-♪ Do I have to come right flat out ♪ ♪ And tell you everything?

♪ ♪ Gimme some money ♪ ♪ Gimme some money ♪ [ Mid-tempo rock music playing ] ♪♪ -Your first drummer was, uh... -The Peeper.

-John "Stumpy" Pepys.

-Yeah.

-Great, great, uh... tall, blond geek with glasses.

-Yeah.

Good drummer.

-Uh... Great look.

Good drummer.

Yeah.

-Good, good drummer.

-Yeah.

Fine drummer.

-What happened to him?

-He died.

He -- He died in a bizarre gardening accident some years back.

-It was really one of those things.

You know, the authorities said, you know, best leave it... -Let's not talk about it.

-...unsolved, really, you know?

-Rob Reiner is a man of many talents.

He is also a dynamic and exciting director.

-You want answers?

-I think I'm entitled to them.

-You want answers?!

-I want the truth!

-You can't handle the truth!

Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.

Who's gonna do it?

You?

You, Lieutenant Weinberg?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom.

You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines.

You have that luxury.

You have the luxury of not knowing what I know -- that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives.

And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.

-He doesn't have a lot of signature camera movements that we talk about, or fast-paced editing or anything trendy.

But he is such a good filmmaker.

He has just made a string of classic films.

-Where'd you get this?

-Hawked it from my old man's bureau.

It's a .45.

-I can see that.

[ Imitates gunshot ] You got shells for it?

-Yeah.

-I took all that was left in the box.

My dad will think that he used them himself shooting at beer cans while he was drunk.

-[ Imitates gunshot ] Is it loaded?

-Hell, no!

What do you think I am?

-Wow.

[ Gunshot echoes ] -Jesus!

-Jesus!

Let's get out of here!

Come on!

-[ Laughing ] -Makes such an enormous array of really important, really uplifting films.

And that's really the thing about Rob Reiner, is he doesn't think stories should bring you down.

He's a comedian in that he wants to make you laugh, but he also wants to uplift.

[ Dramatic music plays ] [ Drumroll, music continues ] ♪♪ -Who are you?

-No one of consequence.

-There are very, very few directors with a run at the beginning of their career like Rob Reiner has had.

-Yes!

Yes!

Oh!

[ Inhales sharply ] Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Yes!

Oh!

Oh!

Oh.

Oh, God.

Oh.

[ Exhales deeply ] [ Indistinct conversations, silverware clanking ] -I'll have what she's having.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] ♪♪ -Rob Reiner was born in 1947 in the Bronx, New York City, to a showbiz family.

-He is, of course, the son of Carl Reiner, the great American comedic writer, director, and star.

Carl Reiner, I think, is one of those sort of pivotal comic forces in modern American culture.

He worked with Sid Caesar on "Show of Shows."

He developed and created "The Dick Van Dyke Show," which was kind of seminal in creating the sitcom and the whole kind of form of modern television comedy.

Then he moved over to Hollywood and made movies there with Steve Martin.

So Carl Reiner was a big deal.

-Young Rob grew up in Westchester County.

And in 1959, his father's career took the family out to Los Angeles, where the house was filled, really, with the comedy greats.

So he would have Mel Brooks, Sid Caesar, Norman Lear coming over to the family in the evenings.

He was at school with Groucho Marx's kids.

Richard Dreyfuss was at school with him.

It was an incredibly strong background full of great comedians and just very backchatty, you know, humorous Jewish comedians with that kind of undercutting roast attitude to sort of family dinner parties.

It was a great environment to grow up learning the funny, and Rob Reiner absolutely did.

He was at the Beverly Hills High School, which is where he began to develop his passion for his own route through this industry.

And he started off with comedy.

He started off in a troupe with Richard Dreyfuss, his school friend.

When he graduated high school, he went up to Pennsylvania, where he did a summer in summer-stock theater.

Came back down, went to UCLA, and started working towards being a performer.

-He continued to write and act and appear in some TV comedy shows, like "Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Andy Griffith Show," until he got his big break playing Mike Stivic, also known as Meathead, in "All in the Family," which was a long-running show starring Carroll O'Connor.

-Carroll O'Connor plays Archie Bunker, who's the kind of patriarchal figure, but he's kind of very kind of old school.

He's not very progressive at all.

And his daughter has married this rather hippie-like character played by Rob Reiner, Michael.

