#american-cinema

#american-cinema

Even if you don't know who Rob Reiner was, you're living in a world he helped shape. He leveraged the TV fame he earned in the 1970s playing Mike "Meathead" Stivic, the son-in-law and main adversary of motormouthed bigot Archie Bunker on All in the Family, and became a filmmaker responsible for some of the most beloved American movies of the '80s and '90s: Stand by Me ('86), The Princess Bride('87), When Harry Met Sally('89), Misery ('90), A Few Good Men ('92).

The pantheon of men's style icons is surprisingly compact. There are scores of uniquely handsome and stylish actors, pop stars, sportsmen but when it comes to their decades-long influence and a sense of permanence unaffected by trends in fashion, three square-jawed American boys next door stand out: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen and Robert Redford, who died yesterday at 89. Redford's death is, obviously, a loss to cinema. In the latter half of the 20th century, few actors so roundly embodied the soul of American film-making, or perhaps even the US itself.