KAZOO's "SNS Eigojutsu" Movie Corner (7) Reflections on My “Shock and Awe" Interview With Director Rob Reiner – NHK E-Tele "SNS Eigojutsu" (aired 2019/03/21)

1.Prologue

This week on the show we aired my interview with director Rob Reiner, who was in Japan to promote his film Shock and Awe, which hits theaters in Japan on March 29th. Rob Reiner is best known for his many hit films throughout the 80s and 90s, which cover an impressive range of genres: documentary, romantic comedy, drama, fantasy, psychological thriller, etc.

2.Reflections on my interview with director Rob Reiner

Montclair Film Festival, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Maybe it’s because he’s already done all there is to be done in each of those genres; maybe it’s because he’s just that concerned about the current state of affairs in American politics and society. These days he’s mostly known as a liberal activist, and his most recent films have focused on political themes. His latest film Shock and Awe is no exception, and I was slightly worried that the interview would be too serious or heavy in tone (the TV show I did the interview for is a lighthearted English language learning show).

However, once I sat down with the director, he was friendly and open, and a pleasure to interview. It’s clear that even at this stage of career his creative appetite and vision are as strong as ever, and talking to him I found myself in the presence of raw, untamed New Yorker energy. When he speaks about politics or the state of American society, it’s clear he is angry, frustrated, and apprehensive about what’s going on, but it was immediately clear to me that he harbored no hatred and was coming from a place of genuine concern.

Undoubtedly, it’s that personality that has come out through his many films to charm generations of moviegoers. My favorite film of his has always been The Princess Bride, while one of my producers was a When Harry Met Sally devotee, and another, a longtime fan of Stand by Me. When I mentioned this to the director, he gave me a bashful smile and joyfully answered all of the questions I had about them—with an enthusiasm that made me feel as if this was the first time he was talking it all. The Japanese have a saying that translates to “the boughs that bear most hang lowest”, meaning that the more revered a person is, the more humble they become. That is Rob Reiner in a nutshell.

3.Selected Rob Reiner Filmography

Buy on Amazon

This is Spinal Tap (1984)
Reiner’s directorial debut is a heavy metal mockumentary that satirizes the crazy lifestyles of the rock musicians of the 70s and the tendency for rock documentaries to deify said musicians.

Buy on Amazon

Stand by Me (1986)
This film adaptation of a novella by American horror novelist Steven King is the coming-of-age tale of a group of four boys living in a small town in Oregon. The film left an indelible mark on the generation that grew up in the 80s and launched River Phoenix to stardom.

Buy on Amazon

The Princess Bride (1987)
In this fantasy adventure, a young farm boy and a young girl fall in love but fate transpires to keep them apart; as they find their way back to each other they cross paths with rodents of unusual size, pirates, a man searching for the person who killed his father, and more. Presented as a bedtime tale told by a grandfather to his sick grandson, any child who grew up in the late 80s or early 90s can recite several key lines from this film by heart.

Buy on Amazon

When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
This film ushered in the golden age of the romantic comedy in the 90s. It follows a man and woman in New York who cross paths numerous times over the years, all the while arguing about whether or not men and women can ever be friends. The scene where the titular Sally fakes an orgasm at Katz’s Delicatessen is one of the most iconic scenes in modern cinema.

Buy on Amazon

Shock and Awe (2017)
In his 2002 State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush stated that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction” and that it “continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror,” grouping it along with Iran and North Korea as an “axis of evil”. The following year, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq. While the majority of mass media outlets were supportive of the military intervention, Knight Ridder reporters were consistently skeptical of the government’s claims. This film depicts their struggle to find out and report the truth.