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movie review - Stand By Me

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

After more than thirty years, I finally saw this mid-'80s classic about four boys who set off to find a body in the woods. It's both a coming-of-age story and the tale of the main character, who is dealing with the loss of his all-star older brother.

It's well told, but there's something wrong at the center of this thing. I don't know what it is, but there's a perfunctory feeling about the story like it's more of a sequence of scenes than an authentic tale. Perhaps it's because the stakes in many of the scenes don't feel terribly high, or that the challenges and outcomes of one scene feel somehow disconnected to the next. I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that the main cast were all children. Whatever the matter, I really don't think this is what everyone says it is: I don't think it has that much to say. The thing is heavily narrated, and if you were to take out the narration you wouldn't be left with much. And I think that movies shouldn't need to be narrated to have a point.

Not recommended. Though I seem to be the only one on the planet to say so.