Latest / The Cine-Files / 466 The Season of Rob Reiner: A Retrospective on Rob Reiner's Career

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466 The Season of Rob Reiner: A Retrospective on Rob Reiner's Career · The Cine-Files

• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of the cinephiles live here on the cinephiles YouTube channel.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am one half of the cinephiles.
• 0:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm John Roker joined as always by my better half here on the show.
• 0:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Stunning Steve Morris.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Steve how are you today?
• 0:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, I will accept stunning, but I will not accept better half.
• 0:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is an equal partnership, sir.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yes, you're right.
• 0:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: I am stunning.
• 0:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm recently back from New Zealand where we got a bunch of sun.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: My skin is like more like a healthy color.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: I feel very good.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: How are you?
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: You also look stunning, by the way.
• 0:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, thank you very much, very kind of a new class as I think probably, but it's also the extra lighting that's washing away the wrinkles today, but we are, we are here live and listen, we're here live for, you know, a reason that we're not very happy about.
• 1:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we have decided to do something really unusual as Steven I've spoken about on the live, on our previous meetings with the advisory board and also on social media and on our previous shows that we are going into
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: a season of Rob Reiner.
• 1:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now those of you who watch our show or listen to our show, you know that our seasons have been starting a little later, because we want to kind of ramp up into it.
• 1:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But this year, we are going to do two seasons of a director and it is because of the passing of Rob Reiner.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Steve, it's really kind of crazy for me to think about.
• 1:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's always, it's already been a month.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: since he passed away, sadly, him and his wife, of course, in a brutal murder, and of course, we're not going to get into the specific so who's to blame or anything like that.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is more a conversation about the man's life, his career and his legacy.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And for those of you who've done or who've listened to our seasons of before, you know, we usually like to start out with a kind of biography and conversation about the person that we're profiling, the director we're profiling.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: for these seasons.
• 2:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So Steve, what's your feelings walking into this season of Rob Reiner that is so unusual from any season we've tackled in the past?
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's really, it's frankly, it's really his death.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it was so sad.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was such, you know, when we've done this before, we did directors who had, you know, classic directors like Orson Wells, Hitchcock, Corassawa, and then we've done directors like Coppola, you know, we did the Conbrode.
• 2:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: We did the cone brothers.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: We did a whole bunch of other ones, but we didn't do them for this reason.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we didn't, yeah, we didn't do them for, oh, we've just lost this person.
• 2:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we also, you know, in the past when we've lost the famous actor or director, we certainly did a tribute.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: That would maybe pick a movie if there's to do, but this is different.
• 2:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's different for a bunch of reasons.
• 3:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: One is it's, I mean, just to be honest, I think I might have said this when we did our initial tribute, but yeah, there are only a few deaths in the entertainment world that have hit me as hard as Rob Riner, one of them was Robin Williams and one of them was Phil Hartman.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And in both of those cases, they were A people I truly loved.
• 3:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, it's funny when you think about it, is that there's certain artists who you go like, wow, that guy's great artists.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think Merrill Street is amazing.
• 3:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think Daniel DeLuis of Fantastic Actor.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think DeNero is a great actor.
• 3:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Karen Sorkin is an amazing writer.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: They don't feel like part of my family.
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Robin Williams was part of my life.
• 3:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, Phil Hartman, particularly that era of news radio in the Simpsons right after Senate live, it's like, I felt a connection to that person and man Rob Reiner that is, that is true and spades and it is funny because you've made this joke before and I'm sitting here I was with a PDF page up and a smiling picture of Rob Reiner is looking at me and I'm like, man, I do look like Rob Reiner.
• 3:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's really weird, and he's so, his whole style of directing, his way of approaching films, and there's so much about him that I relate to this person.
• 4:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so, I think that's what makes this different.
• 4:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, we're every year we do a season or director this year.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're going to go to, we're going to do two.
• 4:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: We'll go into details on that a little bit later, but yeah.
• 4:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: But like this person is, I feel like I've lost part of my family.
• 4:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And these movies, his films are part of my family too.
• 4:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's a, you know, we did a kind of, we did a tribute to him a few weeks ago, and this is a different approach to it.
• 4:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I just remember that I was in so many different places about it, because of the manner in which he passed.
• 4:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: But then looking back on these movies and feeling guilty to be honest, that I hadn't like
• 4:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: given them the extra respect and recognition they deserved.
• 4:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because sometimes we get caught up with like, well, these are the classics, these are the epics, these are the ones that we need to review.
• 5:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes, certain directors who make really
• 5:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: films that cross across multiple age brackets and become mainstream, we can sometimes dismiss them a little bit as more populist entertainment or what have you.
• 5:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we wait for that with Spielberg like we wait for that shinler's list.
• 5:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, all that other stuff is great.
• 5:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: Jaws is fun.
• 5:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: Close to count as fun.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we wait for that shinler's list to really show us what he can do.
• 5:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: But with Rob Reiner,
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: We didn't need that, right?
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think I felt guilty that I hadn't respected his films quite as much as I should have.
• 5:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I was more caught up in the joy they brought me than nostalgia that brought me.
• 5:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: The feelings I had when I watched these movies when I was younger and the joy I get out of the quotableness of all those movies.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that got in the way of me really appreciating him
• 6:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: to be honest, even the ones we've done on the show, which we've done a number of rob writers, he might be our most done director.
• 6:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know Steve.
• 6:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I haven't done the numbers, but we might have done the more films from Rob Ryan and the many, maybe any of the director.
• 6:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that makes me, that made me feel even more guilty that I hadn't given these things of the more respect that they had reserved in my mind.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: But getting ready for the show today, I certainly had to sit back and go, my God, what an amazing career.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: What an amazing voice he had as a director with all these different types of movies.
• 6:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And a very consistent solid voice throughout, you know.
• 6:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think there's it's like there's signposts of what we're supposed to, you know, log on an artist's level.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, these are the, this is the artsy things.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: And when you become a cine file, and I think this is something you and I've been fighting against since the beginning of the show, really, which is that we never, you know, they're, I'm not going to name names, but there's certain critics out there who are very hoi-ty-toy-ty and intellectual.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that they're very, they're always like, I need to be the smartest, pick the most unusual, let's look into this boom well, Kubrick, whatever, you know, whatever it is, and
• 7:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's great.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have no objections that I love those films too, but it comes with a sort of poo-poo-in of horror movies and action movies and kung-poo films and dumb comedies and comedy films.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And comedy films.
• 7:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, no, these are all great movies.
• 7:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like, when I was, you know, you were in theater program, I was in a theater program acting, and at least at Cal, Cal was a super intellectual place, UC Berkeley.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: their theater program was all about Ph.D.'s looking for, you know, some, you know, biomechanical, artsy, fartsy thing.
• 7:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's what it was like, nobody at Cal would ever have done a Neal Simon play because Neal Simon was looked down as, as like, well, that's just for the people.
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's just comedy.
• 7:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's just light stuff.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, no, Neal Simon is one of the greatest playwrights in the history of playwriting.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's all the intellectuals that poo pooed him that didn't understand the
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's like, yeah, Rob Reiner is not trying to make movies like Stanley Kubrick or Bartons, of course, as he or Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee, he's not making those kinds of films.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's making very accessible, wide audience, a beautiful light touch.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I bet I wish we could interview Martin Scorsese because he was buddies with Reiner, right?
• 8:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I wish we could hear him talk about Reiner's movies.
• 8:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because my guess is he would go, I could never make the princess bride.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I could never make one here, I'm sorry.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: He can't do that.
• 8:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like he can do what he can do and it was interesting to listen to when we're obviously in the middle of when Harry Metzali right now That is one of the films we're going to be doing and one of the things that Rob Reiner said is I never want the camera to take away from the story The camera is there to photograph the story.
• 8:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is not to show off
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's it.
• 8:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: There are a lot of directors who are showing off at the camera.
• 8:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: No disrespect to that.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: But Reiner is going, this is what I'm doing.
• 8:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is the story.
• 8:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: It comes first.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what he's doing is like a high wire rack.
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's so hard.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what, you know, as we, as have watched tributes and read more stuff on him over the last month as we've said since we've lost him, I've come around on like,
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's something you just said that kind of struck an idea and had a couple of weeks go about it.
• 9:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's that he's a writer's director.
• 9:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think what you just said, like the camera is not in, it doesn't want the camera to get in the way of the story.
• 9:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: To him, the story is the important thing.
• 9:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so there's many ways to direct the movie.
• 9:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Steve, he was a director, obviously, know that.
• 9:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's many ways to direct the movie where it becomes avant-garde, like that McBeth film that we just had with Denzel.
• 9:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's very German, Neo-Expressionism, and all of that.
• 9:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: four by three in angles and Dutch angles.
• 9:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was kind of the things.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so that's an approach that's stylistic while still honoring the text, right?
• 9:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the way Rob Reiner does things, it's much more about the story, the characters, the relationships.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, are there some really fantastic shots in how he's framing certain shots for,
• 10:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: maximum emotional effect or impact, absolutely.
• 10:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But you're not walking out of a Rob Reiner film and going like, oh, the cinematography.
• 10:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was about the story and about what's going on and the lessons and the messages.
• 10:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I know that's a dirty word nowadays, but messages that he wants you to take away from his movies that I would argue Steve are no less powerful.
• 10:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Then some of these more avant-garde, as you said, more 20, 20 type of movies that we've seen in the past who deliver messages that are very, very similar to our broader writers doing.
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's just making them more consumable for more people.
• 10:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that takes a certain amount of artistry as well, you know?
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think about, you know, it's funny, you've asked me more questions about editing lately and one of the things I've been thinking I haven't when we do in when Harry Met Sally I'm going to we'll talk about it is that one of the things about editing I can tell you in when Harry Met Sally I believe pretty much why every single shot is in the movie.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: what purpose every single shot serves in terms of storytelling, why you needed to cut to see Sally's reaction at this moment, what specifically that reaction was telling us, why we had to have this insert, why we had every single shot is there for a reason.
• 11:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: That is exactly the same amount of craftsmanship and attention to detail that we love and all the other movies that we love.
• 11:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just as you said, it's in a consumable way.
• 11:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And you know, you say that these films mean something,
• 11:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: There are few films that were more impactful than when Harry Met Sally at that time for those people and it's like yes, everybody repost my son is probably seeing the jackknows and you can't handle the truth me over and over and over again, but in fact that movie, which is another film we're going to break down for a few good men has a ton to say and is very, very topical right now in terms of
• 11:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: the legal system and where we sacrifice ends in flavor of means or means in favor of ends.
• 12:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: It definitely has something to say.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
• 12:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what what and especially as a guy who's in the military, what rules you are supposed to follow and not follow up orders.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And here to what orders you shouldn't adhere to, so absolutely all those years later, here is a film that still can resonate with what we're going through in a world.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's another thing that's really a fantastic element of his film, Steve, is that they're very universal.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're evergreen for lack of a better term.
• 12:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've all grown up as young kids had those young friends gone on those adventures with our young friends, yeah, maybe it's not a dead body, but it's something that we experienced either together on an adventure or separately and then talked about it later as we're growing up, you know, like group of friends.
