Whenever you're in trouble won't you stand by me?

I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people. But to me, it was the whole world...

And so begins one of my favorite movies of all time.

I've loved coming of age tales since, I was, well, coming of age. At 23 I think I'm technically past that stage, at least in terms of writing a story, but I think no matter how old you are, these are stories that will always resonate with you.

I'm a hopeless nostalgic, like any good writer, and sadly they are probably worse than hopeless romantics.

On Wednesday night my roommate and I went up to Stone Brewery in Escondido. The world-renowned brewery and "world bistro" probably deserves it's own posting, but let's just start off saying, it's good. They have lovely beer gardens where they show movies at night during the summer. Since they were showing Stand By Me I made it a goal to get up there.

Before I get into the movie, I would like to let my readers know that Will Wheaton, who plays Gordie in the film, was there to present a signed movie poster to the winner of the trivia question, and I won the trivia question. No one got the first question about the movie and the next was title of Stephen King's novella that the movie is based on. 

Everyone knows it's "The Body," however, the full name of the story is "The Body" with the subtitle "Fall From Innocence," which is something the rest of the audience didn't seem to know.

The film is set in a small fictional town in Oregon, near Mount Hood, in 1959. The four 12-year-old boys, (Will Wheaton, Cory Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, and River Phoenix) set out over Labor Day weekend to go find the dead body of a teenage boy hit by a train. They pack up their camping gear and traipse the 20 or so miles through the woods as a last childhood summer adventure.

I like girl coming of age stories, especially Now and Then which is the female version of the movie that was filmed in the mid 90's. However, there is something about coming of age stories about boys that intrigue me. I think it's because I've never had any brothers, so I'm fascinated with inner workings of boys (don't take that to mean anything inappropriate).

There is something about that age, the one that is the threshold separating childhood and the teenage years, that is such a rich moment in life, and utterly perfect for character development and story creation. My two best childhood friends can entertain people for hours with stories of us at that age.

That is why this movie, which is what would be considered a "dramady," just leaves its audience a bitter sweet feeling at the end. I have one friend, however, that says it makes her feel weird. In my opinion that is the point of the film.

Also, if you are thinking "Oh, it's a Stephen King film," you can't judge it quite like that. As much as I like his horror fiction, this is nothing like It or The Shining. 

I'm just going to say it's funny, sad, occasionally action packed, heart-warming, and smart, with a gorgeous setting and killer soundtrack.

If you want to stop by and watch if with me sometime I would be oh so happy if you did.