Stand By Me (1986)

Somewhat I'm sure, but River Phoenix died in 93, so I'd say it's more to do with Kiefer Sutherland's popularity which came shortly after as well as Corey Feldman's popularity prior to the movie with somewhat diminishing returns over the next decade for him and Wil Weaton's royal pain-in-the-arsey which came from the popularity of TNG - if we're going by actors alone.

I'd rather stipulate that we have some classic King writing with a nostos inspired by American Graffiti, which led to Happy Days, which further inspired The Wonder Years and much of the popular nostalgia which is inherent in popular culture these days.

It was Rob Reiner's best years and nested among The Breakfast Club and Explorers for most people really touched upon the difficult years of being a younger person, mostly notable in novels such as The Catcher in the Rye. The audience didn't have to be younger or older than the characters on screen in these movies, they just had to remember (If even for their first time).

Add to that a soundtrack that would keep Levi's stocked up for the next decade in advertising music and you have an automatic self contained circuit appealing to 3 generations of consumers.

That's my take on it.

Lollipop, lollipop. Oh lolli lolli lolli. Lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli lolli lolli, lollipop, lollipop, oh lolli lolli lollipop 🔆 (Badum dum dum)...

None for me,I watched it before he died.
I love this film and everything about it.It's actually better than the novella in my humble opinion.
It reminds me of childhood,going on adventures,getting into real danger.Bonding with friends.

For me, nothing to do with that at all.

What I love about this film is the nostalgia indeed for simpler times. It reminds me of rambling around with my own little friends, albeit it we were girls not boys. It conveys very well an air of relatively carefree childhood despite the elements of difficulty and stress in the storyline.

It dismays me that someone will always bring up the issue of a dead star and assign a movie's entire appeal to that, rather than any other factor.

Do we all say people only like Citizen Kane because Orson Welles is dead? There are tons of dead people in movies everyone loves. Bit tired of this weird phenomenon.

I'd also add that all four boys carried the film almost on their own and all turned in wonderful performances.
I love it,I have to ration myself viewings!

No, it's just a very good movie. Simple.


😎

For me, it really has nothing to do with River Phoenix's death since I saw this movie before he died. I read the novella first. When I saw that the story was going to be made into a movie I was extremely excited because I loved the story so much. Why? In Gordie's words, it reminds me that
" I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"

You do know there’s a Stand by me board on this sight right?
Seems like that would be a more appropriate place for this discussion.

There's a lot of love for this movie. I can appreciate that.