed the full reaction over on Patreon as well. :)

[@jimtatro6550]

This is one of the best Stephen King adaptations ever. It’s perfectly written, directed and most of all, cast. R.I.P. River Phoenix.

[@shadmedina3033]

“I’m scared of cougars,” “……….they’re usually at bars.” 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@guitarelaxed]

Yeah, that one went over Simone´s head.

[@BoxOKittens]

Honestly, as a 90s kid, roaming around the streets and woods, as a little girl with a friend or group of friends, was the best times of my life. Yeah there were bad times when things got dangerous, usually because of shady adults, but it was still such cool adventures. You never really get to do that as an adult unless you've got money. Heck, even kids today can't really do that anymore because all the free places to hang out like skate parks, playgrounds, arcades, etc are all either becoming too expensive or just closing down.

[@bovelomenace99]

23:03 lol lil man looked like…”how does this game work🧐” 😂

[@GrumpySoth]

Simone perfectly encapsulated the feelings a lot of boys and now men wish they could('ve) demonstrate to their friends to show that their feelings are relevant and need to be discussed. Great one guys.

[@JugheadJones03]

One of my absolute favorites. Thank you for immersing yourselves into this grand tale. : )

[@Pengi_SMILES]

The River Phoenix story is a tragic story anyway but he would have been a major filmstar, the Dicaprio of his generation. As it is he made some phenomenal films in his short career. When you are the most talented actor in a family with Joaquin Phoenix you know you are good.

[@Madbandit77]

I think River would have taken the roles Leo is best known for, had he lived. Probably would have earned another Oscar nomination (he got one for "Running For Empty") and won.

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

From what his friends and family have said River Phoenix was an adult when he was about 13. Because of his families bohemian lifestyle where they moved around a lot, had next to no money where he wasn't even schooled as the oldest sibling he took it upon himself to excel in whatever medium he could that didn't require an education to give the family some financial stability so he threw himself into the arts excelling at the guitar and acting. Was definitely the James Dean of my generation as every girl loved him, all the boys thought he was cool and wanted to be him. Seeing him wave and fade away at the end hit so much harder when I rewatched it after he died

[@Madbandit77]

Even Sarah Michelle Gellar had a crush on him. River's passing sadly made the film more poignant than it should be. It's been thirty years now.

[@SilentBob731]

Nooo Forkin' Waaay!!!! My favourite reaction channel covering one of my favourite movies (biased here, I was literally twelve, going on thirteen when this came out). Also...Great Intro, Simone! Don't let "The Man" get you down. 👍✌❤ 12:36 Good point, George. Pop music has always been catchy and largely forgettable (except by me). 😁

[@KrappiTheClown]

The dead pan way George said "No, they're usually at bars"

[@erikholmes644]

If you want to see another really good Stephen King drama, I highly recommend try the 1995 film "Dolores Claiborne", starring Kathy Bates and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

[@luiscalzoncit2820]

The cartoons that you mention are actually called "Freaky Stories" and all of them started with the line "It happened to a friend's friend..." They were animation shorts ( 5-ish minutes?) I remember watching them in Cartoon Network between shows in the early 2000's.

[@gojiberry7201]

I have a lot of generational trauma in my line ... my parents are older Boomer/Silent Generation. Their motto is, Don't Talk About It. EVER. I still don't know most stuff that happened in my mom's home, but I know there was physical abuse, mental abuse, PTSD from WWII, and incest. My mom's only words to me were that "you just get over it." Of course that isn't the case ... I think it was a survival mechanism back then, but my mom would rather die than go to therapy. She didn't even like it that I was in therapy. It was a big fear thing, what other people think of you. That mattered more than the well being of your children. So I think the "image" of needing mental help stopped many people from admitting that something was wrong in their lives. They would rather stuff it ... and pass it down to their kids.

[@kimo_]

Its funny that Simone said the only one she know is Will Weaton because, as Sheldon Cooper said in a Big Bang Theory episode, he was the Stand By Me kid who nobody remember his name. And for me it was right. Corey Feldman was very famous because The Goonies, The Lost Boys, Gremlins... River Phoenix too, he was in Explorers, Sneakers, Little Nikita, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, etc. Jerry O'Connell maybe was not so popular but he was in the tv series My Secret Identity and Sliders. But I only was enable to remember Will Weaton when he begin to portrait himself in The Big Bang Theory. When he was in Star Trek I never could watch the show.

