The tragic death of Rob Reiner has shocked Hollywood and film lovers everywhere, reports BritPanorama. The beloved filmmaker, known for his adeptness across several genres, has left an indelible mark on the film industry with his work that combined humor and emotional depth.
This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Rock music would never be the same following Reiner’s mercilessly hilarious satire of a heavy metal band on a downward spiral. While Spinal Tap was the creation of comedians Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer, their gonzo banter was skillfully marshalled by Reiner, who also played an exaggerated version of himself as upbeat documentary filmmaker and Tap fan Marty DiBergi.
Showing us clichés we didn’t even think of at the time, the film was a perfect expression of the absurdity of rock music. The word “rockumentary” originates with Spinal Tap, as does the concept of “turning it up to 11” and of a group’s appeal growing more selective when they’re on the skids. Though just his second feature (after a forgotten 1970s TV movie), it had an assured touch and reflected Reiner’s lifelong background in comedy (his father co-created the Dick Van Dyke Show, and Reiner had starred in the sitcom All in the Family).
Stand By Me (1986)
In the mid-1980s, Stephen King was widely regarded as a low-brow horror novelist and purveyor of cheap thrills. It took Reiner to see the great American storyteller behind all the jump scares and gore. Adapting King’s short story The Body, he created the definitive coming-of-age tale about four teenagers who set out to find the remains of a missing boy.
An obvious inspiration of the “80s kids with bikes” formula milked by Stranger Things, it also testifies to Reiner’s eye for talent, with a teenage River Phoenix delivering a searing performance opposite Wil Wheaton and Corey Feldman.
The Princess Bride (1987)
The 1980s were a boomtime for fantasy movies – but only Reiner’s William Goldman adaptation, The Princess Bride, captured the dreamy otherworldliness of a classic fairy tale. Like all the best bedtime stories, it is both hauntingly weird and deeply hilarious. Another filmmaker might have been tempted to make fun of the adventures of princess Buttercup (a young Robin Wright) and her swashbuckling rescuer, Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin). Reiner, however, played it wonderfully straight and, in the process, created something truly unique and extraordinary: a timeless tale that has weathered the years well.
“People take a look at Princess Bride, and exclaim, ‘God, this is such an odd conglomeration!’” he would tell the New York Times. “But it didn’t seem all that strange to me because those are all parts of my personality.”
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
As the grungy, angst-ridden 1990s fast approached, Reiner set himself the seemingly foolhardy challenge of reviving the screwball rom-com. A staple of cinema through the 40s and 50s, it had fallen on hard times in the 1980s. But Reiner’s collaboration with Nora Ephron had an incredible lightness of touch.
It helped that Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal had a naturally easygoing chemistry as friends who had never gotten around to addressing the romantic undercurrent in their relationship. Ephron’s zinging dialogue meant this film was always going to be a classic – but Reiner’s cheery, no-fuss direction elevated it to another level. The idea for the movie had come to Reiner when he started dating after his divorce, and Ephron partly based the story on his experiences. In a case of life imitating art, he would meet his second wife, Michele Singer, on the set – an event that convinced him to give the story a happy ending.
Misery (1990)
He could carry off absurdist comedy and coming-of-age drama – but was Reiner the director to do justice to the psychological horror of Stephen King’s terrifying Misery? He answered that question in the most visceral way possible with his gut-wrenching take on King’s bestseller, in which Kathy Bates delivers an Oscar-winning performance as a megafan who goes to horrendous extremes to ensure her favourite writer (James Caan) doesn’t kill off her favourite character. Decades before “stan” culture, Reiner and King delivered a searing warning about the distorting effects of megafandom.
A Few Good Men (1992)
Having brought back the rom-com, Reiner then set out to revitalize the hoary old courtroom drama genre. Working from a script by the then-unknown Aaron Sorkin, he shows his keen eye for casting by playing Tom Cruise’s military lawyer off against Jack Nicholson’s conservative colonel. Their showdown is one of the most riveting moments in 1990s cinema: Nicholson’s “you can’t handle the truth” became a meme before memes really existed.
Reiner also succeeded where so many directors failed by pushing Tom Cruise beyond his comfort zone, resulting in one of the megastar’s most grounded performances.
The American President (1995)
The quality of Reiner’s output would decline dramatically from the mid-1990s onwards – so much so that his second Aaron Sorkin collaboration, The American President, is today regarded as a swan song by a Hollywood great.
Michael Douglas and Annette Bening throw up sparks as a popular Democratic president and a lobbyist-turned-potential love interest. Nobody would dare make a movie such as this today – a celebration of progressive politics and the idea that the resident of the Oval Office should try to unite rather than divide. A sort of unofficial prequel to Sorkin’s own West Wing, it showed that Reiner could turn his hand to any genre and make it feel like the easiest thing in the world.
