One of the greatest runs in cinema history…
It is no exaggeration to say that the films of legendary writer/actor/director Rob Reiner have shaped my entire life. The Princess Bride was a childhood staple in my house, and it taught me what it truly means to be a hero. Stand By Me, one of the very best Stephen King adaptations, taught me how important it is to have friends. This is Spinal Tap taught me not to take myself too seriously. Misery taught me not to love something too much. Finally, A Few Good Men taught me the importance of integrity. Reiner’s run of films in the ’80s and ’90s, which also includes When Harry Met Sally (I visited the iconic Katz Diner from that film when in New York recently) and The American President, is as good as any run that any director has enjoyed in a similar period to my mind, and so, with the news of Reiner’s recent passing (the utterly tragic circumstances of which I won’t get into here), this felt like the perfect time to take stock of the cinematic gifts that he left behind…
5. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
As debut features go, This is Spinal Tap is right up there with the best of them. Reiner’s film helped to popularise the idea of the mockumentary, and in doing so, he changed the face of comedy on both film and television forever.
Endlessly quotable, laugh-out-loud funny and, tellingly, beloved by musicians everywhere, This is Spinal Tap is still one of the most timeless and beloved comedy films ever made. Quite the calling card.
4. A Few Good Men (1992)
Boy, they really don’t make them like this anymore. An incredible script from Aaron Sorkin (probably his best work). An astonishing cast (Tom Cruise, Kevin Bacon, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland) firing on all cylinders. Reiner’s assured, unshowy direction. No wonder it was a critical and commercial success.
There is so much more to A Few Good Men than the show-stopping final scene, but it has to be said that the courtroom showdown between Cruise’s hotshot lawyer and Nicholson’s grizzled colonel is one of the most electrifying concluding scenes in cinema history. Simply magical.
3. Misery (1990)
In an era in which fandom has never been more toxic, Reiner’s second and final Stephen King adaptation is now more prescient than ever. Featuring an Oscar-winning performance from Kathy Bates and a tortured, anxiety-inducing turn from James Caan, Misery is one of the very best King adaptations, and further proof that Reiner was capable of producing single scenes that would echo throughout cinema history.
While it is the hobbling scene that takes all the plaudits, it is the cross-cutting earlier in the film between Caan’s injured writer sneaking around his makeshift prison and Bates’s obsessed fan going about her chores before returning home that really shines – a moment as tense as it is memorable.
2. The Princess Bride (1987)
The Princess Bride begins with Columbo reading the Karate Kid a bedtime story because he’s sick. For those of us born in the ’80s who came of age in the ’90s, The Princess Bride is the ultimate expression of wistful nostalgia. I loved this film when I first saw it as a kid, and I love it just as much now.
As a throwback to the sweeping, adventure epics of the ’40s and ’50s, The Princess Bride is both a love letter to that era and a timeless homage to fairytales, myths and the concept of storytelling itself. One day, when my kid is sick, I will show her this film, and I hope she gets just as wrapped up in the story of Dread Pirate Roberts and Princess Buttercup as I did as a child – the power of cinema writ large.
1. Stand By Me (1986)
Coming from the pen of horror maestro Stephen King, you might expect the story of four young boys searching for a dead body to be dark or macabre. Stand By Me is neither. It is warm and entirely innocent, one of the only examples of sentimentality being used properly and not as a manipulative replacement for a genuine plot – this is one of Reiner’s many superpowers as a filmmaker.
Endlessly quotable, brilliantly soundtracked and with a heartbreaking performance from River Phoenix, Stand By Me somehow feels like an epic journey a la Lord of the Rings despite clocking in at under 90 minutes.
The archetypal coming-of-age tale.