[@ryanh603]

I think back in the 50s, it was more common for kids to be shooting and owning guns because school shootings were unheard of then. You also gotta remember that boys back then were born and raised in the wake of WWII to gung-ho dads that served in the war. A further factor is when it came to movies and TV shows, westerns were all the rage and everybody knew who John Wayne was. If boys got in a fight back then, they would pretty much shake hands and move on when it was over, rather than plotting to shoot the other person. The 50s and even the 80s was a simpler time to grow up in in contrast to the last 30 years. But then again, I’m just speaking for American kids growing up through the decades.

[@oliverbrownlow5615]

Remember, movies were actually censored under the Hays code until the late 1960's.

[@ryanh603]

@@oliverbrownlow5615 right about the time of the bloody spaghetti westerns, the rise of the New Hollywood era, and the influence of European cinema going forward into the 70s.

[@RobFMDetroit]

Yes, the Flintstones very famously were used to sell cigarettes. The commercial is on KZbin.

[@kenyattaclay7666]

River Phoenix & his brother were/is an amazing actor but once you delve into their parents background I think it was pretty easy for him to draw from something extremely painful. When they were much younger they were being raised in a legit cult. Also, in 1950’s America (likely Canada also) it was not unusual for 13 year olds to start smoking. I’m the same age as these actors so my parents would’ve been roughly the same age as the characters they play & I’ve heard all the stories about how kids were smoking & drinking at that age. Hack even around the time this movie came out, maybe just a couple years before, parents could send their kids as young as six to buy cigarettes with just a note.

[@CEngelbrecht]

Story goes that during a break in filming, Kiefer Sutherland was teaching River Phoenix how to play the guitar. The song he was teaching him was the early 1960s hit "Stand by me" originally performed by Ben E. King (which is somewhat forgiving in terms of chords, it's like all G, Em, C and D). The film's director Rob Reiner walks by and says, "Oh man, I haven't heard that song in twenty years." By the time filming wrapped, the title had changed from Stephen King's original novella "The Body" to… "Stand by me".

[@budhalbr]

I always felt this was an adult's (Gordy) interpretation of childhood events that were huge at the time, including the exaggeration of the emotions and behaviors of the adults around you. To a kid, the behavior of the adults always seemed extreme. Until you matured and could see things in the context of your parents dealing with the ultimate tragedy of losing a child.

[@jackmessick2869]

I can remember many times having those "dry heave" crying jags when i was 13.

[@VilleHalonen]

Ooh, cool new Monty Python -esque intro! I like it! And the cat meme reference

[@otisroseboro5613]

This Is Definitely One Of My All Time Favorite Movie's, Great Reaction Guy's

[@njsmith8614]

okay, but recognizing river phoenix's immense talent is never a hot take.

[@VilleHalonen]

I think him dying was the first celebrity death that hit me hard. I'm still not over it. Watching this for the first time now was heartbreaking.

[@grife3000]

Yeah I assume George was being sarcastic here. Surely he knows him from Last Crusade. And if they haven't seen "My Own Private Idaho" that should be added to the list.

[@stanger7565]

I grew up in Nebraska, U.S.A during the 80s .I was going target shooting at 8 or 9 years old. But was also taught to respect firearms and always treat them as if it were loaded. Life was a lot like in this movie.... We would hop on our bikes and leave our house in the morning. Hang out with our friends roaming around town or at the lake. As long as we were home by supper time everything was OK. And just like to say, your reactions never fail to entertain. Always interesting to see people react to films I grew up watching

[@donovanraaum3259]

You guys need to do Lucky Number Slevin. Lucy Liu's most adorable role.

[@nsasupporter7557]

Wow! Yes, Lucky Number Slevin was a good crime movie… it a movie that just “came and went” so to speak. I’m surprised you brought it up

[@skeetercoddiwomple6269]

July 23rd is Stand by Me day in Brownsville Oregon (Castle Rock). They do a pie eating contest in the park plus other activities.

[@brycedyck8450]

The calculation for 1950s dollar values is roughly 10 to 1. Therefore, $2.37 in the fifties is the same as $23.70 today, more or less😊

[@bigredtlc1828]

The chubby boy in the film is now married to Rebecca Romijn, the model and Mystique in X-Men films. God bless him.

