Heartland: Rob Reiner

With a run of films in the 80s and 90s that can be positively compared to any filmmaker in the history of cinema, Rob Reiner has been a heavyweight in Hollywood for decades. The native Californian doesn't frequently hit the midwest, but his film "Flipped" premiered under the Heartland Film Festival banner in 2010.

I interviewed Reiner then, and had another opportunity as his new film "LBJ," which opened the Heartland Film Festival Oct. 12. The film chronicles the life of President Lyndon B. Johnson he unexpectedly takes office after the death of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 at a critical time in the country and his presidency. He will also host screenings of his films "Stand By Me" and "The Princess Bride" Friday, Oct. 13 at AMC Castleton Square.

Here Reiner discussed his latest film, how it unexpectedly meshed with the politics of today, and offers tidbits on some of his classic films.

So you have LBJ coming to Heartland. What initially drew you to the project?

Well, it’s interesting. I was a child of the 60s. I was of draft age during the Vietnam War, and I was against the Vietnam War, so LBJ was like a bad guy. I didn’t like LBJ, because he could send me to my death, and I didn’t particularly want to do that. But as I got older I started to have a different understanding of what he was able to accomplish. I spent a lot of time in politics, and I actually had a job in California government for 7 years, and I saw how policy and politics and government intersected and how difficult it was to get things done and implement them properly, so I had a different view of what Lyndon Johnson was able to do. When the script came I thought, “do I really want to do this?” and I thought “well, this is a very interesting guy, very complex person, and had it not been for the Vietnam War I think he would have gone down as one of the best presidents of all time. Just his domestic agenda, I don’t think anybody compares except FDR if you look at his accomplishments, and FDR was president for four terms. Johnson was there for a short time and got a tremendous amount done, and on programs that we still rely on today. So I wanted to say “who is this guy?”, and the only image I had was of this guy I didn’t like, and this image of a bull in a china shop, strong arm, larger than life kind of bully kind of guy. And as I researched him I found he had this really insecure side. He doesn’t feel confident with himself, even paralyzed at times, and I thought he was an interesting, Shakespearean complex character, who was able to do all of this stuff but at the same time was saddled with all of this stuff.

It’s interesting that how much you talked about Vietnam, yet the movie itself hardly even mentions Vietnam.

Well, the entire movie takes place during a two-week period. It’s all from the time they arrive in Dallas, and the assassination in Dealey Plaza, and Johnson assuming the presidency, and ultimately giving that speech to the joint session of Congress about moving forward with the Civil Rights bill. We do have some flashbacks, but basically the whole movie takes place in that period in 1963, and the Vietnam War had not escalated at that point.

There really was just the one line or two about it.

Yeah, McNamara comes in and says “I want to get your thinking on Vietnam,” and he says “my thinking about Vietnam is I don’t want to think about Vietnam.”

(Laughs)You mentioned recreating the Kennedy assassination. Can you talk about recreating such an iconic event?

It was an amazing experience. It was emotional. I don’t know if you’ve been to Dealey Plaza, but first of all it’s a lot smaller than you’d imagine that an event of that magnitude would take place in. We had a very short time, only 6 hours, because, you know, the mayor of Dallas doesn’t want us tying up all of the streets and everything. But there are a lot of researchers and people who are always around there, and they were there and were telling me, “no, no, no the umbrella man didn’t stand there, and the Babushka Lady was over there,” but we researched it and we basically laid it out how it looked that day. I did it twice now...I did it once with “Ghosts of Mississippi” when I recreated the assassination of Medgar Evers. That was really bizarre, because it took place in his driveway, and we shot in the actual place. That was strange. And again, neighbors who were there and knew, said “no, they took him out on a mattress and put him in the back of a station wagon.”

I was just sitting here thinking, someone of my generation, I’ve learned a lot of this history from watching movies. How is it for you, having lived through it, but recreating historic events like that?

Well, I take it seriously, because like you just said a lot of people get their history through movies, so I think filmmakers have a responsibility to be as accurate as possible so that when people look at it, it’s like another draft of history. You know, there are historians who write books, they weren’t necessarily there when those things happened, but they research as best they can and try to put it together. Now we have a lot of information about what happened that day in Dallas that we can recreate, but to me it’s important that you stick to what really happened. You can’t know every line of dialog in private, but you can certainly get a sense of what they said to each other.

Portraying Johnson in the way you did, it’s largely positive, but you get his crabbiness and his crassness, but he’s still the hero.

Well, he’s a human being. You do see the negative stuff, but he’s a human, and he was able to figure out how to get that legislation passed. He had certain feelings about it, but he also knew how the Congress works, and he says it in the movie. He says “I may not be the smartest man in this room. I may not be smarter than any man in this room. But I know the United States Congress and how it works. And to me, that’s what this movie was about: showing the insecurities of the man, and also the strengths.

Can you talk a little about Woody Harrelson?

Well, he’s off the charts brilliant. A lot of people would ask me “I can’t see Woody Harrelson in that part. How did you think to cast him?” Well, first of all he’s a brilliant actor, and he can do anything, and I wanted someone who had humanity and a sense of humor, and a sensitivity that he was able to bring to it, and I wanted somebody from Texas who could bring that mentality. And he’s just absolutely brilliant in this.

The scenes with him and Richard Jenkins were terrific.

They are my favorite scenes. I love those scenes. You have Richard Jenkins playing Richard Russell, the Southern Democrat, who is a racist, and those are just great scenes.

I don’t even know if I have a question about it, but that scene where they’re eating together, and (LBJ’s housekeeper) is walking through, and Russell whispers “there’s nothing wrong with it,” and Johnson says back “then why are we whispering?”

(Laughs)

I was sitting alone in my house watching it, and I yelled out loud when he said that.

