Today I pay tribute to Rob Reiner.
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The movie wworld was shaken yesterday after Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their home via an apparent double homicide. While details of what occurred are still coming out, and I hate to speculate, I did want to pay tribute to late Reiner for his impact on movies.
Reiner was the son of comedy legend Carl Reiner, who modern audiences probably know best as Saul from the Ocean's Eleven franchise, but was also a comedic actor and director who starred in and directed films like The Jerk and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Rob followed in very similar footsteps, originally being introduced to America as the dopey liberal in Norman Lear's groundbreaking sitcom All in the Family.
Five years after the show ended, Reiner directed his first film...This is Spinal Tap.
While he definitely did act, and even delivered some memorable roles every now and then (see his role as Jordan Belfort's father in The Wolf of Wall Street), directing is where Reiner left an indelible mark on movies.
Not just by delivering a series of beloved movies, but also by seemingly perfecting about five different genres almost one after another.
For instance, This is Spinal Tap wasn't just an endlessly quotable comedy sending up the rock musicians of the day ("these go to 11" is always great), it was also the first mainstream mocumentary that you can credit for getting cult favorites like Drop Dead Gorgeous or Best in Show made, or even providing runway for beloved documentary-style comedies like The Office and Parks and Recreation.
And starting with 1986's Stand By Me Reiner delivered a directing heater we may never see again. First we have the already mentioned Stand By Me that more or less defined the nostalgic coming-of-age movie for a generation. Followed up by The Princess Bride, a movie so beloved Cary Elwes basically made his Dread Pirate Roberts the image and quote for his autobiography and that I know folks have quoted and will continue to quote for years. That was followed by When Harry Met Sally... the movie that jolted the romantic comedy into the modern era and made Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal bankable stars.
And then he was done.
Just kidding, in 1990 he directed Kathy Bates in an Oscar-winning performance with his second Stephen King adaptation: Misery and put "hobbling" into the pop culture lexicon.
Had to be done right?
Nope in 1992 he picked up a script by an up and comer named Aaron Sorkin and directed one of the most beloved courtroom dramas of all time A Few Good Men, another movie with lines so quotable that people who have never seen the movie will gve you "You can't handle the truth."
From 1984 to 1992, not even ten years. Reiner deliver a genre standard or genre defining work, often making the careers of his stars and his writers for the foreseeable future.
He nailed the mocumentary.
He delivered one of the most honest coming-of-age movies ever produced.
He directed a fantasy romance so beloved, that it might never be bested.
He made the romantic comedy feel more real and adult that it had been for decades.
And then he directed a cadre of Oscar nominees and winners to turn a standard courtroom drama into an Oscar-nominated one.
That's a range that few directors demonstrate over their entire careers, let alone a ten year run.
What makes it stand out so much is that Reiner did it with the same approach as a "work-for-hire" director. It's unlikely that you'd look at the themes or visuals of any of these movies and say "that's a Rob Reiner movie" the way you might with his contemporaries like Spielberg and Scorsese or with genre specialists like John Carpenter.
Reiner was the best case scenario for a hired gun director.
What always stood out in films however, was his eye for talent and what I can only describe as sincere warmth.
Look at how many of actors he tagged for lead and supporting roles went on the lengthy careers like John Cusack, Billy Crystal, Kiefer Sutherland, Robin Wright, Kathy Bates. Or the writers like Nora Ephron and Aaron Sorkin.
All of whom got to tell stories about, most of the time, love. The love between friends, a story unapologetically about the power of true love, how love can blossom over time between two disparate people, and sometimes, how love can curdle into something foul.
And now we come to the personal part.
When I was growing up, my mom, step dad and sibling swould often spend weekend evenings watching a movie they picked up from the store or library. I don't remember half of the ones we watched together. But I remember The Princess Bride. How fun it was. The lines we quoted day after day. And how despite a young Fred Savage being grossed out by the "kissing book" that I found it sweet. But most importantly how we, as a family, bonded over that movie, much like the Grandfather and son bond over the story.
While I don't believe in fate per say, I do believe that sometimes you just find the right guy at the right moment with the right material and they craft something indelible. And The Princess Bride is that movie. A movie that feels just as timeless now as it did then, that still lets families bond over its celebration of a love.
And I'm so thankful to Rob Reiner for putting in on film.
Rest in Peace Rob and Rest in Peace Michele.
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