Standing By

Possums! Welcome to the second installment in my journey to watch all of the late River Phoenix's movies, thereby becoming a Phoenix Completist. The 1986 movie Stand By Me was Phoenix's second feature film. Let that sentence sink in for a minute. The second movie you ever make becomes one of the classics of American film, and it's not like you've got some bit part, Agitated Boy #2 or something, you're one of the freaking leads!!!

Quick facts here for those living under rocks or born so late that this movie counts as a period piece (I mean, technically it is since it's set in the late 50s). The movie is directed by Rob Reiner and based on the Stephen King short story "The Body." Four boys from Oregon go on a two-day hike to find a dead body that they heard was in the woods. That's basically the whole plot, plus a loooooooooooot of daddy issues. 

Before I begin to ramble somewhat incoherently about what this movie made me think and feel (you can look forward to my analysis of trains, a moment when I feel a kindred connection to Phoenix, and I'll introduce you to a fun game I play when watching the credits), a huge shout out to the casting directors for this film, Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins who managed to cast child actors without any duds. Phoneix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell all had decent careers post Stand By Me, and this movie also features a young Kiefer Sutherland as the bully AND a young John Cusack as the dead older brother (not a spoiler, he's dead from the beginning, and not the body that they go to find). I thought that was impressive.

So, the four main boys each strap a blanket to their shoulders and start walking, after telling their parents the always fool-proof 80s movie lie that they're all spending the night at someone else's house. No 80s parent checked on their children in any capacity ever, so that plot point holds up. They have all, however, neglected to bring food, so they pool their money and Wil Wheaton (his character has a name, I just don't care what it is) buys meat to make four hamburgers and four buns. This food somehow lasts them the entire two days and they never once complain about hunger. 

Clearly enough food for 4 people for 2 days

For some reason they take shelter in a junk yard with a known ornery owner and dog for a while, and they start squirting water out of their mouths into a bucket. Phoenix, I noticed, seemed to have a little trouble spitting the water, so I felt a kinship with him, as I too have had difficulty when required to perform a water stunt with my mouth on camera.

I was filming an intro scene for my husband's sketch comedy group years ago where I had to do a spit take right in his face (you can see it here at the 2:24 mark, then stayed tuned for about 8 seconds of me fake laughing. If that doesn't sound like a long time, you're wrong). It was just after the director first called "action" that I learned I had assumed I would be able to do a spit take on command, nay at all, but we all quickly realized how wrong I was. For one take I just opened my mouth and the large gulp of water I had taken ran freely down my chin while I made no attempt whatsoever to spit. Is doing a spit take hard? No, it is not, which made this realization all the more embarrassing. After multiple takes where I got worse instead of better, my dear friend and fellow actor Trent Wilkie stepped in as my spit-take double, so the shot in the skit where Sam is getting sprayed in the face with mouth water, well that's all the work of Trent (he got it in one take, the bastard). Anyway, seeing River Phoenix also have trouble with on camera spit work, I felt that, had we met, our bond would have been strengthened through this obvious connection.

Unattainable
(photo credit: Nick Looy, Pixabay)

I have seen Stand By Me once before, and I remembered exactly two scenes from it: the scene with the train on the trestle bridge, and the scene with the leeches. I will begin with the leeches, which to me is the one scene in the movie that truly feels like it belongs in a Stephen King story (I guess the dead body tracks too), because these leeches are enormous. I will refer to them (in a nod to director Rob Reiner who also directed The Princess Bride) as L.O.U.Ss - Leeches Of Unusual Size. They are enormous, and I know of what I speak here, because once a leech curled up for a nap in between my toes (if this sounds cute and you're saying "awwww" to yourself right now, stop it, because my terrified 9 year old self went scream thrashing through the creek where I had picked up this slumbering hitch hiker, attempting to remove it by kicking wildly in the air (not effective). Turned out the creature was not sucking my blood, simply taking advantage of the body heat produced between my toes) and my leech was about 1/16th the size of the ones in the movie. Maybe they breed them big in Oregon, who knows. Anyway, the leech scene is gross.

Appropriately sized leech
(photo credit: Bernard Dupont, Flickr)

The train scene on the trestle bridge was another memory I had from my first viewing, specifically I remembered the anxiety I felt watching it as Wesley Crusher and My Secret Identity have to get to the end of the bridge before the train smashes them. It's tense friends, especially when Jerry O'Connell lies on the tracks in fear while the train barrels towards them WASTING PRECIOUS RUNNING AWAY SECONDS!!! I managed to quell the tension for myself by 1) remembering that they survive, and 2) realizing that their attempt to get out of the way of the train reminds me exactly of me trying to get out of the way of the approaching chair lift during skiing when I have inevitably fallen down while trying to dismount gracefully. Every. Single. Time.