• 12:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then we grow away from those group of friends.
• 12:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: That happens.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: As well, would you see and stand by me, right?
• 12:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or we have, as you said, the relationship's when we're hearing that Sally, what are the seminal relationships that change us?
• 12:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what are the relationships that we end up settling down with and really finding true love with, which a lot of people do, don't do.
• 13:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you see that in the movie here, the way it's highlighted is fantastic.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then you go into something like misery, which is about
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: you know a very powerful commentary on fandom and that's something that certainly Steve is very topical nowadays more so than even in the 90 early 90s when misery came out this idea of toxic fandom this idea of bands feeling like they're old things from the creators like the people they grab we would just you and i just finished watching plurvis
• 13:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: There are elements of that in plurvis that echo what we see in misery and of course it's based on Stephen King's book, but Rob Reiner bringing that out so powerfully in his direction of that movie is amazing and then you move to American president, which is probably his most mature work.
• 13:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: that I think is fantastic in how it explores the presidency, what the presidency is supposed to mean, and the things that he confronts as the president trying to implement the things that he wants to implement, and the places coming from to try to do what's great in the world versus people who are trying to satisfy their own personal impulses or desires in political power.
• 14:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's just a fascinating thing
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: his movies and the range of these movies and what they're trying to say to our world and still say an echo in our world nowadays.
• 14:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely could agree.
• 14:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Let's do a little bit of a biography of his.
• 14:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: So Rob Reiner was born in 1947 in the Bronx and here's the thing about it.
• 14:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: I've been thinking a lot which is his father obviously call Reiner's mother is still Reiner both actors call Reiner a hugely important figure in comedy in the 50s and 60s.
• 14:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I actually think it's between 47 and I think it's 55 is when your show shows start.
• 14:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: So your cities use your show shows.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 14:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's one of the most influential comedy shows of all time.
• 14:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's the big shows at that time where Uncle Milty and what's the, uh, I forget the name of the other comedian who did more surreal stuff just went out of my brain.
• 15:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: But regardless, the biggest one is cities show shows where I think they were doing
• 15:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Two shows a week of an hour, half of material life, which is, so it's a double saturday night live.
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: A callriner comes on as sort of a writer and also the right hand man for Sid Seasor.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I actually think from 47 to 55, those eight years that he's living in the Bronx, as just a kid growing up in the Bronx, is hugely influential because one of the things about Rob Riner, even though I know that he lived in Los Angeles for much of his life,
• 15:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: He's a New Yorker.
• 15:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: He that old school New York Jew who loves the Yankees and all of those things, that is so specific to him.
• 15:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think, you know, there've been discussions about nepo babies and what is that okay and what is that not okay?
• 15:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And like do I think there are times when someone who is related to someone else gets an extra step up?
• 16:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely, that happens.
• 16:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that isn't always fair.
• 16:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: But there's also something about growing up in the world.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and understanding that world from the inside and the way he grew up first in New York, they're living by the way, it always cracks me up because they lived in New Rochelle and New Rochelle of course, is where Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore lived in the Dick Van Dyke show because they're playing a version of Carl Reiner and his family.
• 16:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so
• 16:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's where they came up.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And at the time he's coming up, he's going to your show shows.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I know we've brought it up before, but we should bring it up again because your show shows is the greatest writing room in the history of comedy.
• 16:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: Here is who is in, we already mentioned one of them.
• 16:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we mentioned too.
• 16:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: We mentioned Carl Reiner, of course, one of the great directors of writers, Neil Simon, one of the great playwrights.
• 16:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: gets his start on your show of shows.
• 16:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: His older brothers, I think it's Sam Simon, is on the show.
• 16:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then you have Larry Gilbert, who wrote Oh God, the creator of mash, who wrote Tootsie, one of the great comedy writers of all time.
• 17:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: And Mel Brooks, of course, one of the great comedians, one of the funniest people in history.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And there's a whole bunch of other heavy hitters that are on this.
• 17:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think Mel Tolken is the name of the headwriter at the time.
• 17:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, this, and then
• 17:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: They bring it a young writer who had been writing jokes and getting along and that of course is Woody Allen.
• 17:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like this is the sluggers row.
• 17:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is like murderers row of comedy writers.
• 17:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that is the world that Carl Reiner is in.
• 17:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And people like Norman Lear are in this orbit at the same time.
• 17:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so little Rob Reiner, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve years old is coming onto this set to hang out with these comedy gods.
• 17:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and also his, I mean, he comes from a very talented family, as you said about his parents, but his, what is his, his, his, his anti-Rainer a sister is a poet, a playwright and an author is by the Lucas is a painter actor and director.
• 17:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: So you have, you know, like a lot of
• 18:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Talented people that are around this, this is just one of those families, Steve, we know this as we study people in life.
• 18:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're just those families that I just go into the family business in a lot of ways, whether it's performing or politics or business, they just go into that and understand it because they're naturally gifted to go in that direction, robbing one of them.
• 18:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I imagine growing up at that time, like that's such a perfect time to grow up.
• 18:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: In this country, right as the Yankees are coming on, it talks about going to see Mickey Manel in Yankee Stadium and his young kid in the Bronx and all the electricity and energy and artistry of the New York being right there.
• 18:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: And as you said, his access to these incredibly talented people who are at the top of their game, you know, your show shows is essentially SNL in a higher level.
• 18:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: back then and what they were able to create and going live and what have you so there's all so if he had no interest in it I don't think he would have pursued it but clearly you know you know this Steve sometimes you're just born with that book and you get bit and when you get bit that's
• 19:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And clearly Rob Reiner from the beginning was someone who wanted to be a part of this world and be in this world because his, this is his path and he just goes immediately almost immediately into it as he's getting older goes into the study and goes into going to getting onto a show all these kinds of things, clearly this was something that he absolutely loved doing being a creative artist.
• 19:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: Absolutely.
• 19:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I got, I just have to share a couple of other stories because I have some course.
• 19:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: So first of all, can I tell you my favorite show show stories, not directly related to Rob Reiner.
• 19:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I was watching there was like a reunion of all the writers and actors in Sid Seas.
• 19:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was there in Imaging Coco and all these people were there.
• 19:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was a reunion panel.
• 19:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think I told the story years ago on the cinephiles.
• 19:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: But
• 19:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And one point, someone asks, I think they ask Carl Reiner, someone says something about this is funny and this is witty and it's the moderator says, well, what's the difference between funny and witty and the and Carl Reiner says, well, I mean, the difference we actually had.
• 20:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: The funniest person, we had the widiest person in the world in the person of Larry Gelbart and the funniest person in the world, and I blow the story a little bit, and the funniest person in the world in the version of Mel Brooks and the moderator says, well what's the difference between funny and witty?
• 20:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: And as he's asking this question, Mel is smartly drinking out of a bottle of water and is the minute you hear what's the difference between funny and witty?
• 20:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: The words are like
• 20:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then there's a pause and then Larry Gilbart with the slow turn looks over the moderator and says,
• 20:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just like that is perfect.
• 20:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that's what Rob Reiner grows up with.
• 20:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then of course in the early 60s now Rob is a teen car owner does what is arguably one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think young people you are you always talk about people not watching the old black and white movies not watching the old stuff you need to if you're a comedy person you need to go back and watch the original Dick Fendike show because the Dick Fendike show
• 21:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it has some of the greatest, funniest episodes ever made.
• 21:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that is a based on call writer, Rob's dad's life, you know, and B, Rob is there on the set, 13 year old boy or whatever he is at the time, 14, and at one point, I'm just going to tell the story because I heard both call writer and Rob Reiner tell this story, which is, and you're going to take it.
• 21:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Look, I'm not condoning what happened in this story.
• 21:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm just going to tell it to you, but
• 21:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: Apparently, Mary Tyler Moore, who is the co-star with Dick Van Dyke, comes storming into the office very upset and tells Carl that Rob Reiner, his 14-year-old son, grabbed her ass.
• 21:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, no.
• 21:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 21:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yes.
• 21:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so she is very upset.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: She feels that was inappropriate and Carl calls his son in.
• 22:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: Did you do this?
• 22:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I did this.
• 22:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: Please apologize to Mary that is totally inappropriate.
• 22:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: I cannot believe that you did that.
• 22:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: And Rob does so apologizes and Mary goes, okay, it's still a big deal.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for the apology.
• 22:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I appreciate it.
• 22:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: She goes back to work.
• 22:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And now alone in the room, Carl turns to a son and says, what was it like?
• 22:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I was dead, fantastic.
• 22:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then they talked about the Capri pants that that married to other more would be on the show.
• 22:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: Again, I'm not condoning the story.
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_02]: Of course.
• 22:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm merely giving some context to how Rob came up.
• 22:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: One other thing about this is Rob wanted to be an actor and wanted to do comedy.
• 22:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, but the one person who didn't think he was funny was his dad call reiner.
• 22:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: He just didn't think he was funny.
• 22:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, this isn't that crazy, family man, family.
• 22:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's just that way.
• 22:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that is sometimes the case when you know someone so well, you can't objectively step outside and see what it's like to be someone who doesn't know them that well, who doesn't see all their ticks and their tails and all of these things where you can dissect the comedy.
• 23:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Especially like Carl, who clearly is incredibly intelligent and funny comedian and knows his business really well,
• 23:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure he could tell everything his son was doing before his son did it and so it would remove the ability of the surprise element of comedy that is such a massive part of comedy and whereas other people who didn't know Rob that well could see that.
• 23:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'm glad Rob wasn't caught up and trying to please his father or trying to accept his father's advice and not go into it, you know, right?
• 23:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: clearly endured and kept going.
• 23:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And thank God he did because we've seen some really interesting performances from him.
• 23:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've watched a little bit of Wolf of Wall Street the other night seeing how funny and great he is in that and then of course what he becomes as a director.
• 23:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: But um you're right.
• 23:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh you're quite seem quite seem quite.
• 23:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, I got I got a couple more stories that I wanted to get him in then.
• 24:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: So here's so part two of this is he goes to high school Beverly Hills high school.
• 24:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: So this is all the children of the stars with all these famous people, including Richard dryfus is there.
• 24:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, Albert Brooks is in high school with them.
• 24:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: Also a neighbor.
• 24:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: And while Carl didn't think that his son was funny.
• 24:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Everybody thought Albert books was funny.
• 24:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I know you've watched the great documentary that Carl did on Albert, but they're like literally.
• 24:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Albert would do bits and have Mel Brooks and Sid Cesar and call Riner the professional funny people.
• 24:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: This high school kid would have been rolling in the aisles and apparently Mel Brooks went on the Johnny Carson show and said the funniest person I know is a 16 year old name Albert Brooks.
• 24:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: So how don't know how that feels for Rob Riner but then what finally happens is
• 24:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: is that Norman Lear is casting all in the family and decides to cast Rob Reiner and goes to Carl, because they're buddies, because they all came up together.
• 24:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And since I'm going to cast your son in this role, and Carl said, but he's not funny.