And a lot of the comedy rests upon the sparring between these two men as the young Rob Reiner comes in with these kind of progressive ideas about the world and how they need to shake it up and love one another.

And Archie Bunker, Carroll O'Connor's character, is kind of like, "Ah, you got to get on with it," you know?

He's all kind of that typical kind of old-school character.

And this seems to just sort of catch light as a comedy idea.

People related to it.

It was kind of very affectionately done and very nicely written and really shows you the comic chops that Rob Reiner has to kind of spar and live with Carroll O'Connor, who was definitely the star of the show.

But he was there, and he was present.

Yet part of him wanted to be a director.

He wanted to break free of all this.

He didn't want to be Carl Reiner Part 2.

He didn't want to be just a sitcom star.

He wanted to say something with films.

He wanted to prove his own worth, I think.

And he's very candid and interesting about the fact.

He says, "When it came to it, the biggest inspiration for me to become a director was my mother, Estelle, not my father, Carl."

He'd seen his mother work in the music industry.

She had taught him a lot about how you keep going, how you strive to define yourself.

She too was caught up in the vortex of Carl Reiner but yet was still having her own career.

He said, "I always admired my mother for that, and she inspired me to sort of almost set out on my own and become a filmmaker."

-So together with some friends -- Harry Shearer, Christopher Guest -- he put together the idea for a film which was a mock documentary about a failing British rock band.

This became the wonderful film "This Is Spinal Tap."

The interesting thing about that is they managed to get $10,000 given to them for a script.

They weren't going to write a script.

In fact, they were going to improvise the entire thing.

So instead of writing a script, they created a 20-minute version of "This Is Spinal Tap," which was good enough for them to get funded for the rest of the film.

-Hello.

My name is Marty DiBergi.

I'm a filmmaker.

I make a lot of commercials.

That little dog that chases the covered wagon underneath the sink?

That was mine.

in 1966, I went down to Greenwich Village, New York City, to a rock club called The Electric Banana.

Don't look for it.

It's not there anymore.

But that night, I heard a band that, for me, redefined the word rock 'n' roll.

I remember being knocked out by their...their exuberance, their raw power, and their punctuality.

That band was Britain's now-legendary Spinal Tap.

Seventeen years and fifteen albums later, Spinal Tap is still going strong, and they've earned a distinguished place in rock history as one of England's loudest bands.

So in the late fall of 1982, when I heard that Tap was releasing a new album called "Smell the Glove" and was planning their first tour of the United States in almost six years to promote that album, well, needless to say, I jumped at the chance to make the documentary, the, if you will, "rockumentary" that you're about to see.

I wanted to capture the -- the sights, the sounds... the smells of a hardworking rock band on the road.

And I got that.

But I got more.

A lot more.

-Rob Reiner played Marty DiBergi, a director filming a documentary -- an, if you will, rockumentary -- about a British heavy metal band called Spinal Tap.

It's this wonderful pastiche, initially just of the whole music industry.

So the band go through a series of incarnations -- a Beatles incarnation, sort of a '60s flower-power incarnation -- before arriving at this mid-ranking heavy metal act trying to restart their career with a tour of America to launch an album, "Smell the Glove," which has the second most offensive cover anyone's ever seen, of a woman being forced to smell a leather glove.

The whole thing is improvised, really.

The actors were given start points, end points, and things that they couldn't overlap on.

But the whole thing is just improvised as it went along, and out came this phenomenal film.

It's got so many jokes which have been picked up by the heavy metal industry, for a start.

That's partly because a lot of the jokes were taken from things that really happened to bands.

There are lots of sequences which are taken from actual events in the history of these bands, all along the way with these beautiful lines, in particular, everybody's favorite, Nigel Tufnel, explaining why they're the loudest band in the world -- because they have amplifiers that go up to 11.

-If you can see... -Yeah.

-...the numbers all go to 11.

Look.

Right across the board.

-Oh.

-Eleven.

Eleven.

Eleven.

-Oh, I see.

And most of these amps go up to 10.

-Exactly.

-Does that mean it's louder?

Is it any louder?

-Well, it's one louder, isn't it?

I-It's not 10.

You see, most -- most blokes, you know, will be playing at 10.

You're on 10 here -- all the way up, all the way up, all the way up.

-Yeah.

-You're on 10 on your guitar.

Where can you go from there?

