Culture Crash: Our Tribute To The Acclaimed Filmmaker Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner was a filmmaker, actor, producer, screenwriter, and political activist, and when he died recently there was an outpouring of mourning and love to honor his life and career. His life is better covered elsewhere, with lovely anecdotes from friends and family pouring in. But his DIRECTING career really was the stuff of a Hollywood legend.

He gained fame as an actor on All In The Family in the 1970s, then, in 1984, he directed his first feature, the legendary mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. After that, he made the often overlooked The Sure Thing, and then embarked on one of the most versatile and `impressive directing runs of all time. 

My favorite of his movies is Stand By Me, which saw Reiner masterfully direct a group of young men to tell a rough-around-the-edges but perfectly touching story about friendship, loss of innocence, and what it means to look back on your childhood years later. The film was adapted from a Stephen King novella, it features one of River Phoenix’s finest performances, and it has truly stood the test of time as one of the great coming-of-age films ever made. After that came The Princess Bride, a towering achievement of family fantasy comedy; followed by the romcom genre-defining When Harry Met Sally. Reiner then directed another King adaptation with Misery, which won Kathy Bates the Oscar for Best Actress, before making A Few Good Man, an adaptation of an Aaron Sorkin play that starred Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore, and that gave audiences some of the most iconic courtroom scenes ever put on film.

That’s an impressive list, but those aren’t even all of his great films from Rob Reiner, who also directed The American President and The Bucket List. Reiner was beloved for being an actor and comedian, but he’s also one of the finest directors of his era.

He was 78.