I won't get out of the way in time
(Photo credit: LoggaWiggler, Pixabay)

Trains feature heavily in this movie, and I've done no research but still feel confident in saying that the trains represent penises and daddy issues. It got me wondering what the female equivalent of this symbol would be in a movie about four young ladies on an epic quest. Would they just keep exploring mysterious caves? Would spelunking allow them a greater understanding of self?

Ooooo, mysterious jewel vagina cave
(Photo credit: Flickr)

Well, you don't need to worry about what it would be like for women in this movie, because there really aren't any. Before I launch into my next tangent about representation, let me start by saying that I don't think it's fair to dismiss or condemn movies from the past because they don't adhere to our modern notions, but I do think it's important to discuss the lack of representation because it helps us to see how we've got to where we are now with these issues. 

To start, there is not a single actor of colour in this movie. Now, it is set in Oregon which doesn't exactly have the most inclusive history, but the overwhelming whiteness of the movie stands out when viewed with modern eyes (I mean, I'm sure it stood out to many people who watched it in the 80s as well, particularly eyes that belonged to any person who wasn't white). 

Women fare only marginally better in this film in terms of representation. There are exactly four women characters listed: Mrs. Lachance, Waitress, Mayor's Wife, and Fat Lady. Notice anything about those credits? That's right, not a single woman in this movie is given a name. Stand By Me is clearly focused on the male experience, and when I watch movies like this, there's a little game I like to play during the credits called "When Will the First Woman Appear?" Basically, you take note of how long into the credits it will be before you see a woman's name. I called this one early, telling my husband that we wouldn't see a woman in the credits until Casting (I'm not sure why, but casting is a job that tends to be held by women in Hollywood), and it wasn't like the women started rolling by after that. In fact, there were so few women, and I was taking such careful note of them, that I was surprised when I saw the job title of "Lead Woman" flash across the screen.

Me, looking for the women in this movie
(Image credit: Mohamad Mohamad Mahmoud Hassan, Needpix)

"What is Lead Woman?" I shrieked in my husband's ear. "What does that mean?" Neither of us knew, and neither, it seemed, did Google, so my husband took to an online forum to inquire (side note, I am pleased to see how invested he has become in my completist project; we're in this together). It took until the next day for us to learn that the title is given to the leader of the Swing Gang on set (not, alas, a group of spunky swing dancers who jump, jive, and wail all over the production), and the title of the leader is either Lead Man, or, if the person happens to be a woman, well, you can figure that out. However, before I had that information, I asked my husband, in total sincerity, "do you think...is Lead Woman the person who is in charge of all the women?" It seemed viable to me that perhaps, Lead Woman was simply the woman wrangler on set. Perhaps an alpha uterus to sync up all of the menstrual cycles, or just a capable woman to lead the spelunking expeditions. Honestly, anything seemed possible at that point.

So women and people of colour don't get enough representation in the movie, and there are also some homophobic slurs bandied about playfully, although the movie does do a good job of depicting physical male friendships. Three of the four boys have a breakdown scene in the movie where they have to cry, and each time they are comforted physically by a friend, without any jokes about gayness, not even to diffuse the tension, so props for that. (Side note: I hope the boys were all treated well during the filming, because they had to go to some dark places emotionally, and I was a little worried for them. Given the overwhelming maleness of the movie, it had the potential to devolve into a real Lord of the Flies type situation. I hope it was a caring and nurturing experience instead).

Okay, enough of my meandering chaotically from thought to thought, let's talk about River!

(Photo credit: Alan Light, Flickr)

Even with the strong cast, it's pretty clear that Phoenix is a stand out in this movie (my husband used the word "smoldering" to describe him). The trajectory that his career took after this is not surprising, and I found myself wondering, I'm sure not for the last time, what he could have accomplished in his career had he lived past the age of 23. 

And what would young teen Amy have thought of Phoenix in this movie? Well, I did watch it when I was younger, and it didn't stick with me, and I now have to face the reality that it's possible most of my affection for Mr. Phoenix was really for his floppy hair cut (see above photo). Never forget, young Amy was very superficial. Brush cut Phoenix just wasn't my jam.

Next up in this adventure is a movie that I haven't seen before and know virtually nothing about, The Mosquito Coast, also released in 1986. I look forward to learning what hairstyle Phoenix has in this movie, and I'd like to thank you for standing by me (satisfied chortle) during this post. Until next time!

Next time, nothing but miles of these along the coast line!
(Photo credit: Pratheep PS)