Where?

-I don't know.

-Nowhere.

Exactly.

What we do is if we need that extra push over the cliff -- You know what we do?

-Put it up to 11.

-Eleven.

Exactly.

One louder.

-Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 be the top number and make that a little louder?

-These go to 11.

-In 1985, Rob Reiner directed "The Sure Thing."

-I-I'm flunking English.

I was wondering if maybe you could help me out.

-Nice swimsuit.

-If I flunk English, I'm out of here.

Kiss college goodbye.

I-I don't know what I'll do.

I'll...probably go home.

Gee.

Dad will be pissed off.

Mom will be heartbroken.

And if I -- if I play my cards right, I get maybe a six-months' grace period.

And then I got to get a job, and you know what that means.

That's right.

They start me off at the drive-up window, and I gradually work my way up from shakes to burgers.

And then, one day, my lucky break comes.

The French fry guy dies, and they offer me the job.

But the day I'm supposed to start, some men come by in a black Lincoln Continental and tell me I can make a quick 300 just for driving a van back from Mexico.

When I get out of jail, I'm 36 years old, living in a flophouse.

No job, no home, no upward mobility, very few teeth.

And then, one day, they find me -- facedown, talking to the gutter, clutching a bottle of paint thinner.

And why?

Because you wouldn't help me in English!

No!

You were too busy to help me!

Too busy to help a drowning man!

-So now Rob Reiner had suddenly proven himself, had broken free of being the sitcom star and delivered this great cult comedy.

He was kind of given opportunities, and he really loved this script called "The Sure Thing."

He loved it because it was a story of American college students.

He wanted to do a film about young people, and he wanted to do a romance.

And here you have a beautifully done love story.

It's a really good script, "The Sure Thing."

The setup is a young John Cusack, who was 17 at the time -- discovered by Rob Reiner -- he's down on his luck romantically.

He's a college boy.

So he goes on a car share.

And of course, wouldn't you believe, Daphne Zuniga has to be in the back seat with him.

So the journey begins with them sparring, and we can see where this is gonna lead.

They're gonna spar themselves into affection.

It's almost a little bit of a prototype for "When Harry Met Sally," kind of the early ideas of this mismatched couple slowly coming to realize they are very affectionate toward each other.

And they'll get dumped along the way 'cause they're making far too much racket in this shared car.

And effectively, it becomes a road movie about how they make their way across America, him to this sure thing on the West Coast, her to a boyfriend in a relationship that clearly isn't going anywhere.

So they're both going to their kind of destinies, not realizing that along the way they are falling in love.

And all that I think also draws back on the traditions of Carl Reiner and people, that a lot of comedy is born out of how we talk to one another and how we banter and spar.

The flirtation is what counts.

It's not the outcome.

-Following "The Sure Thing," Reiner quickly moved on to "Stand by Me."

♪♪ -I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being.

♪♪ It happened in the summer of 1959, a long time ago -- but only if you measure it in terms of years.

[ Coin clatters, register chimes ] I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock.

There were only 1,281 people, but to me, it was the whole world.

-This was a Stephen King novella that had been adapted and been floating around Hollywood for a little while.

In fact, Adrian Lyne was supposed to direct one incarnation of it.

But I'm so glad Rob Reiner takes the reins here, because I think he brings such warmth to it.

It's about a man reflecting on a pivotal summer in his childhood in this small town.

-"Stand by Me" has Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell as four friends who go off on an adventure, essentially, trying to look for a rumored dead body that they've heard is near the rail tracks and near the river just outside their town.

Rob Reiner took a lot of his impro skills.

He got the kids together two weeks before filming started, had them live together, play games together, build up a real friendship, a real camaraderie.

And you can absolutely see that on the screen.

What really happens in the film is quite small.

They go from their home town.

They go out.

They meet a couple of people.

They go across a bridge.

They nearly get knocked off by a train.

They find the body.

They're bullied.

And then they phone the police and walk back.

But the charm of it is the stories and the interactions and the play between these kids.

And really, Reiner understood how to get the best out of them and really make that quite emotionally engaging.

-There's a lot of love between these boys.

There's a lot of humor in their relationship.

There's some laugh-out-loud moments.

I mean, the film also just has such an amazing soundtrack that really brings it to life.

Rob Reiner -- I've read that he was a little concerned that at first you've got all these boys.

