Stand By Me at 40: Rob Reiner’s seminal coming-of-age saga remains a bittersweet triumph

The late director’s sensitive and detailed adaptation of Stephen King’s novella has an authenticity that so many imitators could never replicate Coming-of-age metaphors don’t get any blunter than a group of preteen boys following a set of railroad tracks to a classmate’s dead body, a sobering testament to the fragility of life and a sign that their own futures are not guaranteed. The Stephen King novella that would become Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me is simply called The Body, and there’s no doub...

By Scott Tobias