[@lordrahl2345]

Speaking as someone who was 12 and had parents who grew up in the 50's when this came out, the fact that they had a gun was not anything too abnormal. Not that kids walked around with guns, but that they "borrowed" it to take camping wasn't completely strange. When Stephen King saw this for the 1st time he had to take about 15 mins to compose himself because this was based on his semi-autobiographical story of what happened when he was that age. RIP River Phoenix

[@buzzardbeatniks]

I was 13 when this came out and saw nothing weird about them having a gun either, especially in a small town or in the country.

[@trajancanada]

Grew up in a small town in Canada in the 1980's, we actually did stuff like this (minus the dead body). Hike out into the countryside, through woods and down railroad tracks. That's why this is one of my favourite movies. Those lazy summer days in a simpler time. Cheers.

[@RexFuturi]

Up through the 70s at least, kids took rifles to school, had gun lessons in school. I wasn't around then, but I've heard that the view of guns radically changed since then, because as guns became less commonly seen in public, people became more scared of them.

[@theshadowfax239]

Not seeing as many guns in public is not the reason people are afraid of them. That's silly. 🙄

[@RexFuturi]

@@theshadowfax239 No, it's literally what happened. People fear things they aren't used to. Firearms have become increasingly mystified over the last few decades as they've receded from common view. It really is pretty basic psychology. It's a shame you're too "silly" to understand how that works. People are actually OVER-sensitized to firearms today, and it shows a complete lack of understanding or empathy for people of the past that you can only see from your own defective point of view.

[@sydhamelin1265]

Fun stuff: the 4 kids in this are only about 5 years older than I am (Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, etc...) so by the time I saw this, I was about their age, and it was the late 80s. My friends and I would ALWAYS go out and about on the weekends, just finding places to go and hanging out, and funny enough, there were 4 of us, and we were all really close. So this movie, even though it's set like 30 years before I was a kid, still really resonates with me. The fun part of life is that I've stayed friends with everyone, and we all still get together from time to time. This movie nailed it, as far as that kind of friendship. Not to get too crazy, but I went through a pretty rough time at one point, and one of my friends was exactly like Chris Chambers, making sure I'd get through it.

[@fuzzy__dunlop]

Hi Simone 👋 👋 👋 Woo. Edit: as a multiple gun owner, who carries one every day, his finger on the trigger at 20:19 is infuriating. Terrible trigger-discipline.

[@kiwidave8930]

We studied this in my first year of high school. I think I literally only remembered the scene with the train bridge.

[@dracoargentum9783]

LOVE the new title screen! [especially the Ponty Mythonesque foot and strawberry at the end.]

[@dastu7417]

You guys are friends like this movie. That's why you're both so enjoyable to watch.

[@MrBlueSkyof1607]

15:26 Yes, I TOO was surprised they didn't break any bones, let alone die, from that fall.

[@Serai3]

"The four hobbits. These are orcs." No, no, they're the Nazgul. They come flying in on their machines and try to take the treasure from the hobbits. :D

[@danilopapais1464]

Did anyone else raise their fist into the air at the beginning and screamed "WHEATON!"?

[@lazyperfectionist1]

5:50 "What do we need a _comb_ for?" "Well if we get on _TV,_ we wanna look _good,_ don't we?" How are _you_ gonna benefit from a comb, Vern? Look at that hair. It's so short, it stands up.

[@KrissyFace]

I’ve watched 30+ reactions and have yet to make any sense out of Simone’s intros 😂

[@chanceneck8072]

12:26 Yeah, I watched this movie for the first time when I was WAAAAY too young. 😅 I only remembered it for the Lollipop song. And the scene with the leeches....

[@YoshMaster]

Quinn Mallory from Sliders as a kid before he invented multiverse travel! 😁 one of my favourite actor because of that series

[@steph0711]

I first watched this movie back at school. From the first time watching, I loved it and It'll be forever one of my favorite movies.

[@blakefreitas5409]

So glad you guys did this reaction. Love this film. Thank you so much!

[@markcorl2022]

River Phoenix also gives a great performance in the film ‘The Mosquito Coast’. Also starred Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren and Martha Plimpton. Great film!