How do we know who we care about the most?

And it was his idea to bring out this character of Gordie a little bit more than the others because Gordie had this fraught relationship with his father.

And Rob Reiner said he could identify with that because he, of course, was the son of Carl Reiner, a big Hollywood success story, and maybe didn't get that personal love and attention that he wanted growing up.

So I think he could really relate to this.

Just such a wonderful film.

Really, I think, will still feel fresh and relevant in 100 years.

[ The Del-Vikings' "Come Go With Me" plays ] ♪♪ -Man, that was the all-time train dodge.

Too cool.

Vern, you were so scared.

You looked like that fat guy, Abbott Costello, when he saw the mummy.

-I wasn't that scared.

-Come on.

-Vern.

-No.

Really.

I wasn't.

Sincerely.

-Okay, then you won't mind if we check the seat of your Jockeys for Hershey squirts, will you?

-Go screw.

-Hey, Vern, you better turn yours over.

-This is the way I like to do it.

-Fine.

-Aw, man!

-"Stand by Me" became a tremendous success, and Reiner's next project would be 1987's "The Princess Bride."

♪♪ -[ Chuckles ] -You guessed wrong.

-You only think I guessed wrong!

That's what's so funny!

I switched glasses when your back was turned!

[ Laughs ] You fool!

You fell victim to one of the classic blunders.

The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well known is this -- Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

[ Laughing ] [ Thud, sword clatters ] -Who are you?

-I'm no one to be trifled with.

That is all you ever need know.

-To think all that time, it was your cup that was poisoned.

-They were both poisoned.

I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder.

-"The Princess Bride" is one of those films that is almost impossible to define.

In fact, I would suggest that with this film, based on William Goldman's novel and, of course, his own screenplay, Reiner actually created a new genre.

It is an adventure film.

It is a fantasy film.

It is a romance.

It is a satire and a parody of the romantic fairy tale.

And yet all these elements all seem to work together.

It is a superbly funny film.

It has Mandy Patinkin, Cary Elwes, Robin Wright.

It's about a princess who was kidnapped and the young commoner who has to go and rescue her.

-"The Princess Bride" released in 1987.

I think if you look at it now, it has such a timeless quality to it.

If we look at the other films being made in that part of the '80s, they all look really dated.

And this one doesn't.

It just has such a purity.

Obviously it's this sort of fairy-tale story, an adventure story.

It's wonderful that it's got this really heartfelt romance at the center of it between Buttercup and Westley.

It's romantic, but it's something you can watch with the whole family.

Nobody's gonna get embarrassed watching this film.

You've got a great performance from Mandy Patinkin.

Just wonderfully cast.

Every character is wonderfully cast, and I think it takes a lot of skill for a director to handle the sort of mishmash of genre here.

Is it an adventure?

Is it funny?

Is it a little bit silly?

Is it serious?

I think Rob Reiner is somebody that can take all of that and just put it in the perfect package -- "The Princess Bride," one of the best romance adventures ever filmed.

[ Dramatic music plays ] ♪♪ -Kill the dark one and the giant.

But leave the third for questioning.

[ Men grunting ] ♪♪ -Hello.

My name is Inigo Montoya.

You killed my father.

Prepare to die.

-I'll roll down the window.

-In 1989, Rob Reiner released "When Harry Met Sally."

-Why don't you tell me the story of your life?

-The story of my life?

-We've got 18 hours to kill before we hit New York.

-The story of my life isn't even gonna get us out of Chicago.

I mean, nothing's happened to me yet.

That's why I'm going to New York.

-So something will happen to you?

-Yes.

-Like what?

-Like I'm going to journalism school to become a reporter.

-So you can write about things that happen to other people.

-That's one way to look at it.

-Suppose nothing happens to you.

Suppose you live there your whole life and nothing happens.

You never meet anybody.

You never become anything.

And finally you die one of those New York deaths where nobody notices for two weeks until the smell drifts into the hallway.

-Rob Reiner had been wanting to work with Nora Ephron for quite a long time.

He'd met her in New York and loved her writing.

He saw her as in the tradition of Elaine May, those kind of great New York comediennes who had a kind of great view of the world and were intuitive about modern relationships.

So they would meet up every sort of so often and get talking.

And he'd say, "What can we do?

How can we make a film together?"

And Ephron never seemed to have an idea, but she was very keen to know about Rob Reiner's life.

