Stand by Me
Short description
Stand by Me follows four twelve-year-old boys in a small Oregon town at the end of the summer of 1959. When Vern learns that a missing boy his own age has been killed near the railway line, he and his friends Gordie, Chris and Teddy set out along the tracks to find the body, hoping to be treated as heroes for the discovery. Their hike across the countryside, and their encounters with a junkyard owner and with the older boys who are also looking for the body, turns the trip into a test of the friendships among them.
Rob Reiner directed the film, the third of the nineteen features he has directed in chronological order, following The Sure Thing and preceding The Princess Bride. Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Andrew Scheinman. The four boys are played by Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell, with Kiefer Sutherland and Casey Siemaszko among the supporting cast.
Released in August 1986, the film had a budget of about 8 million dollars and took roughly 52 million worldwide, a strong return on its cost. It holds an 8.1 rating on IMDb from some 484,000 votes and a 7.8 on TMDB from around 6,750 votes, while critics rated it 7.9 from 128 reviews, so audiences and critics are closely aligned on it.
What's left behind the scenes
- During the filming of a particular scene, one of the extras, a child, actually vomited. A mixture of cottage cheese and blueberries was used as the vomit.
- Kiefer Sutherland's character drives a 1950 Ford.
- Corey Feldman and director Rob Reiner went through 30 different laugh tracks before choosing the one used for Teddy, who was played by Corey.
- At the insistence of fanatical anti-smoking advocate Rob Reiner, the boys' cigarettes contained cabbage leaves instead of tobacco.
- Adrian Lyne was supposed to direct the film, but because he was unable to finish "9 1/2 Weeks," he was forced to hand the project over to Rob Reiner.
- Initially, David Dukes was cast as the narrator. Some scenes were filmed with his participation, after which they were reshot with Richard Dreyfuss. But in the first scene, where the character is shown in a car in a long shot, Dukes remained.
- The main actors weren’t shown Ray Brower’s body until the very last moment to capture their genuine reaction.
- The film is based on Stephen King's novella "The Body" (1982).
- Despite numerous rumors to the contrary, the leeches were not real. They were held on with rubber glue mixed with something pink, which was meant to look like blood, and they were very irritating to the skin. After filming, the boys weren't even allowed to go to the public pool because the marks from the leeches looked like a skin disease.
- The boys pool their money and it turns out they have a total of $2.37. The number 237 appears repeatedly in Stephen King's works.
- The train scene took a whole week to film. Stunt performers of short stature and female gender with short haircuts were used in the filming. For safety reasons, the viaduct was covered with sheets of plywood.
- River Phoenix auditioned for the role of Gordie Lachance, but director Rob Reiner decided he was better suited for the role of Chris.
- The pond the boys fall into was actually a swimming pool; the film crew didn't want to send the boys into a real pond where goodness knows what might be found.
- The scene where Gordie and Vern almost get hit by a train was impossible to film because Wil Wheaton and Jerry O’Connell didn’t look scared enough. It ended with the director yelling at them and continuing to yell until they cried, after which they were able to play the scene convincingly.
- The scene where Wil Wheaton and Jerry O'Connell run towards the camera while being chased by a train was filmed on an overpass using a telephoto lens.
- Corey Haim (1971-2010) auditioned for the role of Gordie, but the studio offered him the role of Chris. In the end, Corey turned down the role to star in David Zelcer's film "Lucas" (1986). The role of Teddy was played by Corey Haim's friend, Corey Feldman.
- The novella and the film are set in Castle Rock, Maine and Oregon, respectively. The same name is used by Rob Reiner's company.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
