From ‘Spinal Tap’ to ‘A Few Good Men,’ Nobody Had a Career Like Rob Reiner | Appreciation

Before Donald Trump released his bizarre and paranoid tirade, I thought everybody loved Rob Reiner. Even the monsters. But I’ll get back to that.

Reiner spent his whole life in the entertainment industry. His father, Carl Reiner, was a comedy legend and Reiner quickly followed in his footsteps. He was only 20 when he started writing for “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” working with an almost-as-young Steve Martin. He even did a bit of acting, appearing in small roles on “Batman,” “That Girl” and “The Partridge Family.” He co-created a failed sitcom called “The Super,” co-starring Bruno Kirby, who later appeared in two of his movies.

He found his first true acclaim on “All in the Family,” Norman Lear’s trailblazing sitcom about a working class family dealing with serious topics, hitherto taboo in the genre, like racism, homophobia, abortion. Reiner could have rode that train all the way to the bank and then back again (since that’s the only other option with a train), but instead he moved behind the camera and directed at least half a dozen of the greatest motion pictures ever made.

Reiner’s debut feature, “This is Spinal Tap,” wasn’t the first mockumentary. (That was probably Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast in 1938.) It wasn’t even the first rocku-mockumentary. (That was probably “ABBA: The Movie” in 1977.) But it was the film that defined the genre, presenting a fake heavy metal act comprised of lovable dolts, whose lives and music were — unbeknownst to them — just a big joke.

“This is Spinal Tap” lampooned the absurdity of the music industry, and by extension the entertainment industry as a whole. It also led to a slew of classic imitators, like “Waiting for Guffman,” “Drop Dead Gorgeous,” the list goes on. It featured performances, big and small but always hilarious, from many of the most celebrated comedians of the era. Heck, even the fake music was great.

But what makes the film resonate is Reiner’s all-seeing eye and humanizing humor. He’s in the movie, interviewing the band, but he’s also the one making their lives ridiculous. He’s a benevolent deity, looking down on his creations, having pity for their plight, but always piling on more plight. And the band keeps on playing, oblivious to their existential nightmare, trying to live with good music, good humor, and yes, lots of sex with their groupies, but nobody’s claiming they were saints.

When we talk about the greatest runs in movie history — those filmmakers who miraculously made one great film after another, the cinematic version of an album with “no skips” — Reiner’s early filmography comes up often. Sometimes with a slight shrug in the direction of his sophomore effort, the romantic-comedy “The Sure Thing,” starring John Cusack as a college student on a road trip to lose his virginity and Daphne Zuniga as the excellent women he accidentally falls in love with along the way. But while it didn’t have the same cultural impact as Reiner’s other early hits, guess what? It’s also a banger.

So Reiner made one of the greatest comedies ever made and followed it up with a rock solid rom-com. Why not make one of the greatest coming of age movies ever made and, in the process, humanize Stephen King to audiences who only knew him as a master of fright? “Stand By Me” (1986), based on King’s novella “The Body,” has a morbid premise — a group of young boys go searching for a corpse — but along the way reveals itself to be deeply soulful. It’s one of the many 1980s films that looks back fondly on the 1950s, with a killer soundtrack to prove it, but King and Reiner saw the underbelly of darkness behind that façade. But they never let that darkness overtake them.

Reiner’s follow-up to one of the greatest coming of age movies ever was — what the heck, why not spread those wings — one of the greatest fantasy/adventure movies ever made. “The Princess Bride,” based on a self-aware novel by William Goldman, stars Fred Savage as a young sick boy and Peter Falk as his kindly grandfather, who offers to read him a story about swordfights and monsters and, yes, a little kissing in it. The tale is frequently interrupted by the young boy, who wants it told a certain way, but who gradually comes to appreciate the elements of the story he didn’t understand at the beginning. Like all that kissing.

It’s easy to watch “The Princess Bride” as a simple fantasy tale, and as a simple fantasy tale it works perfectly. It’s got just as many unforgettable characters and quotable, timeless dialogue as “Casablanca,” but also Cliffs of Insanity and Rodents of Unusual Size, which arguably makes it even better. But more than that it’s a story about stories, the tenderness with which we offer our favorite tales to new generations, who see things inside those tales we could never imagine.

In an age when some fools want to remove the human element from art, “The Princess Bride” proves that’s a pointless endeavor. We share art to interact with the people on the other end of it, not for the superficial thrill of looking at something nifty. “The Princess Bride” is an act of love about an act of love.

Reiner had only been directing movies for five years and he had already made one of the greatest mockumentaries, one of the greatest coming-of-age films, and one of the greatest fantasy films. And just in case “The Sure Thing” wasn’t good enough, he followed it all up with one of the greatest rom-coms in history. “When Harry Met Sally…” starred Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan as platonic friends who realize, over the course of several years, that they are begrudgingly perfect for one another.

The oft-repeating tag line “Can men and women ever just be friends?” is, at best, dated — at worst it’s insulting, because obviously they can — but in the context of this one relationship, the push and pull of simple, non-sexual respect and appreciation is balanced, throughout, with an obvious, intentionally stifled attraction. There’s no way you can watch Ryan loudly fake an orgasm in public to win an argument and not fall in love with her. Heck, there’s no way you can see Crystal in that sexy cable-knit sweater without falling in love with him either. But even before they fall in love their friendship is inspired, inspiring and — thanks to Nora Ephron’s practically perfect screenplay — legendarily involving.