• 25:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it was finally, it was finally Norman Lear professionally saying that it was funny that let Carl actually look at his own son and realize that he was funny and did have talent.
• 25:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he built to it.
• 25:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd be, I think we should be fair to him as you talk about Neppo, baby.
• 25:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't like they handed them this car, which I robber on or built through this in the 1960s.
• 25:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: His first role was at 14 years old on a series called Man Hunt, then he go and he's in Batman, the series Batman.
• 25:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is all the 1960s.
• 25:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's in that girl, the Eddie Griffiths show.
• 25:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: room two to two, go more power.
• 25:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: What am I favorite scoring up as a kid?
• 25:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Beverly Hills bill.
• 25:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hillbilly is another favorite of mine as a kid.
• 25:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then he gets into an improv group there in San Francisco in 1969 with Larry Bishop.
• 25:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: He begins writing for the Smothers Brothers comedy hour in 1968 in 1969 working alongside Steve Martin.
• 25:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Carl Gottlieb of Jaws fame there Steve, he ends up directing a one act play at the Oxford Theater in LA, and then gets involved in other films like Whereas Papa, he's in hell halls of anger with Jeff Bridges, he's in a film called Headmaster with Andy Griffith,
• 26:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: and then goes and does the super and then eventually as we said gets into the 70s there with all in the family.
• 26:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he built his, and like he did his time in the smaller shows, getting those parts, doing the day player stuff, or doing the recurring character, getting some film roll.
• 26:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he working on his craft.
• 26:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think the thing is when you when you believe in yourself and it always seemed to me that Rob Ryder had that energy that he just believed in himself simply to do the
• 26:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: You don't have to be loved by the great comedians at the time, right?
• 26:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Albert Brooks appeal to them because Albert is Albert and he has a very distinct unique sense of humor.
• 26:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think Rob is much more of the people, please, or much more of the mainstream humor, and maybe some of these comedians didn't appreciate that even though they themselves have written some mainstream stuff like Dick Bandai.
• 27:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So whatever the reasons were that he didn't get across
• 27:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fact that he kept going, I think deserves a lot of credit because a lot of artists stop going forward because enough people tell them that they don't think they're good at what they're doing or they don't think they're funny.
• 27:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so thank God he kept going and then built his resume to get to where you just pointed out there in the 1970s to get on all in the family and get really well.
• 27:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And arguably I think before Albert Brooks got well known, Steve, I think.
• 27:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: It seems that it's a great question.
• 27:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's certainly right right around the same time.
• 27:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe it is a little bit earlier.
• 27:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it might be right.
• 27:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: The couple things first of all, if you are interested in the Smothers Brothers comedy hour, there's a book called Dangerously Funny, which is all because this is a, again, just as the Dick Van Dyke show is extremely important in terms of comedy.
• 27:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: The Smothers Brothers incredibly important and this was the most controversial show of the late 60s censored multiple times like people were trying to get it off the air.
• 28:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, if you look again, at things going on today with a president hating what is happening on a certain comedy show at a certain network and pressuring people to get that taken off the air, that is the Smothers Brothers comedy hour and Rob Reiner's right in the middle of it.
• 28:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think I also think in terms of him as an actor, and I think he is a good actor, but I have a theory and my theory is probably not true, but I'm going to tell you anyway, which is their certain actors who I watch, and I kind of feel like I can see them directing themselves, where you can kind of go like this is like the big perfect example of this is Jonathan Franks on Star Trek the next generation, where the character of Riker, he's always making the right choice, you know,
• 28:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it's that thing, this is how I imagine that I look like when I'm acting, which is understanding what is required and what is supposed to do, but not the most in the moment excitable actor in the world.
• 28:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think Rob Reiner and everything he's ever done delivers what he is needed.
• 29:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: But he, I don't think of him as a magical actor.
• 29:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think all in the family is where he's absolutely the best.
• 29:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And we should talk a little bit about that show.
• 29:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's an amazing show.
• 29:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I actually, but I actually think that,
• 29:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: He needed to be a director.
• 29:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: That is where he's supposed to be.
• 29:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's where his talent is.
• 29:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: As far as all the families concerned, it is crazy to me that that shows this.
• 29:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is crazy to me the courage of Norman Lear to make it.
• 29:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: The courage of all the actors that are on it because they all
• 29:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: are willing to look ridiculous, willing to say things that people are going to hate, and willing to jump into topics that everybody is afraid of talking about, and man, we could use things like all in the family today.
• 29:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what I think.
• 29:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think, you know, Rosanne was kind of like that for a lot of people as well.
• 29:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're flexing like that.
• 29:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like that.
• 29:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Totally.
• 29:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 29:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: The uncomfortable conversations.
• 29:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think everybody on all in the family was a much better actor than Rosanne bar, but Rosanne, the actors around Rosanne were really a big reason why that show was successful.
• 29:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just like Seinfeld, the other three actors are the ones who are really outshining Jerry the whole time.
• 30:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it is about the conversations they're having on that show.
• 30:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're not afraid to tackle.
• 30:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, people think that all these topics all of a sudden showed up like five minutes ago here in our society, but all in the family tackles everything racism abortion gay killing of gay people like.
• 30:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is so much that they tackle on that show throughout and they were the top rated show for five seasons, top most watch television program in the United States for five consecutive seasons from 71 to 76.
• 30:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: So clearly reflecting the society and I do believe Steve, we haven't changed the society.
• 30:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we got scared, and we went one way or two, swung the pens a little one way, and now we're trying to swing the pens on the other way, but the truth is, most of America always sits right in the middle.
• 30:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not afraid to talk about these uncomfortable subjects, but we also want to be able to talk about these uncomfortable subjects without people jumping down our throats and play with the comedy of it all.
• 31:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I agree with you.
• 31:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We need to show like all in the family again to come back and kind of get us to understand that it's not that serious and yet it is kind of serious.
• 31:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: So just be aware of how to deal with that.
• 31:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you watch those shows, I've watched some clips of those shows recently and the writing is still tight.
• 31:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: The performances are great and it's very touching and very moving.
• 31:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, and Sally Struthers, uh, uh, Carol Connergings, David and and Rob Riner all have fantastic chemistry throughout it launched the Jefferson's, I think it launched a mod.
• 31:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's good times.
• 31:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Good times.
• 31:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right.
• 31:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 31:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is a show that the launch so many different shows.
• 31:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: out of that and I think they tried oh yeah they spin off they spin spun off archia think after after she died because he wanted to go forward with it but didn't quite work but like there's so much that happens and he's such a great addition to the show he's not the best actor on the show as you said right but he works he works representing
• 31:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: The uh, well, how can I say this?
• 32:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost similar to one battle after another.
• 32:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He represents the like goofy liberal who's that who's done over himself, right?
• 32:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: To try to do things, right?
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
• 32:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, this is what's so great is that he is giving voice to to what I think are closer to the beliefs of Norman Lear and the writers and the writers of the show than anybody else, but he's often a fool.
• 32:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, and he says dumb things and he is he is some of the criticisms that Archie has of me Ted are true about yeah lazy or unrealistic or all this stuff and then Archie is saying thing I mean some of the most horrible ignorant stupid things and it is designed to be that way it is designed and yet it is also things that people believe and some of the things he says you're kind of like wait maybe do I agree with Archie and that makes you feel really weird and the whole thing is that.
• 32:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: That this amazing about the show is that you don't reject Archie completely is that on some level we care about him despite all of his ridiculousness and his bluster and his racism and his sexism and homophobia and anti-Semitism.
• 33:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yet we can still care about him.
• 33:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And this is why I say we need this today because we all have family members who we still love or friends that we love that in this polarized world that are really different.
• 33:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And if we watch our chief bunker, we can go, oh, there is a way for me to totally disagree with what this person is saying or feel it's ridiculous and still think of them as a human.
• 33:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: whether it's the liberal meathead or whether it's the racist archie.
• 33:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: And by the way, just just talking about how big this show is because we can't conceive of this.
• 33:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: So at the time, it had about 50 million people watching it every single week compared to the Game of Thrones finale, which is 19.3 million.
• 33:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's the biggest thing that anybody has watched in terms of a dramatic or theatrical thing or not theatrical.
• 33:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: But on TV like that, since then.
• 33:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: But here's that's not the kicker.
• 33:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: The kicker is the size of the population because the U.S. population during all in the family was a little over 200 million.
• 34:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: It was 330 million when the Game of Thrones finale happens.
• 34:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the difference is that Game of Thrones finale about 5.8% of Americans watch that.
• 34:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 34:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: The, all in the family was washed by a quarter, 25% of Americans.
• 34:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: 25% of the entire population of the country was home watching that show.
• 34:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's, that's inconceivable today.
• 34:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 34:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today, well, because we also have so many channels and so many different types of content and YouTube and whatever, which, of course, we're currently on that distracted, but it's, it's, it's an amazing number, no matter when you get that number, 50 million people and that's, and you know, for all
• 34:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe Rob not be in the best actor on the show.
• 34:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: He won two Emmy Awards for his role on the show.
• 34:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: He received three additional nominations.
• 34:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he was nominated five times, right?
• 34:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, one twice.
• 34:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he was nominated for five Golden Globes for his performances on that show.
• 35:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that tells you the power of that show that even in the actor who was probably the quote, the worst of the four, still was able to be nominated for a number of awards, because he was able to find the real honest,
• 35:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: goofiness of the character while the earnestness that was there in his political points of users philosophies of that character came through, uh, despite some of the missteps of his, of his desires and intentions on that show as a character.
• 35:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that speaks volumes to the performance that Rob Reiner did.
• 35:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: But now we get into this area, Steve, where he's transitioning into directing.
• 35:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: What, what, what can you say about this area?
• 35:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's funny how he goes in there because you kind of see the bits and pieces of how he gets there.
• 35:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: So first of all, he has experience with sketch comedy with the improv group in San Francisco, which, and that he's starting to make this connections and something we talk about in our episode on one of Harry Mazzale is he Mary's Penny Marshall, I think it's in 71 and they become
• 36:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: The fabulous Hollywood comedy couple and their parties are the greatest parties at the people that are coming over to the parties are Billy Crystal and Robin Williams And Harry Sheer and Michael McKeen and the other people who will become spinal tap and this he starts doing improv with these guys and
• 36:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: We could talk about the origin here, but in fact, we are going to re release our episode on spinal tap with our great guest Michael Ross, some of the most fun episodes we've ever done, but I will say that like they come up with a completely unique way for him to start being a director.
• 36:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think he had directed one TV movie before this, but it was this crazy spinal was this crazy spinal tap project that finally puts him on the map.
• 36:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think he, and he, here's the thing that's crazy.
• 36:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: During the time, the heyday of all in the family, he writes a series called the Super in 1972.
• 37:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: It only lasts one season, but he's he's already showing you that just acting is not
• 37:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: the only thing he wants to do.
• 37:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is actually, I've never heard that before that someone is creating a series while they're already on another series.
• 37:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's such an interesting thing.
• 37:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: It only read one season, and then eventually he does a TV movie, he said called more than friends with his then wife, Penny Marshall, and it didn't quite work out as strongly.
