Today’s program looked back at the career of Rob Reiner who, along with his wife, recently died under tragic circumstances. Reiner was a prolific director, writer, actor, and producer whose career spanned five decades. Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema looked back at Reiner’s filmography.
As reported by The Guardian, Rob Reiner was born in the Bronx and he was the son of Carl and Estelle Reiner. Carl was a successful comedian and writer who collaborated with Mel Brooks on the hit comedy record The 2,000 Year Old Man and created The Dick Van Dyke Show. Estelle was an actor and a jazz singer. Rob Reiner made his TV acting debut at age 14 on the television show Manhunt. In the 1960s and 70s Reiner continued to act in television with roles in Batman, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Beverly Hillbillies before landing the role of Meathead in All in the Family for which he won two Emmy Awards. Reiner also wrote for the satire The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour alongside Steve Martin. Reiner worked both in front and behind the camera. His feature film directorial debut was 1984’s This is Spinal Tap in which he also starred. For the next four decades, Reiner continued to act in films such as Postcards from the Edge, Sleepless in Seattle, The First Wives Club, EdTV, and The Wolf of Wall Street and he directed a wide range of films.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Rob Reiner had an impressive run of directorial features, many of them beloved classics. 1987’s The Princess Bride was adapted from William Goldman’s novel and told a fantasy story in a frame narrative. In the outer frame, Peter Falk played a man reading the story to his grandson, played by Fred Savage. The inner frame was that fantasy tale of love and revenge and starred Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, and Mandy Patinkin. The Princess Bride was part of a wave of fantasy pictures that came out of the 1980s but this film had a distinct tone that was in keeping with the humanism that defined a lot of Reiner’s work. The Princess Bride is one of the most popular and most quotable films ever made.
Rob Reiner followed The Princess Bride with another classic but in a different genre. When Harry Met Sally was a romantic comedy written by Nora Ephron and starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. The film is about two people in a platonic relationship that turns romantic. This movie set the tone for a lot of romantic comedies that followed in the 1990s and it’s one of the most influential and popular titles in its genre. The music of When Harry Met Sally mostly consisted of jazz standards performed by Harry Connick, Jr. but the music was arranged by Marc Shaiman who would become one of Rob Reiner’s regular collaborators.
Rob Reiner is generally known for making funny stories with likable characters but he also has a distinguished place in the filmography of Stephen King. Reiner directed two movies that are among the best King adaptations. Stand By Me was an adaptation of King’s short story “The Body” in which a group of young boys go on a journey to see a corpse. The cast included Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell. Misery was an adaptation of King’s novel in which a writer is imprisoned by an unstable fan. James Caan and Kathy Bates star in a masterclass in suspense.
Reiner also cofounded the production company Castle Rock Entertainment which was named after the town featured in several Stephen King stories. Castle Rock Entertainment produced a number of well-regarded King adaptations including Needful Things, Dolores Claiborne, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile. The company also produced City Slickers, Before Sunrise, 1995’s Othello, Zero Effect, and The Last Days of Disco.
Another of Rob Reiner’s more serious films was A Few Good Men which starred Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Jack Nicholson. It’s a riveting courtroom drama about two Marines who are charged with murdering one of their fellow servicemen. This was the first film written by Aaron Sorkin and it was based on his stage play. However, William Goldman of The Princess Bride did an uncredited rewrite on the script.
Rob Reiner was very politically active. He campaigned for causes he cared about and was a regular guest on cable news shows. He co-founded the nonprofit organization American Foundation for Equal Rights, which was formed as a direct response to Proposition 8, a California ballot measure that passed in 2008 and banned gay marriage in the state. The American Foundation for Equal Rights was instrumental in overturning Proposition 8.
Politics also figured into a number of Reiner’s films. He had an acting role in the unofficial Bill Clinton biopic Primary Colors. He also directed LBJ, starring Woody Harrelson as the 36th President of the United States, and the Iraq war drama Shock and Awe.
In 1995, Rob Reiner reunited with Aaron Sorkin on The American President. The film stars Michael Douglas as a widowed President of the United States who begins a love affair with a lobbyist. It is very much a work of the Clinton era and the movie is eyeballs deep in 1990s liberal politics. Unlike A Few Good Men, in which Sorkin’s glib style was focused and restrained, The American President demonstrated the smugness and self-indulgence that defined Sorkin’s later work. This film was a dry run for Sorkin’s television series The West Wing. For Rob Reiner’s part, The American President most obviously demonstrates his admiration of Frank Capra, who Reiner had pointed to as a major influence on his work.
Rob Reiner’s latter career was a bit wobbly, at least compared to the run of films he made in the 1980s and 90s. However, 2007’s The Bucket List was one of his biggest hits. The movie starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as elderly characters fulfilling their aspirations and the movie has been credited with popularizing the phrase “bucket list.” Less well regarded was Reiner’s 2015 film Being Charlie. This movie is about a young addict. Being Charlie was co-written by Reiner’s son Nick who had his owns struggles with addiction. Nick Reiner is now alleged to have murdered his parents, tragically raising the profile of this film in Rob Reiner’s filmography.
Rob Reiner’s feature film directorial career is bookended by Spinal Tap. 1984’s This is Spinal Tap was a pseudo-documentary of a fictional British rock band profiled by filmmaker Martin DiBergi, played by Reiner. This is Spinal Tap was one of the early pseudo-documentaries and it remains one of the best. Because the cast was not so well known at the time, the illusion fooled some viewers who thought they were seeing a real documentary about a real band. Alongside Reiner’s The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally, This is Spinal Tap is a consistent favorite of critics and general audiences and one of the most quoted films.
Reiner’s last film, both as a director and as an actor, was Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The sequel reuinted the core cast including Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. It’s a successful legacy sequel, revisiting the characters and recapturing what audiences liked about its predecessor but also accounting for the passage of time and the legacy of the original movie. It does not quite measure up to its predecessor but that was unlikely and maybe impossible. Spinal Tap II is consistently funny and it makes for a fitting but melancholy sendoff for Rob Reiner’s career.