He'd recently got divorced.

He'd been married to Penny Marshall.

And he got divorced and she sort of said, "Well, how's it going on the dating scene?

What's going on with you?"

And these meetings become more like interviews.

She would sort of jot down notes, And he thought, "Something's going on here."

You know, he enjoyed -- he loved meeting up with her.

And I think it clicked in his head that she was fascinated by the idea of modern relationships.

But she hadn't -- She was gathering the material but hadn't got the story.

And Reiner, it was, who came up with this simple concept, and he brought it back to Nora Ephron.

He said, "Can we make a romantic comedy about two friends trying not to get together?"

-Oh, wait.

Wait.

I got one.

-Look.

There is no point in my going out with someone I might really like if I met him at the right time but who right now has no chance of being anything to me but a transitional man.

-Okay.

But don't wait too long.

Remember what happened with David Warsaw?

His wife left him and everyone said, "Give him some time.

Don't move in too fast."

Six months later, he was dead.

-What are you saying?

I should get married to someone right away in case he's about to die?

-At least you could say you were married.

-I'm saying that the right man for you might be out there right now, and if you don't grab him, someone else will, and you'll have to spend the rest of your life knowing that someone else is married to your husband.

-"When Harry Met Sally" -- definitely one of the best romantic comedies ever made, because I think it's more than just a romantic comedy.

It's a drama at its heart as well.

We really care for these people.

That's down in part to Rob Reiner's direction.

Also, just this wonderful script from Nora Ephron that really feels so real.

This is how people talk to each other.

This is this question of can women and men really just be friends?

And I think the realism that the script brings, and then you get magnificent performances from Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, great chemistry between them.

And once again, just a lot of heart in this film.

We care about these people.

And that's, I think, down to Rob Reiner.

Also, it has to be said, one of the best New Year's Eve scenes we ever get on film.

So "When Harry Met Sally" -- just a classic.

-After "When Harry Met Sally," Rob Reiner went in a completely different direction with his next film, "Misery."

[ Wind whistling ] -[ Breathing heavily ] -[ Voice echoing ] I'm your number-one fan.

There is nothing to worry about.

You're gonna be just fine.

I'll take good care of you.

I'm your number-one fan.

-"Misery" wasn't Rob Reiner's bag at all.

He did not like horror movies.

He made a Stephen King film, but he'd made the non-horror Stephen King film.

And he just didn't want to do it.

He wasn't interested.

Stephen King, at the point he wrote the book, had risen to a level of fame where it was becoming troubling.

He was getting very strange letters from fans.

He was getting approaches from strange people.

He does a very funny story about how Bruce Springsteen had wanted to meet him.

And they met together in a New York restaurant, and he'd seen a young girl across the restaurant -- had seen them both at the table, and had got up to approach.

And he saw Springsteen take a pen out of his pocket, ready to sign an autograph, and she completely ignored Bruce Springsteen and asked Stephen King for his autograph.

He sort of says that's the greatest autograph he ever had.

But on the whole, fame was becoming a complicated notion for a writer.

And so this grew natural to Stephen King.

This grew into a concept for a book, a book in which Paul Sheldon, the version of Stephen King he wrote, this kind of popular novelist, would be captured by his number-one fan just at the point he was gonna kill off her favorite character.

That was Reiner working totally outside of his normal field, creating this level of shock and tension that was startling.

And you can look at it and you think, "Well, you are the perfect Stephen King guy.

You've done the shocker, and you've done the sensitive story about friendship.

He's done the two most human stories of King's, the story of these people, and that's what's key to it.

That's what makes it a Rob Reiner film.

-Reiner then worked on an adaptation of the popular Broadway play "A Few Good Men."

-Got all of that one.

-Excuse me.

I wanted to talk to you about Corporal Dawson and Private Downey.

-Say again.

-Dawson and Downey?

-Those names sound like they should mean something to me.

-Dawson.

Downey.

Your clients?

-The Cuba thing.

Yes.

Oh.

Dawson and Downey.

Right.

[ Grunts, bat clanks ] [ Indistinct shouting ] I've done something wrong again, haven't I?

-I was just wondering why two guys have been locked up since this morning while their lawyer's outside hitting a ball.

-Good cut, Danny!

Good cut!

-We need the practice.

-That wasn't funny.

-It's a little funny.