• 37:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think this is all positive, and this is another lesson yet.
• 37:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: If some of you who are listening or watching might take is that
• 37:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, these things didn't work out for him.
• 37:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, why?
• 37:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because there was another destiny.
• 37:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And in the 80s, we start to see that destiny.
• 37:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: You said, with this spinal tap, that's really where it starts to come in in 1984.
• 37:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's a fascinating change in transition.
• 37:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we've seen quite a few.
• 37:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Obviously Steve, quite a few directors become directors, Ben Affleck, being one of the most famous ones recently, but then Greta Gerwig and what she's been able to do recently as well.
• 38:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: So this is not something that's unusual necessarily, but to go and become even more successful, off of after being an actor, Ron Howard did the same thing, right?
• 38:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Coming out of the Andrew Griffith show, Happy Days, becoming this really well-known director in the 80s and 90s and 2000s as well.
• 38:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: this a spinal tap.
• 38:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, and I think, you know, the influence of watching his dad go from a performer and a writer to becoming a director and being on those sets while he's directing, right, it's got to make, and you know, I mean, I totally, because I wanted to be an actor, I acted in plays from the time I was six years old until after graduating college, there was never a time that I wasn't, you know, at some point during the year acting in a play,
• 38:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: a production of zoostory, a high school production of zoostory for the two best actors in the high school doing the parts.
• 38:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I just had this moment of going like, oh, I can't do that.
• 38:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, I can't do what they're doing.
• 39:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like, that's not the level of actor I am.
• 39:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I remember like just going, but I do see why I think this would be better if this was downstage or that they rush that moment.
• 39:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: And like I started to, and I had a buddy who had written a play and I asked me to direct it.
• 39:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it was just like, oh, I can't act.
• 39:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm an OK actor.
• 39:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is actually where I belong.
• 39:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, and I wonder if Rob was sort of discovering that.
• 39:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's not that he stopped acting.
• 39:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: By the way, his, so his next movie, The Sure Thing, if you're ready to move on.
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.
• 39:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, please.
• 39:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 39:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is my first Rob Reiner movie.
• 39:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't see spinal tap until a couple of several years later.
• 39:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I saw this and this became for my group of friends.
• 39:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: This was the most quoted most beloved movie.
• 39:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's interesting because it is clearly a reaction.
• 39:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's in this era of
• 39:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: post-animal house, post-cattishack, post-porquies.
• 39:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the, you hear what the plot is.
• 39:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the plot is a guy who hears, there is a woman who is a sure thing, which means a sure thing that she will have sex with you, and he is driving across the country to have sex with this beautiful woman.
• 40:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so it sounds like, oh, it's like parkies.
• 40:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're off going to get laid.
• 40:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it isn't.
• 40:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's actually like when Harry Met Sally, it is classic romantic comedy.
• 40:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: and this movie was one of the most quoted movies of all of my group of friends we watched this over and over and over again.
• 40:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is one that I just watched for the first time ever last week.
• 40:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
• 40:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I want to hear, I have to hear what you think.
• 40:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's a dated movie, right?
• 40:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there are there are certain bits that I've seen done in other
• 40:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: In 1984, I think it's when it came out.
• 40:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, 85, rather, when it came out, I think I'd even enjoy the hell out of it, because I love John Cusack and I love deafness iniga.
• 40:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I would have been just a lot more on board with it.
• 40:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I think there are other films that did better what Rob was trying to do in this movie.
• 41:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Although, I think we all have our guilty pleasures.
• 41:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: We all have the films.
• 41:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: We love nostalgia-wise.
• 41:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so the fact that it's a big film for you all and quoteable for your group of friends, I think, is great.
• 41:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because it's a fun film.
• 41:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's absolutely a fun film.
• 41:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's out there in some some sequences.
• 41:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that both sequence alone is is it's a situation.
• 41:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: And they turned it into a montage.
• 41:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was kind of laughing all through that montage.
• 41:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there are just certain things about that movie that I think are fun 1980s markers, right?
• 41:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: But clearly this is him just kind of you know what is Steve you kind of working it out.
• 41:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're kind of figuring out as a director, this is Spinal Tap was something that he wrote, but the next two films being the sure thing, and standby me, obviously he was not the writer, because standby me was Steven King and someone else wrote the sure thing, I think it was, who was it here?
• 41:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: Steven L. Bloom and Jonathan Robert.
• 41:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he writes, this is Spinal Tap directs that.
• 41:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, he does it.
• 41:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: He does, he does not write Spinal Tap.
• 41:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I can't open a tap as simple as that.
• 42:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's in profile, sorry.
• 42:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, he's credited as the writer of Spinnah Duffet Fair.
• 42:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It is improvised, but like the sure thing and stand by me or the two or two that he did write, but then he does everything until about 2005's rumor has it, everything he does after standby me is stuff that he writes.
• 42:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think sure thing is him kind of figuring it out after spinal tap, standby me is an incredible leap forward and then we really get into
• 42:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: uh... the meat of him as a director and he goes on this incredible run of films uh... i i think it's so i think i don't i'm sure it wasn't on purpose but i think it's so smart the way he approached it because smile tap isn't like any other movie we're improvising it you don't have to have a script so you don't have to do because it's going to be improvised you're not going to do it the way you would do a traditional film right and
• 42:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: have a very low budget so it's just like there goes shoot some stuff and improvise it and the other advantage of doing it is that more than any other kind of movie except the documentary improvise film has to be created in the editing room.
• 43:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're gonna have 27 different versions of this scene and you're gonna go okay well what is this?
• 43:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: What am I using?
• 43:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: How am I gonna cut this together and the editing room is what teaches you how to be a director and so many ways because you learn
• 43:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: you learn how you fucked up and you don't have what you need in the at any room, which means that you're screwed.
• 43:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that feeling of being screwed is the best teacher for the next film.
• 43:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the next film is the sure thing.
• 43:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think you're totally right is that a it's fitting into a very specific 80s kind of sex teen comedy.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 43:36
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so this
• 43:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: you know, the the stakes aren't that high like if people if you deliver enough of that humor and enough of what people want then those teens in that era that's not true anymore are going to go see that film they're going to rent it they're going to watch it multiple times and by the way this is this is why we have John Cusack as a star but you know whether whether the movie is data to not it's a it's a star making performance for him.
• 44:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think your absolutely right is that he takes everything that he's learned on these somewhat low stakes movies and some of the odd movies and now applies that to movie that has real drama, it has a real pace, it's filmed in a really beautiful way and stand by me, it's been really interesting because I like stand by me a lot, but I didn't expect.
• 44:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: both on our Patreon and we've seen it on social media.
• 44:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I've seen it elsewhere.
• 44:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 44:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is a truly beloved film for so many people.
• 44:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 44:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's almost a coming of age, a right of passage type of film for a lot of people.
• 44:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's it's amazing.
• 44:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I do think it says something that
• 44:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Rob Reiner realized, I'm going to guess on this, Steve, like Christopher Gess took this style of spinal tap and created a whole arm of comedy almost exclusively to himself to we got like Caribbean enthusiasm and other things, but like it was very much his lane that he was operating in.
• 45:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Rob Reiner had directed this spinal tap and maybe he realized that that's not the comedy that I feel like doing it.
• 45:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was not the place I belong anymore.
• 45:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me see what I can do with this.
• 45:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let me challenge myself as a director and go next level with standby me or after sure thing obviously sort of thing, but then standby me, but then he goes right into principle.
• 45:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: So to me, it's like, he realized that comedy wasn't for him.
• 45:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: He tries out this kind of teen comedy, sex comedy type of thing.
• 45:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's maybe not a hundred percent for him.
• 45:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now we find this kind of area here in the middle here, going with standby me, adapting a Stephen King book and bringing out the beauty of this relationship of these four kids without sacrificing the stakes of what's going on here with these kids and the some of the moments that are pretty unsettling to witness in a film like this and the danger that these kids get into to keep her subtle lens gang with the body, all of that stuff
• 45:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's really what's an amazing part of the movie is the conversations these kids are having that you don't think kids would normally have yet you remember you probably had when you were a kid.
• 46:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's one of the reasons why so many of our fans who listen or watch us on the cinephiles.
• 46:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: have been pushing us to do stand by me because it is an important film for a lot of people at a certain age who have experienced the same things and feel seen for like a better term by this movie.
• 46:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I just watched a stand by me again, maybe three nights ago.
• 46:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: And first of all, it's really great.
• 46:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Second of all, at least in my experience of watching at this time, I was like, you know what, I didn't have conversations like this.
• 46:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think part of the magic of that movie is that they do get into the real stuff in the way that almost like you wish that you would.
• 46:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: You wish you had a friend.
• 46:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: And by the time I've been in adult, I've certainly had those conversations.
• 46:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right, not at that 12 13 year age, you know, right, there's so much, and I think part of it is.
• 47:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's, it's leaving the normal world.
• 47:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's that they, it literally, it's, it is a hero's journey.
• 47:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's own way, you know, it follows that pattern.
• 47:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you have to leave town and you're going to go up against, you're going to learn things that you didn't expect and go up against challenges you didn't expect.
• 47:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then you will turn back home, having been changed by the experience.
• 47:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then you will be able to change the home.
• 47:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's totally what happens in standby me.
• 47:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's really, it's really powerful.
• 47:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's funny.
• 47:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: The more I think about it,
• 47:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: We said something, we said about several of the directors we've done seasons of, is that there's some directors where like a Quentin Tarantino movie is a Quentin Tarantino movie.
• 47:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Right.
• 47:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's just, it is what it is.
• 47:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Cone Brothers movies are Cone Brothers movies, but they will go from a light comedy to something really heavy and serious.
• 47:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
• 47:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yet it maintains its Cone Brothersness.
• 47:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: Whatever the Cone Brothersness is, we recognize something about it.
• 47:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think Rob Reiner is the same in a very different way.
• 47:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like with the comb brothers, it's like, oh, we're using, we have these, these cookie characters.
• 47:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're using these kinds of lenses.
• 48:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: It has this kind of look, this kind of attention to detail, this kind of, that's not what's going on with Rob Reiner.
• 48:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's like he's applying his spirit to different genres.
• 48:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, fully, you know, because misery to princess bride to stand by me, to win Harry men.
• 48:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, these are all really different genres.
• 48:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: They get their some feel to them that's quintessentially rob-riner.
• 48:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what I think it is, and this is just talking off the top of my head.
• 48:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I think it's, there's a humanity.
• 48:30
  [SPEAKER_03]: There's a real feeling of real humans.
• 48:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: going through whatever this is they're going through.
• 48:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, yeah, I think that's a great point.
• 48:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: You bring up Steve, you know, having watched some of his interviews over the last month, having gotten a little more into him as a person and the things that he has done and the ways that he communicated with people about the things that he believed in, there are some directors
• 48:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: or they have an issue with human beings or they hate the people in power or, you know, whatever it is that they're profiling, there's like a judgment of this that they want to make sure people take away.
• 49:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Rob's films aren't like that.
