The team at Post was stunned to hear about the passing of Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer. I personally first heard about the tragedy on Sunday night, when a TMZ post caught my attention. And at first, I didn't think it was real. By the next morning, it was all over the news, stunning everyone.
I have interviewed many, many directors over the years, but never had the privlede of speaking with Rob. I reached out recently when the new Spinal Tap movie was being released, hoping to hear about his work, but wasn't able to connect, unfortunately. His body of work is pretty incredible: Stand By Me, The Princes Bride, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men. But for me, it was 1984's This Is Spinal Tap that really stands out. Maybe because it was so closely tied to my high-school years and the fun my friends and I had watching the film over and over on a VHS that we somehow got our hands on. The "mockumentary" concept was completely new to us, and it took time to figure out if this was a real band or a well-orchestrated spoof. The mockumentary genre is a lot more common today. Looks at shows like Reno 911, The Office and now The Paper to see how it's evolved.
Here at Post, my colleague Mari Kohn and I had a long discussion yesterday about Rob Reiner's work, influence, politics and persona. We both agreed that he seemed like a good person and were stunned to think of how this might have transpired.
"Rob Reiner's legacy as a filmmaker will be celebrated for a long time," Mari shares. "Some of his films which inspired me are Stand By Me, Spinal Tap, When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men, The Princess Bride, Misery, among many others over his long career. He successfully created films in many genres, and collaborated with renowned writers Nora Ephron, Aaron Sorkin and Stephen King. I also admired his activism and how he supported political causes. Rob Reiner was a legendary filmmaker and it is a tragic loss."