[ Bat clanks ] -Lieutenant, would you be very insulted if I recommended to your supervisor that he assign different counsel?

-Why?

-'Cause I don't think you're fit to handle the defense.

-You don't even know me.

[ Bat clanks ] Ordinarily, it takes someone hours to discover I'm not fit to handle a defense.

[ Grunts, bat clanks ] Oh, come on.

That was damn funny.

-"A Few Good Men," I think, is a little bit of a different kind of film for Rob Reiner.

It doesn't really have that beating heart of warmth that we usually get from him, but it's simply one of the best courtroom films.

I think it's more of the Aaron Sorkin show myself.

That's because it's Sorkin's first feature-film script.

We really get all the trademarks of the way he writes dialogue.

-It has the most amazing cast.

He's also dealing with people like Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland.

So he's got a sort of A-list cast there to play with, and, boy, does he get it right.

It's one of those films that actually, in fact, if you take it apart and look at it, it just works like clockwork.

It is very, very predictable in many respects.

You know how it's going to end, but that really doesn't matter.

You're there for the ride, and the ride is tremendously exciting.

He allows Cruise to give a very detailed and nuanced performance.

as someone who moves from a guy who is kind of lazy.

He's not really interested in getting a proper verdict.

He always tries to do a deal before it goes to trial.

He gets a nice performance from Demi Moore as a very, very straitlaced lawyer -- military lawyer.

And he gets an extravagantly amazing performance from Jack Nicholson as the military commander of the Marines.

-I think actors really like working with Rob Reiner, and I think that's where the warmth comes in is he's enabling them to do their best work.

And just, you know, iconic courtroom dialogue.

"You can't handle the truth" is still quoted everywhere today.

Just a really fine piece of work.

-I run my unit how I run my unit.

You want to investigate me?

Roll the dice and take your chances.

I eat breakfast 300 yards from 4,000 Cubans who were trained to kill me, so don't think for one second that you can come down here, flash a badge, and make me nervous.

-Let's go.

-Following "A Few Good Men," Reiner endured one of the low points of his career with the poor reception to his 1994 film "North."

But he bounced back quickly the following year with "The American President."

[ Telephone ringing ] -That's gonna be Leo Solomon.

He said he'd call at 9.

-Hello?

-Yeah.

Hi.

Is this Sydney?

-Leo?

-No.

This is Andrew Shepherd.

-Oh!

It's Andrew Shepherd.

Yeah.

You're hilarious, Richard.

You're just a regular riot.

-No.

This isn't Richard.

This is Andrew Shepherd.

-Oh.

Well, I'm so glad you called, because I forgot to tell you today what a nice ass you have.

I'm also impressed that you were able to get my phone number, given the fact that I don't have a phone.

Good night, Richard.

-Uh, this isn't Rich-- [ Dial tone ] [ Sighs ] This used to be easier.

[ Telephone ringing ] -I can't believe this.

-Do you want me to deal with him?

-No way.

I may choke in front of Shepherd.

Richard Reynolds, I can handle.

Hello.

-Sydney?

-Are you learning-impaired?

-Listen.

Do me a favor.

Hang up the phone.

-What?

-Hang up the phone, then dial 456-1414.

When you get the White House operator, give her your name and tell her you want to speak to the president.

-"The American President" is another Aaron Sorkin screenplay.

A writer loves what Rob Reiner does with his work, which is why he's often working with the same writers or the same authors again and again.

-"The American President" is another fine romantic comedy, and I think it's more than that.

Again, there's dramatic elements at play.

I love that this isn't a rom-com made for teenage girls.

This is a mature, classy depiction of a real relationship.

I mean, no, it's not a documentary, and it's wonderful to see Rob Reiner doing something again that elevates the romantic-comedy genre.

-It's a hugely successful film.

It's really big with critics, it's big with the audiences, and it eventually spawned a whole TV series, "The West Wing," which lasted for 10 years.

It's a very successful piece of work.

-When we get to the bottom of the stairs, I've got to do a thing, but you'll be escorted to -- -They took me through it.

-Oh, good.

-Do you do this often, sir?

-Well, this is actually only our second state dinner.

The first one was for the emperor of Japan, who died shortly after.

So we stopped having them for a while, just in case.

-I-I meant do you go out on, uh -- Do -- Do you often... -Do I date a lot?

-Yeah.

-No.

