Kinematoscope

Today's countdown entry, 1986's Stand By Me, is yet another of the many classic 80s films that I missed while I was watching Flight Of The Navigator over and over and over.

From the pop consciousness at large I've gathered that's it's some sort of coming of age tale involving a corpse, a train, and the 50s. And presumably standing near one another, literally or figuratively. Let's see what I missed!

The Key Players:

Rob Reiner makes his second appearance on the countdown as director, working from a short story by the much-adapted Stephen King.

Our story follows a quartet of child stars, each of whom would go on to varying degrees of adult sucess: Wil Wheaton went from the most annoying character on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to one of the more beloved people on the internet, somehow. Corey Feldman was ubiqitous during the 80s and early 90s, then laid low until nostalgia kicked in. Jerry O'Connell has been in over sixty episodes apiece of three different television series- can you name the two that aren't "Sliders"? And River Phoenix was poised for not only success but respectability (My Own Private Idaho) before OD-ing in 1993.

Jack Bauer Kiefer Sutherland has a supporting role, while Richard Dreyfuss acts as narrator.



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The Story:

Four twelve year old best buds go on a quest to find a dead body in 1959. That's pretty much it. There's our narrator Gordie (Wheaton) who wants to be a writer and is definitely not just Stephen King when he was twelve at all, tough kid Chris (Phoenix), budding psychopath Teddy (Feldman), and butt-of-every-joke Vern (O'Connell). The former three deal with various father-issues throughout the story, while Vern is mostly just a goofball.

Racing the kids to the body is stereotypical older bully Kiefer Sutherland and his posse- everyone seems to imagine that finding the corpse of a kid who got hit by a train will bring them untold glory.

The Artistry:

I dunno. There isn't much I took away from Stand By Me- nothing about it was visually arresting, the child-acting was competent at best, and the story generally ham-fisted in a very Stepehn Kingish, telling-not-showing (with extra telling viz voiceover) kind of way.

40 years from now, will our era be signified solely by top 40 radio hits? The use of Buddy Holly's "Everyday" and The Chordettes' "Lollipop" felt kind of cliche to me, but that's probably not fair- there were fewer radio stations back then, I suppose. But the constant soundtrack selections seemed to do nothing more than yell "IT'S THE FIFTIES! 1959 IN YOUR FACE!" to me. Though the boys singing the theme to "Have Gun Will Travel" was a subtler touch, and I liked the low-key rendering of the titular Ben E. King song as a score motif.

The pie-eating contest (a story of Gordie's we see visualized) is a colorful, if disgusting, digression, but the only scene that stood out to me was the ambling campfire discussion- it seemed like things twleve-year-olds would actually say, and was funny to boot ("Wagon Train's a really cool show, but did you notice they never get anywhere? They just keep wagon training.")

And finally we come to one of my least favorite things: the Unecessary Framing Device. Let's discuss this behind the spoiler wall.

THE ENDING! SPOILERS!

So three of the kids cry about their respective fathers (Vern remains a goofball), then they find the body (deciding wisely to make an anonymous tip instead of glory-hounding), face down the bully, and part ways back in town.

How nice. But through voice-over, Future Gordie (Dreyfus) tells us what became of Vern, Teddy, and Chris- the chief fact being that Chris overcame the odds, became a lawyer, then got stabbed trying to break up a fight at a restaurant.

Gordie has become a successful novelist, after he was lucky enough to have his first book made into a film (which was probably Carrie but with a totally different spelling).

I don't know- it feels manipulative to me. Remember this character you cared about? He died senselessly! You're all a bunch of saps! I know this is basically Stephen King's memoir (and in fact all three of the friends in the novella "The Body" die in young adulthood), but the mechanics of the revelation bug me. What do we gain by seeing Dreyfus looking somber at the beginning and end?

Other than, of course, the eye-rolling last lines of his memoir: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

END SPOILERS



Overall: Should It Be Higher, Lower?

Maybe I'm supposed to be twelve when I see it? Lower. To be clear, that just means that I don't find it countdown-worthy, not that it's terrible. Rob Reiner was still some years away from showing us what 'terrible' means.

The Legacy:

The cloying screenplay got an Oscar nomination despite being clearly the weakest part of the film, and there's the career-launching covered above. It also led to the founding of Castle Rock Entertainment, named for the fictional Oregon setting.

The Best Video Of It On YouTube:

"The kind of talk that seemed important until you discover girls."



Leftover Thoughts:

-Now I can finally check this off of the "Popular Corey Feldman Movies I Never Saw For One Reason Or Another" List, along with Goonies, which I finally saw last year (meh). Next up, The Lost Boys.

-"Mighty Mouse is a cartoon. Superman is a real guy. There's no way a cartoon can beat up a real guy."

-My favorite part about Stand By Me in general might be the Pez line as the poster tag. That's pretty great.


Coming Up...

162. The Terminator

161. Amores Perros

160. Finding Nemo

Sometimes I find these things nearly impossible to write- for example, what is there to possibly say about 1987's The Princess Bride.