• 49:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Rob's films, as you said, the humanity, but I think it's even farther, it's a love of human beings that comes through in his movies, right?
• 49:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even something like the sure thing, there is this care and love that he asked for these characters and the things he wants to see these characters achieve or do and the conversations he wants these characters to have.
• 49:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: right and stand by me and how they're having their interactions.
• 49:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: You go into the princess bride.
• 49:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a real, there's a big heart in that movie, not the romance.
• 49:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's the feeling everyone has the love.
• 49:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: People have, they have for each other as characters.
• 49:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that's coming through in him as a director when Harry Met Sally's the same way.
• 49:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: Misery to a degree.
• 49:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's an interesting conversation to have about
• 49:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Does he love you these characters is seeking understand is seeking the audience to understand these characters?
• 50:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: No matter how extreme Annie Wilkes is, is that a thing?
• 50:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then few good men even, there's this sense of like there's something important here.
• 50:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: These two kids are being railroaded by the system.
• 50:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Demi Moore in a way, I think, is Rob Reiner's voice in that movie.
• 50:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not Tom Cruise, not Jack Denkelson is Demi.
• 50:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why?
• 50:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because Demi's the one fighting
• 50:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: for those two kids, two Marines.
• 50:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think there is a love he has for humanity.
• 50:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But not without having rose-colored glasses about society and things you go through, he's more about showcasing the fact that you can overcome.
• 50:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: you can fight through it.
• 50:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is a possibility for a happy ending.
• 50:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is a better world you can create out there if you fight for it or if you endure the trials that you have to endure in order to get to them.
• 50:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there are lessons to be learned because James Kant's character hates all his fans.
• 50:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He kind of hates that he's become this thing.
• 50:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so he has to kind of find his way back to reappreciating the fact that he can actually have a career doing this.
• 51:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's interesting when you look at these movies.
• 51:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think he has a genuine love of humanity.
• 51:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we know that as if you watch his interviews that comes through with him as a person.
• 51:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's no surprise that say massive element is you said, the humanity, but the love for humanity that he has in his movies.
• 51:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have a theory.
• 51:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: I don't know if this theory is true, but if you think about that the mood on the set affects the feel of the movie.
• 51:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: So Kubrick brutalizes psychologically, Shelley Duval in this scene, and that comes through in her performance.
• 51:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I had heard of rumor, I never confirmed it, but that I never found the evidence.
• 51:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: So don't take this as a fact, but that,
• 51:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: uh... just to a blank on his name director of alien uh... it really got thank you's right yeah my my late fifty's brain now just loses and all the time yeah that he he may or may not they did night shoots when they didn't need to do night shoots
• 52:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Because we're on a set.
• 52:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: So generally, you don't have to do night shoots unless you've gone over.
• 52:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: But he wanted to do night shoots because he wanted people on edge.
• 52:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: And the rumor I'd heard was that he had a starter pistol with blanks that he would fire randomly just keep people on edge and freaked out.
• 52:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then you know that when he shot the the chess buster scene, that a lot of that was improvised because he kept that all from the actors.
• 52:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: So they would be genuinely disturbed when this happened.
• 52:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: And can we say if those things are true, some of them I know are true, some of them I don't know if they're true, but did that affect the reality and the feeling of the performances in the movie Alien one might argue that they do I think Rob Reiner's love is felt throughout all of his movies and that there's the as you wish, which is the book about the princess bride.
• 52:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: Which is, and the audiobook is great, because Cario is where I write it and you have all of the characters saying their parts and what every single person working on that movie expresses is how deeply they loved everyone they working with that it was an incredible joyful experience and I think that's part of what we're feeling is we're feeling the love that Rob has for the people he works with on the set every single day comes through in the film.
• 53:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think the characters that he
• 53:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: The characters that these actors create, he loves these characters within his own films as well, and I think that's something that comes through when you're watching the movies as well, because as an audience, you can't help but be caught up in falling in love with these characters, because he presents them in such interesting ways and ways that just inspire us to love them.
• 53:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, even some of the foibles, we're in the middle of when Harry Metzall,
• 53:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: and not so savory elements of Harriet at the beginning, they are set up so that you can understand that he's a guy who's got to do a little growing because of how life can kind of hit you in the face when you're not expecting it.
• 54:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there's an arc he has to go on.
• 54:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's a love that he's unafraid to show that in his characters.
• 54:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that he loves these characters and knows that they can be better.
• 54:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think is a really positive thing, and even Tom Cruise in a few good men, that's not a good guy initially.
• 54:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a guy who just sees everybody as kind of numbers and he's ambitious trying to get to where he's going.
• 54:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it takes this case.
• 54:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: It takes these two young Marines and the things that are going through for him to snap out of it and really step up and do more.
• 54:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Take a, take a, take a, play a hand, anti up, and it's there.
• 54:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I love that about about the characters in his movies.
• 54:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: it'll be really interesting because obviously a few good men is is one of the Rob Riner films we're going to do.
• 54:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I have never seen the play.
• 54:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: Obviously it's based on an Aaron Sork and play and what I'm really curious about will be interesting to learn is how did it change when you went from the play to the movie?
• 54:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: What things and that's, you know, that's Rob Riner coming in.
• 55:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: That is a director coming in and obviously you change things in terms of locations, you change things to open it up.
• 55:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you're not flying back and forth,
• 55:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: that in particular, because what you brought up about dimming more being the Rob Reiner character as opposed to Tom Cruise, I'm not gonna spoil them, but I have a lot of thoughts about the Tom Cruise dimming more relationship, and I think you're on the money there, so it'll be really interesting to get to it.
• 55:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can't wait to we talk about it.
• 55:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, I mean, let's talk about this run of movies, Steve as we've been hinted.
• 55:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've been naming them already, but yeah, this is how it goes right after the shirt thing right after this is final tap.
• 55:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: He goes in to stand by me in 86.
• 55:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: The Prince is pride in 87 when Harry met Sally in 89, misery in 90, a few good men in 92.
• 55:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a bit of a stumble with North in 94, but he picks it back up again in the
• 55:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's kind of a mixed bag of films.
• 55:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but like that's a hell of a run from let's say 84 to 95, 11 years, you would argue 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 films there, maybe 2, 1 is probably bad North, the sure thing is a guilty pleasure, and then the other ones are.
• 56:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: pretty damn good.
• 56:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's a hell of a run to have to start your career.
• 56:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And whatever call writer's issues were with his son, call writer never had a run like this as his director of films.
• 56:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it's an incredible statement of the kind of versatility intelligence and artistic ability that Rob Reiner had to bring to life in such great ways these different type of genres of movies and be successful.
• 56:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've said this before.
• 56:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's
• 56:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: of our age or our generation, and it is incredible that.
• 56:50
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know what you said, Billy, my brain immediately went to Billy Joel, and we talked about the great Billy Joel documentary, and how, how he was a popular musician that people loved his songs, but never got the critical respect, and that, and that, and that these are totally beloved songs, I, because the thing about Rob Reiner films, which you cannot say about us, of course, as he films, which you cannot say, I think about Kubrick, is that.
• 57:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: My guess is you named standby me princess bride when hair mit Sally.
• 57:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: These are beloved movies.
• 57:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, these are movies that like I said at the beginning.
• 57:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: These are the part of people's families.
• 57:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, a clockwork orange is a powerful film.
• 57:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: But you don't feel about a clockwork orange the way you feel about the princess bride or when hair mit Sally.
• 57:36
  [SPEAKER_02]: Right.
• 57:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're different.
• 57:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so again, this run is incredible that he could
• 57:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, large, so many rooms in my heart, essentially, one after another is he made these movies.
• 57:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And only one of them was ever nominated for Best Picture.
• 57:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Only one of his films was ever nominated for Best Picture, and that was a few good men.
• 57:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I could argue, I would argue, Princess Bright deserves to be nominated for Best Picture.
• 58:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, I could argue when Harry Met Sally deserves to be nominated for Best Picture, but they were not.
• 58:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: only if you were mad crazy what we'll talk about we get to win harry once helly but i've looked at what the nominations were of course this is eighty nine this is the year of driving misdaysie beating do the right thing which was not nominated right that's always been the huge controversy as it should be do the right thing one of those groundbreaking important films in the history of america and that probably would be my pick for best picture
• 58:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: But when Harry Metzallie 100% is a better movie than driving Miss Daisy, I'd easily could have been best picture that year in my opinion.
• 58:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 100%.
• 58:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, Steve, let's go.
• 58:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you want to say about these movies?
• 58:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, because we could spend another three hours talking about these movies, but this is only supposed to be like an hour and a half to hour show.
• 58:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: So what do you want to say about this run?
• 58:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you want to hit on?
• 58:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you want to specify?
• 58:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you want to make sure we discuss as we're talking about the life of Rob Riner in the career,
• 58:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like I said, we're re-releasing a spinal tap, princess bride, misery, and wait, is there?
• 59:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, that's all of them that we're re-releasing.
• 59:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: So let me ask you this, it's been many years, probably, I think it's eight years since we did the princess bride, do you have, have you watched it since then and what are your feelings about it today?
• 59:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have watched it at least.
• 59:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: five or six times since we did it.
• 59:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, it's just any time I stumble upon that movie, I go back to being a teenager sitting at the AMC in Dale City, Virginia and the aisle.
• 59:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: seat of a stadium seating arena.
• 59:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I remember the the walkway is between the it's separated the tube walked down the middle, you separated the two sides.
• 59:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I just remember sitting there and I will never forget that experience because I'd never seen a film that magical.
• 59:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I'd never seen a film as a romantic young teenager that kind of spoke to me in that way about the romantic the romantic nature of love, but also having Andre the giants in it as me being a WWF kid who grew up with the WWF in the late in the early 80s.
• 1:00:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Seeing Billy Crystal as I've said one of my favorite comedic performers ever, I had no idea who Robin Wright was, I had no idea who Carrie L was was, I didn't know who Mandy Patinken was, and so all of this was an exposure to me.
• 1:00:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And every time I watched the film,
• 1:00:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's such a joy.
• 1:00:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's such a love in that movie that I think is incredible.
• 1:00:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the performance of Christopher Gascarand and just all of it, the magical characters.
• 1:00:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: And again, the message at the end, right?
• 1:00:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's like, and they go through stuff.
• 1:00:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Wesley, they think Wesley died.
• 1:00:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he's come back as the dread pirate Roberts.
• 1:00:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: He thought she left him for the print.
• 1:00:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there is this conflict and struggle that is real, that is, at times pretty harsh in their exchanges with each other, that the film doesn't shy away from, of course, this is based on William Goldman's book.
• 1:01:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, but like, I think he does an incredible job with that movie.
• 1:01:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I still love that movie to pieces and every time I see it again, I regressed to being like a 14-year-old 15-year-old the theater smiling at this at the film and feeling loved by the movie.
• 1:01:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Is that something I can say?
• 1:01:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I feel that the film loves me.
• 1:01:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that is something really comforting, man.
• 1:01:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: We're circling around the same thing.
• 1:01:29
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's, you know, that there's this feeling, and I feel the same way watching when Harry Metzalli.