How about you?

-Me?

Well, lately I seem to be going out on a lot of first dates.

-Then you're experienced at this.

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You can ask me anything.

-Well, how are we doing so far?

-It's hard to say at this point.

So far, it's just your typical first-date stuff.

[ Fanfare plays ] -Damn.

And I want to be different from the other guys.

-Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States.

-Oh, by the way... -Accompanied by... -...those are nice shoes.

-...the president of France and Madame D'Astier.

[ "Hail to the Chief" plays, camera shutters clicking ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -In 1996, Rob Reiner directed "Ghosts of Mississippi."

-Mrs.

Evers?

Mrs.

Evers?

Ed Peters is a good man, but as you can see, we simply don't have a case.

Now, I know you've been living with this thing for a long while, but... maybe it's just time you... -Let it go?

I can understand why you'd think that, Mr.

DeLaughter.

For years, I said the same thing to Medgar.

"Let it go.

Let's get out of Mississippi."

Do you know what he said to me?

"I don't know whether I'm going to heaven or to hell, but I'm going from Jackson."

[ Bell chimes ] Good afternoon, Mr.

DeLaughter.

♪♪ -"Ghosts of Mississippi," I think, is the first time we really find Reiner not faltering, but not singing, not at the top of his game.

I think he was just very interested in telling the story.

It's a real-life story of the murder of a civil rights activist.

But actually, Reiner would tell it almost in a kind of John Grisham-like manner, from the point of view of the white lawyer, played by Alec Baldwin, who will come in finally in the '90s.

So we start in 1963, and we bring the film up to date to bring about the conviction.

And it's the big courtroom moment again, so it's how he finally will swing the trial.

It was very much of a film in keeping with "A Time to Kill" or a little bit like "Mississippi Burning."

I think it's very nobly done.

It's a terrific performance from James Woods as the killer.

-It's done in a way that's convincing and not too hammy, something about the power play between these two people as justice is on the stand in front of him.

Baldwin, fighting with all the evidence pretty much gone now, and all he's really got is his wits, a few bits and pieces, and the emotion and the hope that times have changed.

So it's a very, very heartfelt fight that he's making.

-Back before the television, newspapers, back before the fancy speeches, my brother Medgar was the civil rights movement.

[ Robert Johnson's "Walking Blues" playing ] ♪♪ I'm sitting here tonight talking to my friend and your friend Assistant District Attorney Bobby DeLaughter.

Bobby and me, we're talking about my brother, Medgar Evers.

And we're gonna play the blues for Medgar all night long.

[ B.B.

King's "The Thrill Is Gone" plays ] ♪♪ Bobby DeLaughter... ...you and my sister-in-law, you get justice for my brother.

♪♪ -Mr.

Evers.

♪♪ -Rob Reiner then directed Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer in "The Story of Us."

[ Down-tempo music plays ] -When I first met Katie, I was working as a writer on this comedy show, and she had been hired as a temp.

And...I don't know.

It's hard to explain.

There was an instant connection, this -- this simpatico.

I felt like she just got me.

And believe me, there is no greater feeling in this world than to feel gotten.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Typewriter clicking slowly ] ♪♪ -"The Story of Us," I think, is interesting, although it wasn't a very successful movie, in that it's Rob Reiner sort of almost doing the inversion of "When Harry Met Sally."

It's a story of a marriage in which they are splitting up.

It's Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Been married for 15 years, realizing they have nothing in common anymore.

And so it's about the forces that pull you apart rather than bring you together.

So it has all of that kind of sense of commentary on relationships, as in "When Harry Met Sally."

But it's far darker and so in some ways far more unpleasant, because all the scenes we retreat to and look at, rather than that light bantering, dualistic quality to them that happened in the great romantic comedy are now bickering and dispute.

And it just weighs heavily on the film.

Both Pfeiffer and Willis are good and are working hard at their characters.

Of course, Reiner handles the material stuff very well, but it's a rather depressing film that never kind of really elevates its material.

-Despite the difficulties of "The Story of Us," Reiner continued with the romantic-comedy genre with his next two films, "Alex and Emma" and "Rumor Has It."

Then, in 2007, he worked with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman on "The Bucket List."

-There have been rumors you increased the number of patients to the point of overpopulation.

-Patient density has always been a -- -And your emergency rooms, I mean, they are known -- -I run hospitals, not health spas.