Unless you lost your sense of humor in a childhood boating accident, I can't imagine this utterly charming adventure film not winning you over. But I guess I'll find something to analyze.

The Key Players:

Director Rob Reiner rose to fame as 'Meathead' on "All In The Family," before embarking on a successful 80s filmmaking career reminiscient of the studio- I mean to say his biggest hits lack a discernable style, and are remembered for their stars: Stand By Me, Misery, When Harry Met Sally.., and so on. After the pinnacle of A Few Good Men's Best Picture nomination in 1992, Reiner's had few critical or commercial successes, other than the winning An American President or the modestly successful (but lame) The Bucket List.

Many stars in this one: Cary Elwes (recently seen Saw-ing his foot off) and Robin Wright (Jenny from Forrest Gump) lead the way. Veteran stage/television actor Mandy Patinkin, WWF strongman André the Giant, and thin-voiced character actor Wallace Shawn add some color. Chris Sarandon (Dog Day Afternoon) and mockumentary maestro Christopher Guest play the villains, while tv's "Columbo" Peter Falk and a pre-"Wonder Years" Fred Savage frame the story for us.



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The Story:

Allow me to explain.

No, there is too much: let me sum up. Savage is a boy sick in bed, Falk is a jovial grandfather reading him the titular story (by "S. Morgenstern," the same alleged author that screenwriter William Goldman claimed to abridge the novel from).

It's a story of true love (between Wright and Elwes) torn asunder by circumstance and a boorish prince (Sarandon). There's a giant (André), a swordsman (Patinkin) who's sworn revenge on a six-fingered man (Guest), and a scheming Sicilian (Shawn) that's often incredulous.

Pirates, right and left-handed duels, wrestling matches, torture devices, conspiracies of war, death (and mostly-death), last-minute rescues, and plenty of other things ensue. I'd go into more detail, but I bet you've seen it.

The Artistry:

I really should have given Goldman his own paragraph in the Key Players section, as the two-time Oscar winner's script is the erudite and winning heart and soul of The Princess Bride.

So many classic lines, peppered with wry asides and crackling with perfect comic timing, make this film an instant classic. We'll get to those in a special, all-quotes Leftover Thoughts at the end.

The performances are almost universally wonderful, and even André the Giant's stilted line-readings and Wright's thankless straight-person role just get more endearing with repeat viewings. Elwes brings a gentlemanly comport and immpeccable diction to the role of Westley that keeps the odd monologue from affecting the pace, and Patinkin throws himself into the most compelling subplot headlong- and Guest, on the other side, puts on an icily creepy demeanor that makes him unrecognizable to fans of Waiting For Guffman.

Billy Crystal stops by to ply his usual Catskills shtick as an aged medicine man, but it's well-purposed and in a small dose. Carol Kane and Peter Cook also have memorable cameos. In fact, the bit players elicit some of the biggest laughs from me each time I watch The Princess Bride, from "Twue wuv!" to Mel Smith's albino clearing his throat after initially speaking in a stereotypical rasp.

The score by Dire Straits' Mark Knoplfer might sound a little dated, sure, and the action scenes (outside of either fencing scene with Patinkin) seem a little corny, but that's just part of the charm: I'd be willing for a clunky wrestling match of triple the length with the Rodent Of Unusual Size in light of the classic timing of its introduction.

The storytelling framing device is the rare frame that I'll allow in film, especially in the case of fairy tales (if there's a Framing Device Acceptability Scale, then Fairy Tale Told To A Child is on one end and Elderly Deathbed Flashback is on the other).

It even allows us, through Fred Savage's young indignance, to skip over some early mushy parts involving Wright and Elwes early romance and first reunion- much the way Goldman, in "abridging" the supposed Morgenstern manuscript, glosses humorously over the long passages of the history of Florin and so forth.

THE ENDING! SPOILERS!

True love: 1, Evil Prince: 0. Also Guest's is introduced to Inigo Montoya, reminded that he killed the father of same, and then dutifully prepared to die.

Young Savage, won over by the mushy stuff after all, asks to hear the story again the next day.

END SPOILERS


Overall: Should It Be Higher, Lower?

Higher than the Cliffs of Insanity themselves!

The Legacy:

There was almost a musical version for the stage, until Goldman insisted on 75% of the credit instead of the usual 50% with the songwriter. There may even someday be a sequel to the novel as well- until then we just updates on Goldman's battle with Morgenstern's tempestuous estate.

The Best Video Of It On YouTube:

Favorite scene contender, out of many: The Duel.



Leftover Thoughts:

-"He's right on top of us. I wonder if he is using the same wind we are using."

-"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

-"The most famous of which is "'never get involved in a land war in Asia'"

-"Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist."

-"You just wiggled your finger. That's wonderful!"

-"Oh, you mean this gate key?"

-"Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work..."


Coming Up...

179. The Night Of The Hunter

178. Les Diaboliques

177. Grave Of The Fireflies