And I love the fact that there they are, having dinner alone in his house, and his housekeeper is there, and they’re talking about…that, without even a thought.

And I’ll shift it over to my question, which is how it applies today.Well, that’s what’s weird about this movie. I mean, when we first did it, and we finished it, it was before Trump became president. And since he became president, this whole idea of racial disharmony and racism and race relations has all bubbled up to the surface again. It had kind of gone away for awhile, when Obama was president we were kind of on a glide path, where we kind of accepted this idea that this is going in the right direction, then all of a sudden this guy comes along and he kind of demeans Obama and says he’s not legitimate, and unearths this strain of racism that exists in America, and he gives it voice, and it bubbles to the surface. Then this film comes along, and this issue we have dealt with in so many movies kind of becomes relevant again.

Well, I was thinking in his last speech, and even the things they say throughout the movie, I cannot imagine our current president saying that. Saying these insightful things.

It’s really depressing, really really depressing that as a country we have come to this point, where we elected someone who is not only not equipped, but has no desire to learn about what needs to happen in order to be president.

Given today’s climate, I get the frequent “well, you know 100 years ago Democrats were pro-slavery…”

Well…so? And Lincoln was a Republican. So? So where are the Republicans now?

Right! But I felt like this was the shift of the parties, and through Lyndon Johnson you see that shift.

That’s what happened. He said it when he passed the Civil Rights Act. He said “we’re going to lose the Democrats in the South for a generation,” and it turns out it was way more than that. It was many, many generations. So he knew it was going to happen, and it did. Northern Democrats stayed there, but Southern Democrats all became Republicans. And it was weird, because the Republicans used to be the Party of Lincoln, and he even said that in the film, he says to Dirksen, “I want the Party of Lincoln to fire the final shot. He’s Dirksen, a Republican, not a Southern Democrat.

…and the scene where he’s passing the Lincoln Memorial.

(Laughs) “I’m cleaning up the mess you made!”

It’s funny, because one of the things you did in that moment is humanize these icons. Even Abraham Lincoln, who is an icon for all time, and Kennedy as well, and you made them just people.

Yeah, they’re just people. And I wish he had been able to just clean it up, and it seemed like it was moving in that direction, and then we have what we have now. It’s kind of sad.

(The publicist enters the room with coffee and food)

Oh, look, she has coffee!

(The publicist leaves the room). Oh, well, I thought that was my cue. I’ll keep going then. I thought she was going to stop me, but I’ll keep going until someone tells me to stop.

Right. Usually she stops you.

But she didn’t. Hey, we can talk about “Stand By Me” all day.

“Stand By Me” is showing here at the festival too.

Oh really?

Yeah, and “The Princess Bride” too.

So are they doing that while you’re here and with the Q&A?

Yes, Friday. Tonight is “LBJ.”

I actually showed my kids “Stand By Me.”

How old are your kids?

My oldest is 12, and my youngest is 8. I have three.

So here’s the great thing. How old are you?

I’m 40.

So when “Princess Bride” came out, you were 10. Did you see it then?

You know, it took me awhile to see it. I lived in Germany at the time, and we didn’t have much in the way of access to English-speaking movie theaters. We watched a lot of stuff at home, and if you forgive me, we had a copy of “Stand by Me” that we had bootlegged from a rental copy, and I wore it out. I don’t remember exactly when I saw “Princess Bride,” but it had to be at least 4 or 5 years after.

So you were 9 when “Stand by Me” came out. But the point is, you were young, now you have kids, and now they get to see it, and that gives me the biggest kick of anything. Just that generations are being passed down.

And it’s weird, because when I was a kid, and my dad said “oh, you’ve gotta watch this movie that came out 30 years ago,” I would have said, “No, are you crazy? No!” But I do that with my kids, and usually they are into it.

What else have you shown them?

Oh, I’ve shown them a lot. My daughter is into horror movies, so I showed her “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.”

Oh, my God. How old is she?

She’s 10.

Oh my God, yeah, my kid was into that kind of stuff. Some kids don’t like that stuff, some do.

And you know what she said to me? “It wasn’t that scary, dad.”

Yeah, see? There are some kids who can take all that stuff. I always tell parents if you are going to take your kids to see “Princess Bride,” if they are under 5 they might not like the rats, and they are scary. But some kids go “EHHH.”

Well, and when I was a kid I was a HUGE wrestling fan.

Yeah, I used to love wrestling too.

I remember when Andre the Giant made “Princess Bride” it was such a big deal.

Yeah, and you know he got so mad at the end of his career when they made him a bad guy. He was always the good guy. He didn’t like that.

It’s funny, because that was my heyday in wrestling, he was a good guy, then he became a bad guy, and it was the biggest thing ever. But I remember him more as a bad guy than a good guy, but fondly.

He was an incredible guy. A really sweet guy. And the funny thing is, from all the wrestling over the years, he had a bad back. He had such a bad back that we had this little thing where she jumps out of the window at the end, we had Robin (Wright) in this dress, and we just dropped her from just off camera, and she weighed just 105 lbs. or whatever, almost nothing, and he couldn’t do it, because it would hurt his back. So we had to put him on a little slant, so he could catch her.

Right, the guy who picks up 300-lb. men.

Yeah.

I asked you about “Stand By Me” the last time I interviewed you…that was 7 years ago.

Wow. It was THAT long ago?

Yeah. It was 2010. But the other thing I mentioned was “The American President,” when Annette Bening was badmouthing the president, and he walks in the room…

“Let’s drag him out back and beat the crap out of him.” (laughs)

Right! Every time. That may have been, short of the throw-up scene in “Stand by Me,” the biggest laugh you ever got out of me, and it was big. I loved that.

Actually, with the vomit scene with “Stand By Me,” I wasn’t going to do it. But I thought, “Ehh.”