• 1:01:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: I feel the same way watching Stan by me.
• 1:01:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: I feel embraced the movie on some level.
• 1:01:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: But that's the magic of it.
• 1:01:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's funny.
• 1:01:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: So the princess probably the same reaction I saw.
• 1:01:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it was at the UA theater on Shaddock.
• 1:01:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: People can listen to our,
• 1:01:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, maybe.
• 1:01:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Or did it?
• 1:01:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 1:01:55
  [SPEAKER_02]: Hopefully.
• 1:01:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: But like I don't think I had ever seen a movie that saw me more than the Princess Pride.
• 1:02:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: And particularly because I was in college, I was, I think I'm a freshman or sophomore.
• 1:02:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so I'm not that much older than Fred Savage.
• 1:02:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're on close enough then that I can remember being home sick from school and playing video games.
• 1:02:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, I was a kid who was always reading fantasy books.
• 1:02:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was reading Pierce Anthony.
• 1:02:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was reading Tolkien.
• 1:02:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: I was reading all that stuff.
• 1:02:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so like this was my world and the thing that's amazing about the Princess Pride that no, I don't know any other movie that
• 1:02:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: hits this level in this delicate way, which is that it is a satire.
• 1:02:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: It has this modern language.
• 1:02:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is making fun of fantasy stories.
• 1:02:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:02:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is 100% delivering on the fantasy story.
• 1:02:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:02:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: It manages to be dry and sarcastic about it and still completely give you the great
• 1:03:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is funny, is that they take, again, it is archetypal characters, the man and black, the giant, the swordsman, the evil prince, and yet he makes them not just archetypes, they become really, really real people that you love.
• 1:03:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think that something can bring up is really well.
• 1:03:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: You just brought up a few seconds ago.
• 1:03:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: The fantasy is never sacrificed for the topical, ever-gain reality of the movie.
• 1:03:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: The interactions are very modern interactions.
• 1:03:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Visit Terizarmov.
• 1:03:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, this key.
• 1:03:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, these little moments, you're like, this is very modern comedy.
• 1:03:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is very modern comedy that you're watching.
• 1:03:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even though it's set in a fantastical time that we imagine is some time in the past,
• 1:03:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: look of the structure and all of that.
• 1:03:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: It makes it feel like it's at some other time, but interactions are very modern.
• 1:03:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I appreciate, and I think it's amazing that way he walks that light.
• 1:03:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, when Carol King comes in, I'm not a liar, I'm a wife.
• 1:03:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like that is, you know, that is, what is that doing in a fantasy?
• 1:04:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: But it works so well, you know, and I can't imagine there are people who are hardcore Dungeons and Dragons people who loved Princess Bride,
• 1:04:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: campaign from the limited amount of exposure I've had with dozens of dragons.
• 1:04:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're having like these regular interactions that you would have even though you're set in some fantastical world that you're imagining your characters to be in.
• 1:04:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I think it was able to capture that really well in that movie as well.
• 1:04:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:04:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I have a memory of being in the theater and having a moment, the moment in the film that just
• 1:04:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, when you're 100% sold, when you just laugh out loud and you're like, oh, my God, I love this movie so much.
• 1:04:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's not a big moment, but it's the moment where the princess talking at Count Rugen, they've just put Wesley in the pit of despair, he's asking him to come down and watch and he goes, I wish I could Tyrone, but I have a wedding to plan my wife's murder and guilt or to frame for it.
• 1:04:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm swamped and he says, get some rest if you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything.
• 1:05:05
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that mode, I don't know why I was that line because it's so out of time, it is such a line of a modern line, and we're also kind of like, what is the relationship between these two guys and I just burst out laughing and I was at that moment, I'm like, I will love this movie forever, no other movie does for me what the princess bride does.
• 1:05:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:05:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:05:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I highly recommend that for anybody who's listening or watching us to pick up the criterion version that I think is now out in 4K.
• 1:05:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yep.
• 1:05:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have a lot of really great special features on there for people to watch.
• 1:05:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I highly, if you love the movie, it's a must-on.
• 1:05:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Must-on for God's sake.
• 1:05:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, what else do you want to say about these movies, Steve or any of these movies?
• 1:05:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, after what yeah, go ahead.
• 1:05:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, we're obviously talking a lot about when Harry Met Sally and so in a week, you can hear part one of what will certainly be a multi part exploration of this film.
• 1:05:52
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, just a spoiler alert.
• 1:05:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: I love this movie so much.
• 1:05:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like I'm very excited to talk about it.
• 1:05:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: So
• 1:05:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: Uh, uh, but maybe, but the next one, next one after that is misery.
• 1:06:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: Next I believe.
• 1:06:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yep.
• 1:06:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, miseries is next film.
• 1:06:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we did that, I think three or four years ago.
• 1:06:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:06:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: My feelings about misery is, it's the craftsmanship.
• 1:06:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's every single shot.
• 1:06:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: the storytelling, and in particular taking this unbelievably intense physical actor and sticking him in a bed and saying, I'm going to tell this whole story with this guy who can barely move.
• 1:06:27
  [SPEAKER_03]: That is as un cinematic a thing as you can possibly have and Reiner makes it incredibly cinematic.
• 1:06:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is where you see the craftsmanship and chops of the director, not showy, but boy he knows how to tell story.
• 1:06:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, if he wanted to do horror films, he could have probably had a very successful career, making horror films.
• 1:06:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because there's a lot of shots in that movie that are very horror, classic horror shots, especially when he's framing Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes in this thing, of course, he won the Oscar for this role.
• 1:06:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:07:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: There is something amazing about what he's able to do in showing some of the horror, even has some
• 1:07:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Maja is the psycho in the movie in terms of the shots, the overhead shots, and what have you.
• 1:07:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there's so much about what he does in that movie that is incredible.
• 1:07:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think this is him maturing as a filmmaker, right?
• 1:07:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like, yes, same by me, Princess Bridewood, Harry Metalli.
• 1:07:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are fun films that you can get lost in and enjoy the characters and enjoy what's going in the fantastical stuff of it, you know, and the kid stuff of it.
• 1:07:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: But now moving into, after one, Harry Metalli, moving into misery,
• 1:07:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's an older guy now in 1990.
• 1:07:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there's something more he wants.
• 1:07:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: And now he's been exposed to fan.
• 1:07:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: He goes back to Stephen King, who was one of the, who was the writer of standby me.
• 1:07:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a transition place for him here in 1990.
• 1:07:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then we get a few good men, American president, ghosts of Mississippi.
• 1:07:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are much more mature movies that have much less comedy in them, and they're much more about stuff.
• 1:07:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: a connection to when Harry Met Sally, then you got the romantic comedy of Alex and Emma, rumor has it, a really poignant movie in the bucket list.
• 1:08:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you guys haven't seen that one with Morgan Freeman and Jack Dickles and about cancer, and then we got stuff like LBJ, and then we finish up, of course, with his last film, Spinal Tap II that dropped last year, which it didn't get the greatest reviews with.
• 1:08:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's movie, but did you watch it?
• 1:08:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've watched about 30 minutes of it and just breaks my heart to watch because it's not that great.
• 1:08:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: So it's like, you know, it's like Bill and Ted 3, I was like, oh, this is, I know people think it's good.
• 1:08:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think you had, I did watch it.
• 1:08:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I watched it shortly before he died, actually, and it's, um, I think it's one of those movies where you have to put yourself into a certain space.
• 1:08:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you could put yourself into it, because part of it is it's, it's really them just hanging out in the studio a lot, you know, and Paul McCartney shows up at Elton Sean shows up.
• 1:08:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: But if you like hanging out with these guys, you know, it's funny.
• 1:08:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: We just did a, this is terribly disrespectful about him to get to say it anyway, we just did a short on second screens.
• 1:09:03
  [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.
• 1:09:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's a good second screen movie.
• 1:09:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Is that you get to listen to them and when they have a, and you get to listen to them saying and listen to their music.
• 1:09:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: When they have a funny joke, you're totally there for it.
• 1:09:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, it's not, it's not that much that you're going to miss.
• 1:09:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we shouldn't, we'd be remiss to not talk about him as an actor as well for the night.
• 1:09:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he's making all these movies, but he's also performing in films like he was in postcards from the edge.
• 1:09:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: He is in sleepless in Seattle.
• 1:09:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's in bullets over Broadway.
• 1:09:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's in the first wife's club.
• 1:09:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's in primary colors, which I personally still love that movie.
• 1:09:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I like the movie.
• 1:09:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: He put himself in the story of us.
• 1:09:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Ed TV, the majestic Alice in a Zen Wolf of Wall Street, as I talked about earlier, shock it all, and then put himself, of course, back in spinal tap too, and as Marty DeBurgie.
• 1:09:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, kept working consistently in films as well as making films.
• 1:09:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, not even acting, and he acted in the films he was in, the small parts, but he was also acting bigger roles in other films.
• 1:10:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, a guy was constantly working, constantly doing stuff, constantly creating it.
• 1:10:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's an amazing thing to achieve what he was driven to accomplish and do and make and create here out in the world.
• 1:10:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's funny, Justin Toner just posted that he loves him and Wolf Wolf's Wall Street is to Caprio's dad.
• 1:10:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, totally agree.
• 1:10:22
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think that is inspired casting because it's a lot of casting is allowing someone to be who they are in a circumstance that they would never be in.
• 1:10:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like that character that he plays sounds a lot like Rob Riner.
• 1:10:39
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, for the things that he has to talk about in that movie, which I mean, it is so, I mean, it's one of the funniest parts of the movie is is of course as he's choice to cast writer in that part I have to believe, as you said, that's course as he
• 1:10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: Love's Rob Reiner's films.
• 1:10:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He knew he was from what I hear.
• 1:10:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he was perfect for this role.
• 1:11:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And that scene where he comes in to yell at them about the appetizer and how much money they spent on the appetizers and where they were really spending it on this other stuff.
• 1:11:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's an incredible scene.
• 1:11:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just like the scene with him in John Favreau trying to convince uh... decaprio at his uh... at his house to accept the deal Jordan Belford accept the deal there's like this kind of thing where he is so uh... comedic and i have to believe that he was excited to kind of scratch that itch again and do a little fun comedy beats are in the film that's uh... got some say but i will say when when Jordan is being led away after he gets convicted
• 1:11:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: Rob Ryan was a great job dramatically in his face of being a father who is disappointed and sad for his son and also frustrated at the situation.
• 1:11:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I thought that was some really nice acting for him as well.
• 1:11:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I do, I will say the one negative about his life is that I wish he had done.
• 1:11:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: more acting.
• 1:11:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wish he had found a way to roles that kind of brought out more of some of the more challenging things that he must have gone through in life.
• 1:12:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And especially when you hear about what happened with his son, I think there was something that I think there was a great performance.
• 1:12:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: There was still there that was left on the table by Rob Reiner and I wish a director and a script.
• 1:12:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: had come along that would have really showcased why Rob Reiner such as still, it was such a fantastic actor.
• 1:12:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we could have appreciated him in a whole new way.
• 1:12:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And added another tool in that toolbox from him as a performer.