Two beds to a room, no exceptions.

Look.

I passed up a lunch with Michelle Pfeiffer to be here.

So can we desist from all of this inane posturing?

Boys and girls, you need me.

I do not need you.

-"The Bucket List" is one of those great, fun films where you get two major stars, perhaps in their later years, just having fun -- in this case, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.

They meet in the cancer ward of a hospital, which is actually owned by Jack Nicholson, who is a multimillionaire and a very, very nasty piece of work indeed.

And Morgan Freeman, who is a blue-collar mechanic.

So already you've got the setup -- two people who are completely polar opposites who decide to basically escape and go on the road.

Morgan Freeman has created his own bucket list, which is basically a list of things he wants to do before he dies.

Jack Nicholson finds the list, and he says, "I've got lots of money.

Let's go and do it."

He says, "I've got a jet.

We'll go off and see the Taj Mahal.

We'll go and ride race cars, and we'll go off and do skydiving."

And they go off on this highly improbable sort of buddy-buddy quest in which they do pretty well everything on the list.

The two stars are so wonderful together, and they trade off each other so beautifully.

But it is enormously attractive, and it was, of course, a huge hit.

-♪ In the jungle, the mighty jungle ♪ ♪ The lion sleeps tonight ♪ -♪ In the jungle, the mighty jungle ♪ ♪ The lion sleeps tonight ♪ -♪ Hey!

♪ -♪ Hey!

♪ ♪ Oh-hey-oh-wemma-wee... ♪ -Rob Reiner's later career has seen him reuniting with stars he has worked with on previous films, including Morgan Freeman in "The Magic of Belle Isle," Michael Douglas in "And So It Goes," and Cary Elwes in "Being Charlie."

And having previously made a film about a fictional U.S.

president, he chose to make one about a real-life version with 2016's "LBJ."

-I appreciate that question, and I'll tell you when any man stands on the steps of the Capitol and -- and takes the oath of office of president, he puts one hand on the Bible and raises the other hand to God as he takes his oath.

Now, if he -- if he breaks his oath... -I've never seen a politician look that good on TV.

-Oh, angel.

He's not that handsome.

-I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy... -Hell, I've never seen a movie star look that good on TV.

-[ Laughs ] -...the office of president of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.

-Jesus.

He just swore himself in.

-What's Jack got that the rest haven't got?

The matinee face, the Kennedy name, the Kennedy fortune -- [ Controller clicks ] -"LBJ" is a very solid biopic.

I think it doesn't reinvent the wheel.

It's not flashy in its style, but I think you've got a wonderful performance from Woody Harrelson, who doesn't look exactly like LBJ, but it works.

He just sort of melds into it.

I think he's got the accent down, the sense of humor.

I think Rob Reiner lets this film show the contradictions of LBJ -- that he can be quite crass and bull in a china shop, but yet he really did care about civil rights.

And I think it was also a smart move to concentrate more on the years when he was vice president and more conflicted and then, when he took the reins of the presidency, really quite a tight focus on the years of LBJ's life that's covered.

Yeah, it wasn't a huge box-office hit, but I think this is a film that more people should re-examine.

-The Constitution put me in the White House.

But there's no law to make you stay here with me.

I know you loved President Kennedy, but I need you now more than he ever did.

Not that I loved Caesar less... but that I loved Rome more.

-I can't believe he just quoted Shakespeare.

-I can't believe he just quoted Brutus.

-What's great about him is that he makes commercial films that have social content, and that's quite rare.

He doesn't beat you over the head with it.

He actually absorbs it into the film so that you can take away, having been royally entertained, some kind of message.

-You can walk out of his films with a story being told, your heart being touched, and happier.

There's very few directors who can do that and do that consistently, time after time after time.

-The run he went on beginning of his career is comparable to Spielberg and these kind of great directors.

And we don't recognize that in Reiner, and we should.

Because I think Reiner has more favorite films in his canon than any other director.

"Stand by Me" -- people's favorites -- "Princess Bride," "When Harry Met Sally."

These are the favorite films of people.

-Most people would be glad to have one or two of those in a career, and he's really -- Almost everything he touches has just been great, and I think these films are gonna stand the test of time.

I think Rob Reiner is also remembered as a great actor as well, but I think he's really gonna be remembered as just a fine American director, someone who brought a lot of heart to the movies.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