Stand by Me (1986): After the death of a friend, a writer recounts a boyhood journey to find the body of a missing boy. (8.2)
Director: Rob Reiner
Stars: Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix and Corey Feldman
I was at USC when I first saw this movie. After the movie, there was a discussion with Rob Reiner and (I think) Richard Dreyfuss and a couple of more people involved with the movie. One thing I do remember from the discussion was that the reason for the R rating was because the dialog had "descriptive use of profanity," they were told. You can read the plot in the Wikipedia article about the movie. Being a bit wet behind the ears back then, this "coming of age" movie had a large impact on me as well. Wonderful use of 50s-60s music, specially the title track, even though the book has a different title. Seeing it today, I couldn't help but compare the fate of River Phoenix's character to his real life (different circumstances, yet the same end result). One of my favorite Rob Reiner movies. My Rating: 8.0