• 1:12:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wish we had seen that, you know.
• 1:12:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's funny thinking that someone has a certain time frame, you know, it's like Rob Reiner made a certain set of movies during that that is unmatched anywhere in my opinion.
• 1:12:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then he made other movies that are fine, you know, yes.
• 1:12:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: And that's, you know, they're very, they're very, very few directors that have more than a short run of films or are inconsistent.
• 1:13:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I also think it's important to point out that both him as a producer and then his company Castle Rock also is super important.
• 1:13:09
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, one of the ones, of course, is that it's Castle Rock that was the company behind Seinfeld.
• 1:13:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:13:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: So Seinfeld, one of the most transformative, uh,
• 1:13:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: uh... transformers shows ever on television uh... they also produced rosanne when you uh... which you mentioned before murphy brown my so-called life was also produced by casserole rock um... they also produced uh... in addition to all the uh... raw riner films they produce the shoshank production and the green mile yeah you know these are important films yeah
• 1:13:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's, again, there's this instinct of understanding what the people want, right?
• 1:13:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's this desire to put that out there.
• 1:13:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you can see that with Castle Rock and the various types of projects that were put out in sponsored and fought for, because after the first season of Scifeld, I think a lot of people already heard this story, but for those of you who haven't,
• 1:14:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was not doing well, the ratings, and it was Rob Ryder who went into NBC and said, give this thing one more season.
• 1:14:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee you it'll be great.
• 1:14:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Give it one more season and convince them to keep Seinfeld on the air.
• 1:14:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even Jerry says it's all the time.
• 1:14:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Like he is the one who saved Seinfeld.
• 1:14:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: We would never have Seinfeld.
• 1:14:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: If it hadn't been for Rob Ryan or fighting for Seinfeld, then yes, of course, maybe alter your motives because it's the producer, it's a company of produced it.
• 1:14:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I also think he must, it clearly was right because this became one of the greatest comedies ever.
• 1:14:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's a greatest comment, but it's certainly one of the greatest situation comedies ever, you know.
• 1:14:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: But Steve, what's fascinating too is when you look at it is that there are a lot of projects he didn't do that he was up for.
• 1:14:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think this is a fascinating thing, a list and I'd love to hear what you think about some of these.
• 1:14:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: In the 1990s, he was going to do an Angela Davis biopic with Lynn Whitfields.
• 1:14:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: And Angela Davis was a very powerful outspoken black woman from the 1970s who fought.
• 1:15:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: for the rights of black people there at that time.
• 1:15:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was going to do a version of into the woods in the 1990s.
• 1:15:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's one of the favorites.
• 1:15:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, one of that.
• 1:15:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: He even had a read through with Robin William share Steve Martin Goldey on and Danny DeVito in various parts.
• 1:15:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was going to write it with the Lowell Gansing Bob Blue Mandel.
• 1:15:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that would have been interesting to see that.
• 1:15:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was going to do in the 2010s.
• 1:15:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had a global war thing that it was going to do on Morris TV.
• 1:15:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: This was something he was going to explore this book that had been written and see what he could do with that.
• 1:15:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was going to do shoshank redemption, as well.
• 1:15:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He'd been offered it as an alternative director to Frank Daripun if he didn't take it.
• 1:15:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: And he was even offered to direct the first Harry Potter movie before Christopher Columbus.
• 1:15:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think, I kind of be honest with you.
• 1:15:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have a feeling the first two films would be even more revered, because I don't think they're that great, but I know there are a lot of people who love this first two films.
• 1:16:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: Rob Reiner directing the Harry Potter movies, I think would have been amazing.
• 1:16:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing.
• 1:16:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's Chris Columbus.
• 1:16:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I just think of what it been amazing.
• 1:16:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, I think there's a real linkage between the princess bride and the Harry Potter books.
• 1:16:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, and goldman.
• 1:16:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's so funny, you know, whatever people think about JK Rowling at this moment, those books would run.
• 1:16:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: have the same mix of humor and magic like doing the real fantasy and make it enjoyable, but also having a little bit of like, I always think of it a kind of a Douglas Adams sort of remove that allows you to have that comedy incentive humor.
• 1:16:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think that is very consensus with the princess bride.
• 1:16:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so had he done it?
• 1:16:46
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think he would have brought it.
• 1:16:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean,
• 1:16:49
  [SPEAKER_03]: like I don't know that Rob, he never really did a really design effects heavy kind of show.
• 1:16:56
  [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
• 1:16:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the Princess Bride is not effects heavy.
• 1:16:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's not design heavy.
• 1:17:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's relatively simple.
• 1:17:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: Whereas Princess, whereas Harry Potter, you would have had to do a bunch of that stuff.
• 1:17:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's so funny.
• 1:17:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Like I think,
• 1:17:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: I cannot argue with the success of those first two Harry Potter movies.
• 1:17:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: They did exactly what they needed to do.
• 1:17:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I can't find it's not that I even find tons of fault with them.
• 1:17:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think they're just a little bit empty.
• 1:17:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I agree with that.
• 1:17:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think they're a little empty.
• 1:17:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: They're not as magical as you will.
• 1:17:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: hope they would be uh... but i know there are people who disagree with the state who love the country will be so you know it is what it is what you want to say about his later films are there any of these that stand out for you uh... in terms of uh... maybe better than people think or uh... not
• 1:17:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Not necessarily.
• 1:17:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, go ahead.
• 1:17:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've got those.
• 1:17:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I mean, most of them, you know, go some Mississippi, I think is okay.
• 1:17:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: North African, remember going to see it in the movie theater and being so excited to go see it and then going, oh, because it had been this amazing run.
• 1:17:57
  [SPEAKER_03]: You know, you'd have this incredible run.
• 1:17:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And I think I've seen rumor has it and kind of wish that I hadn't, you know, like there a couple other movies like that.
• 1:18:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: But the one movie, which I just watched again, as I said, that documentary on Albert Brooks's
• 1:18:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: I agree, I think, and I think the bucket list, if people haven't seen it in the bucket list, yes, absolutely.
• 1:18:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was really surprised at that one, and I was, I didn't expect to be.
• 1:18:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think LBJ didn't quite get there being Charlie, and so it goes is fine, not the greatest, but it's fine.
• 1:18:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Magic a bell aisle, I think there are some people who like Magic a bell aisle.
• 1:18:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: I haven't seen that one yet.
• 1:18:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I do think the story of us is actually
• 1:18:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that's worth a revisit.
• 1:18:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Him, Bruce Willis, and Michelle Phi for delivering an interesting exploration of relationships, mature relationships, as it's a mayor's is kind of falling apart for a number of reasons.
• 1:18:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I kind of enjoy that for what it's not a great film, but I think it's a certainly a watchable film in what it's exploring.
• 1:19:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we haven't mentioned much about the American President, Steve.
• 1:19:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: We should maybe film our film conversation by talking about that film.
• 1:19:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: What do you think also in the American President?
• 1:19:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's so weird.
• 1:19:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, the American president has a strange asterisk next to it in my brain because it's the proto-west wing.
• 1:19:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and that's, and the West Wing, like my two favorite TV shows of all time are probably Star Trek the original series and the West Wing.
• 1:19:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: I adore the West Wing.
• 1:19:32
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so what I saw the American president before the West Wing existed, I absolutely loved it.
• 1:19:38
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's a fan, I think it is,
• 1:19:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: As all of those capper-esque elements, which I mentioned in the movie, I think it does a great job of a very dated mid-90s version of how politics, how hardcore politics works, you know, I think net-bending and Michael Douglas are fantastic.
• 1:19:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: It is so funny to watch Martin Sheen play the Leo part.
• 1:20:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:20:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: up against Michael Douglas playing the president.
• 1:20:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what makes it all so weird.
• 1:20:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: But you have all that Aaron Sorkin dialogue.
• 1:20:08
  [SPEAKER_03]: Michael Jake Fox plays a great sort of young guy in the scene.
• 1:20:13
  [SPEAKER_03]: And Richard Trifis is the conservative bad guy.
• 1:20:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's perfect.
• 1:20:17
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I think it's really, really good.
• 1:20:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: I think it pales in comparison to the Westwing, which is so much of a bigger thing, but I totally like the American president.
• 1:20:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: I haven't rewatched it.
• 1:20:28
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's one I should probably rewatch and I maybe I will in the next couple days.
• 1:20:31
  [SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we'll even do a short on it.
• 1:20:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'd love to.
• 1:20:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
• 1:20:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, why not.
• 1:20:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: That would be a lot of fun for sure.
• 1:20:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll be remiss not to mention, you know, we're not going to get into specificity, but we're choosing Zazur, but you know, along with doing all the things that he was doing, he was also in very hardcore into politics and being a liberal activist.
• 1:20:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was the co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights.
• 1:20:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: which a challenge is California Proposition 8 that banned same-sex marriage in the state so we wanted to overturn it in the end of the end of winning about he charted the campaign to pass the California Proposition 10 Act which is California Children and Families initiative which is a program of early childhood development services funded by attacks on tobacco products he was the chairman of that organization for seven years there and
• 1:21:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: they led to his likeness being used theoretically in the South Park episode, but outward.
• 1:21:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was depicted as a tyrant there.
• 1:21:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so there was a number of things that he was involved in throughout.
• 1:21:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: So he was a person who definitely felt that he had more to give beyond the creative side of things and had no problem being politically active.
• 1:21:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I also think
• 1:21:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you watch this stuff, he wasn't someone who is trying to destroy the other side or vilify the other side.
• 1:21:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was a guy who was open to having these conversations as long as they were honest conversations about the issues.
• 1:21:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: He went on conservative shows.
• 1:21:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: He went on liberal shows.
• 1:21:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He went on middle of the road shows to talk about these things.
• 1:22:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: He had no problem doing so.
• 1:22:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: He's very gregarious.
• 1:22:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: he's very easy to listen to and he's very intelligent and how he was delivering his points of use.
• 1:22:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: And even when he contradicted or had a different point of view of the person, he was never about taking down the other person.
• 1:22:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: It was about trying to get them to understand the point of view they were coming from, while also honoring their point of view.
• 1:22:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so I think that's another thing that is a sad loss from his passing is that I think we need more voices
• 1:22:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: of people who are open to hearing through honest discourse about these kinds of things, because there's a lot of dishonest discourse on both sides, and we need more honest discourse to seek compromise, and I think he always seemed to seek compromise in the conversations, yeah, with people.
• 1:22:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: and I appreciated that about him as a person.
• 1:22:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And I think these films endure not because they choose sides.
• 1:22:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: They endure because they're universal.
• 1:22:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: His films endure that no matter what your political bent is, there is something for you to connect to into characters of his great films, which is why they endure so much and they cross all political lines and people from all sides of the political aisle spoke about the loss of Rob Reiner and the tragic nature with which he passed.
• 1:23:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: One particular person or not mentioning one particular person, but pretty much everybody across the board spoke of the pain of the loss of Rob Reiner because of the love they had for his films and that's an amazing thing.
• 1:23:21
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not sure what person you're referring to.
