Stand by Me (1986)
QFS No. 194 - The invitation for January 7, 2026
Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Quarantine Film Society selection of 2026. We here at QFS Industries resolve to watch all types of movies – big and small, familiar and obscure, regular and, well, French. Also, we intend to watch more movies from countries from where we haven’t yet encountered in our nearly five years of viewing. We’ve got our eye on you, Lichtenstein!
But to start the year, we need to honor a favorite filmmaker of many of ours. The truly tragic and shocking death of the legendary filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner has been on the minds of many of us for the last several weeks now. And while it’s important to mourn him and the horrific way his life unexpectedly ended, it’s also essential we remember him for all the joy he brought to our lives. And what an incredible life. Rob, the son of the comedic legend Carl Reiner, not only made his name as an unforgettable television character but proved himself to be one of the all-time great mainstream filmmakers.
Just look at the variety of films Reiner made! His first film This is Spinal Tap (1984) essentially pioneered the mockumentary. He created one of the all-time greatest family films in The Princess Bride (1987). He made one of the best adaptations of a Stephen King book while directing Kathy Bates to an Oscar in Misery (1990), a horror/thriller film. But just before that, he made arguably the greatest romantic comedy of all time, the oft-mimicked When Harry Met Sally (1989). He directed an iconic, star-studded courtroom drama awash with legendary performances and indelible scenes in A Few Good Men (1992). He even made pretty solid films about an American president in love (The American President, 1995) and a story about racial reckoning in the South (Ghosts of Mississippi, 1996) and so many other movies with A-List cast who truly loved the man. This small sampling doesn’t even include the films he shepherded as a producer through his company Castle Rock Entertainment, The Shawshank Redemption (1994) being one of them. Oh! And Castle Rock produced “Seinfeld” for crying out loud!
And then there’s this week’s selection, Stand by Me, another excellent adaptation and rendering by Reiner of a Stephen King novel that remains one of the great portrayals of childhood in movie history. This is a favorite of mine, even though it’s been many years since I’ve seen it, and inspired me when writing one of my early scripts. In Boyz n the Hood (1991, QFS No. 12), John Singleton fashioned his characters’ relationship with each other and their young years after Reiner’s kids and their adventures in Stand by Me.
Aside from his filmmaking, Reiner is well known as an activist for progressive causes. But where I feel he stands apart from other activists in Hollywood is that Reiner never really put himself as the overt face of a cause. He just fought for what he knew to be right, including spending a decade pushing for public early childhood education reform throughout California. Not a sexy cause but one that’s resulted in positive outcomes in his home state. He truly used his voice for good and not for show. I saw this firsthand at a screening I was invited to that Reiner hosted for the Eugene Jarecki documentary film Why We Fight (2005). Reiner, the most famous person in the room, did not make the event about himself but centered the director and the work. (I, of course, wanted to mostly steal glances of Reiner and hear him talk.) When the discussion turned to showing the film to lawmakers, Reiner chimed in and contributed to the discussion in a constructive manner, a fellow activist trying to help stem the excesses of the Bush Era “War on Terror.” Perhaps this mimics Reiner’s filmmaking – he never showed off or made it about him the way an auteur might, but made sure the story and the characters’ lives where the center of his movies.
Who do we compare Reiner to now? Who is a mainstream filmmaker who makes medium-to-large budget films that are not necessarily artistic in the way a Paul Thomas Anderson or Quentin Tarantino is, but instead focuses on entertaining a broad audience? Or a filmmaker who has made the wide variety of films spanning genres and who can attract top cast to be in his or her films? My first thought it Jon Favreau, who also started as an actor, and has made Iron Man (2008) and Elf (2003) as well as helming “The Mandalorian” on television. Who is the Reiner of the past? Michael Curtiz? Billy Wilder? Ernst Lubitsch? Perhaps this is an area of discussion for when we talk about Stand by Me.
All of these comparisons will fall short, of course. There was never anyone quite like Rob Reiner. So join us to honor a great filmmaker and to kick of your 2026 Year of Watching Movies by starting with Stand by Me. (Discussion follows below.)
Stand by Me (1986) Directed by Rob Reiner
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