Then one year later Reiner made one of the scariest movies ever made. Apparently he was on a quest to prove he was good at literally everything. Well, he was, so who can blame him. “Misery” adapted another, very different King novel, this time about a famous romance novelist, played by James Caan, who gets in a car accident and is rescued — and then imprisoned and tortured — by Annie Wilkes, a woman who claims to be his “number one fan,” played by Kathy Bates.

“Misery” is a frightening horror movie and it’s also, not that anyone talks about this enough, a perverse inversion of “The Princess Bride.” Both screenplays were written by William Goldman, and both are about making demands of a storyteller. But in “Misery” the author is the one who is bedridden and the audience makes extremely unreasonable demands. (Try to imagine Savage torturing Falk on his deathbed, just to force him to make up a sequel to “The Princess Bride” that aligns with his fan theories — that’s “Misery” for you.)

Annie Wilkes immediately typified the genus of entitled, toxic fandom that would one day run rampant on the peripheries of the entertainment industry. It’s hard to look at any of those furious, unhinged, insecure YouTube rants about why “Star Wars” shouldn’t have pronouns without imagining those rants coming from Annie Wilkes. (Bates is, incidentally, to this day, the only person to ever win an Academy Award for a Reiner movie — or, for that matter, any King movie.)

Anyway, then Reiner made one of the best courtroom dramas ever made. For those keeping track we are, at this point, still less than ten years into his directing career.

Based on the breakout play by Aaron Sorkin — who went on to do very well for himself, in case you hadn’t noticed — “A Few Good Men” stars Tom Cruise as U.S. Navy JAG Corps Lieutenant (junior grade) Daniel Kaffee, who defends two marines in a court-martial case for killing a fellow soldier. As they investigate the crime, they suspect the marines were ordered to commit a “Code Red,” a cruel hazing ritual designed to humiliate a fellow marine, and that the egomaniacal Colonel Jessup, played by the great (as always) Jack Nicholson, is covering up his own involvement.

“A Few Good Men” crackles with all the intelligent, principled, hyper-professional dialogue that made Sorkin famous, and the all-star cast — Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Pollak, J.T. Walsh, Noah Wyle, Cuba Gooding Jr., that list goes on — makes it one of Hollywood’s classiest affairs. But Reiner is the one keeping all the big stars in line, and rendering Sorkin’s climactic courtroom argument both exciting and plausible. “I want the truth,” Kaffee demands, and the truth is that tricking a witness into confessing on the stand is an extremely unlikely scenario that was already tired, old dramatic hat, thanks largely to “Perry Mason.” The fact that Reiner pulls it off, with of course a huge assist from Sorkin and his brilliant cast, is nothing short of a magic trick.

Out of respect for Reiner’s legacy we’ll skip over the kids movie “North,” since very few filmmaking careers have ever been so suddenly and disastrously derailed. Instead I’ll point out that, if “North” had merely been not very good — as opposed to inexplicably terrible — we would all have overlooked it and argued that his follow-up, “The American President,” continued Reiner’s almost-unbroken streak. Michael Douglas plays the President of the United States, who romances an environmental lobbyist, played by Annette Bening. It’s a lovely romantic-dramedy, overflowing with chemistry, and it’s another incredibly smart screenplay from Sorkin, who soon used it as the basis for his similarly themed, game-changing television series “The West Wing.”

Reiner’s filmmaking career became more modest after “The American President.” Years later he’d direct one more blockbuster comedy, “The Bucket List,” starring Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, but the majority of his other films were either passable comedies or well-intentioned political dramas which made, unfortunately, little impression.

Reiner focused heavily on his career as a political influencer, throwing his notoriety behind such noble endeavors as overturning California’s law against same-sex marriage, and taxing the hell out of tobacco products. (“South Park” made fun of Reiner for that last one, but at the time “South Park” consistently argued that the worst thing anyone could possibly do is care about something important, regardless of which side they were on, so it’s hard to take that criticism seriously.)

Reiner’s films were, for a long time, so exceptionally brilliant, across so many different genres, that you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn’t love them. Remember when I said even monsters used to think he was great? I meant that. Here’s how I know.

One of the many wonderful stories about Reiner found him at a New York City restaurant, eating dinner with acclaimed writers Ephron and Nicholas Pileggi. This particular eatery was a regular haunt of the notorious mafioso John Gotti, who would later be convicted of a slew of crimes, including murder. And of course, Gotti showed up that night, and of course he saw Reiner.

As Reiner was leaving, Gotti walked up to the comedian and filmmaker. Then this murderer looked at Reiner and said, “Prepare to die.”

“I’ve seen ‘The Princess Bride,’” Gotti told Reiner. “Great movie. Great movie.”

What can you say? Even monsters can have good taste in movies. Sometimes.

When it comes to the art of making movies, and making movies everyone loved, there was nobody quite like Reiner. He had talent, he had humor, he had soul, and I think, in the end, we all wish we could have had what he was having.

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