• 1:23:23
  [SPEAKER_03]: I can't think of anyone off the top of my head.
• 1:23:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: But it's funny, I will say there were times, I mean, Rob Riner in addition to apparently looking like me, shares some, you know, I share politics with him.
• 1:23:34
  [SPEAKER_03]: There were times where I felt he got a little shrill in some of his attacks on people.
• 1:23:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's funny, there's the South Park where he gets, I forget what they called him, but they did a Rob Riner style character and made fun of him.
• 1:23:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: But the thing about it for me is, I mean, the reality is is, and your politics might very well disagree with it.
• 1:23:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: You might have hated him for political reasons, but in my opinion, from what I have read, it is very possible that gay marriage would not be legal in the United States without Rob Riner.
• 1:24:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:24:06
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, that is the scale.
• 1:24:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: And so, and I am unapologetically,
• 1:24:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: 100% for the rights of people that love each other to get married.
• 1:24:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
• 1:24:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: So if you, if that's not your politics, you disagree with that.
• 1:24:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's fine.
• 1:24:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: But I am giving him all of the rewards that he deserves and honor him for doing just that one thing and also campaigning for preschool and child care in California and things like that.
• 1:24:33
  [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, there was a moment where people were talking about him running against the
• 1:24:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: which would have been hilarious and he had done it.
• 1:24:42
  [SPEAKER_03]: But like this is a guy who, in my opinion, his heart was very much in the right place.
• 1:24:47
  [SPEAKER_03]: And when he worked with in terms of film, he worked out of love.
• 1:24:53
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's what we've been talking about this whole time.
• 1:24:55
  [SPEAKER_03]: And what he worked politically, he was driven by love.
• 1:24:58
  [SPEAKER_03]: He wasn't driven by hate.
• 1:24:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yes, sometimes he had some angry rants.
• 1:25:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yes, your politics might be different from his.
• 1:25:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: But that's, but if you, and this is maybe this is why I want to go back to things like all in the family where you can do a show where there's all of the horrible things that people say sometimes, and yeah, still instill it with a sense of love, which is what he gave.
• 1:25:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I agree.
• 1:25:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think that sounds like a perfect way to encapsulate him as a person when you're watching his work.
• 1:25:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of love in his work.
• 1:25:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of love that we feel, and as we kind of discovered in our conversation, we feel, I think a lot of people who are listening to us or watching us feel that embraced by his movies, seen by his movies, loved by his movies, and they touch us in that way, which is why
• 1:26:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: his loss is felt so deeply by people like us and others around who are listening or watching us.
• 1:26:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now for sure.
• 1:26:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Any final words as we're at Aaron, I have to do.
• 1:26:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: We should wrap up this conversation.
• 1:26:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Any final words.
• 1:26:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do you want to say?
• 1:26:14
  [SPEAKER_03]: No, I know we had gotten a couple of questions.
• 1:26:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we do.
• 1:26:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to get that out.
• 1:26:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you want to get those first.
• 1:26:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
• 1:26:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's get those first.
• 1:26:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, no problem at all.
• 1:26:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Why Leo, if C says sorry I'm late, but watch story of us for the first time.
• 1:26:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: The soundtrack by Eric Clapton is so good.
• 1:26:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: I miss Rob deeply every day.
• 1:26:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
• 1:26:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: If there's one film I encourage people to see from the latter half of his movies, it is the story of us, absolutely, give it a shot.
• 1:26:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's good.
• 1:26:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, and uh, these a lot of three 16 says $20, $20,000 worth of sites do they care cancer.
• 1:26:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I don't know what I don't know.
• 1:26:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: This is a, this is a mystery message.
• 1:26:54
  [SPEAKER_03]: Um, I think, but I'd like whatever 26,000 I'd like to care cancer.
• 1:26:59
  [SPEAKER_03]: Curing cancer sounds good.
• 1:27:01
  [SPEAKER_03]: I am in a favor of Curing cancer.
• 1:27:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am as well considering a loss of my father to cancer, right?
• 1:27:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want people to lose their parents to cancer.
• 1:27:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's cure it.
• 1:27:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alright Steve, let's wrap it up.
• 1:27:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: What final words would you like to say and what would you like to tease about what we got coming up here on the cinephiles in our season of Rob Reiner?
• 1:27:18
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I'm going to repeat my final words before which is that the big thing that I feel from him and his greatest movies is the love it is the love buying the scenes.
• 1:27:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: the love for the characters in the film, the love and craftsmanship for the storytelling, and that he does movies that are about the humanity of the people in them, even when those people are going through some tough things.
• 1:27:37
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that, you know, I'm always going to be a fan of Rob Reiner and of his films, as far as what we've got going on, we're right in the middle.
• 1:27:44
  [SPEAKER_03]: We've recorded
• 1:27:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: off of part one of when Harry Met Sally that's going to be at least a two part or maybe three then we're moving on.
• 1:27:51
  [SPEAKER_03]: I believe the next one we're doing is a few good men and so excited about that.
• 1:27:56
  [SPEAKER_03]: And then this was we thought we were just going to do two movies and then we got so many people saying you guys are going to do stand by me, right?
• 1:28:04
  [SPEAKER_03]: You're going to stand by me and we had a great conversation
• 1:28:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: with our advisory board a few days ago.
• 1:28:10
  [SPEAKER_03]: And yes, we are doing three Rob Reiner films.
• 1:28:12
  [SPEAKER_03]: So we are doing, when Harry Met Sally, a few good men, and stand by me.
• 1:28:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: So that's going to be a very long season of Rob Reiner.
• 1:28:19
  [SPEAKER_03]: And it's not our only season of a director for the year John, do you want to tell us to tell who the other director we're going to begin with?
• 1:28:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, I mean, a very big movie is coming out that's at the top of the list of a lot of people's most anticipated films of 2026.
• 1:28:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: and that is the Odyssey.
• 1:28:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we will be doing a season of Christopher Nolan to line up with the timing of the release of the Odyssey.
• 1:28:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to talk about him.
• 1:28:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to explore a couple of films of his as well, which I don't think Oppenheimer is one of them.
• 1:28:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we're kind of deciding what our second one is going to be.
• 1:28:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we are breaking our 10-year rule to dive into Oppenheimer, which I personally cannot wait to do
• 1:28:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: on our show and we'll let you all know what our second film is going to be.
• 1:29:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: So that will be our other season.
• 1:29:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: So we'll do Rob Reiner, take a break from Rob Reiner, do some other movies, and then jump into our season of Christopher Nolan.
• 1:29:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: So look for that later on this year.
• 1:29:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: That's a big, big, serious stuff on coming to the center files.
• 1:29:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: And listen, because we haven't officially locked down, we have a couple of movies and contention.
• 1:29:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: If you have suggestions for what you want that other Nolan film to be, bear in mind that we have already done Dark Knight and we've already done inception, which we really seem during that time.
• 1:29:35
  [SPEAKER_03]: So then the question is, what are the other ones going to be?
• 1:29:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see.
• 1:29:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see.
• 1:29:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see for sure.
• 1:29:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: And just to clarify, Vincent Wada was saying that this is the line from from Wolf of Wall Street, the Rob Reiner says $26,000 with a size.
• 1:29:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: Do they care cancel?
• 1:29:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's very, it's totally, it totally always makes no.
• 1:29:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't understand it before.
• 1:29:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Vincent.
• 1:29:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate you clarifying that for us because we didn't get it.
• 1:30:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: So
• 1:30:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, well, yeah, I think Steve, something up, love.
• 1:30:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what we're talking about with Rob Ryder.
• 1:30:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what we all feel.
• 1:30:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think everyone listening or watching us feels that way about his movies as well and about the man.
• 1:30:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: And it is a deep loss.
• 1:30:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: But the thing we understand as you get older is, we are going to lose people.
• 1:30:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: People are going to leave you along the way.
• 1:30:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: So after grieving their loss,
• 1:30:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: The next step is to appreciate we even had them.
• 1:30:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that we even had a Rob Riner in our world, I think is amazing because so many of us were moved and touched and probably changed by seeing Rob Riner's movies at formative ages.
• 1:30:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: No matter what age you are, you can discover these films.
• 1:30:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: Again and again, you can just, you can be go all the way back and remember the messages and maybe these are great films that people need to go back to more
• 1:30:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: So remember the messages of love within his films that I think are very important and still resonate with so many of us today.
• 1:31:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: And are still resonating with new generations of film fans who discover his movies all over again.
• 1:31:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: And so to his family, too, his friends to everybody who's love, Rob Reiner, we send, of course, our deepest condolences still a month later in our warmest thoughts and thoughts of strength to help them through this very, very tough time because it is obviously a complicated situation
• 1:31:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: But we also, but we also wanted to give our love and respect to his work here as we start this season of Rob Reiner.
• 1:31:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, so for my partner Steve, more is that correct?
• 1:31:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, and if you want, is there one more thing we need to say, Steve, if you want to subscribe?
• 1:31:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yes.
• 1:31:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
• 1:31:40
  [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, you can.
• 1:31:41
  [SPEAKER_03]: I am your partner, Steve, first.
• 1:31:43
  [SPEAKER_03]: Look, sometimes it's a live show.
• 1:31:45
  [SPEAKER_03]: It's live television people, things go the way they go.
• 1:31:48
  [SPEAKER_03]: You could subscribe to the cinephiles at all the usual places, including right here on YouTube.
• 1:31:52
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• 1:31:56
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• 1:31:59
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• 1:32:00
  [SPEAKER_03]: Listen to our cinephiles shorts.
• 1:32:02
  [SPEAKER_03]: And of course, during our advisory board, the ad free shows and the shorts are also available on Apple Podcasts.
• 1:32:07
  [SPEAKER_03]: You can buy or stream every movie we've ever reviewed at cinephiles.net.
• 1:32:11
  [SPEAKER_03]: except that whoever runs that website has a couple of movies to update it.
• 1:32:15
  [SPEAKER_03]: They're a little bit behind.
• 1:32:16
  [SPEAKER_03]: I'm not going to say who that is, but it's me.
• 1:32:20
  [SPEAKER_03]: So I got to catch up before you could buy when Harry Met Sally, but that's coming soon.
• 1:32:24
  [SPEAKER_03]: And if you want to reach me, it's S.R.
• 1:32:25
  [SPEAKER_03]: Morris on Twitter.
• 1:32:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: S.R.
• 1:32:26
  [SPEAKER_03]: Morris went on Instagram.
• 1:32:28
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you can reach me at the Roca says on all the social medias.
• 1:32:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to subscribe to my YouTube channel, after you subscribe to this YouTube channel, please make sure you send leave your comments down below.
• 1:32:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can head over to my channel, youtube.com.
• 1:32:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: So I was John Roca says for all the stuff I got going over there as well.
• 1:32:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right, look forward to our part one of when Harry Matt Sally coming next week.
• 1:32:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we look forward to hearing from you all about with Nolan film.
• 1:32:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: You want us to do down the road later on this year in our season of Nolan.
• 1:32:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll talk to you next time with another brand new episode here of the cinephiles take care and peace until then.