This is Spinal Tap
(MGM Region 1 Special Edition DVD)
(1984)
review by Annoyed Grunt

"This one goes to 11"

I don't write gushing reviews. I don't give away stars like candy. Hell, I'm a film student. We're trained to look at everything with a hypercritical eye. We are only allowed to enjoy obscure foreign movies and pretentious art films. Gushing reviews are for people who are paid off or don't know what they're talking about. But damn it, I'm going to gush over this movie like a 13 year old girl at an N'Sync concert.

I could talk all day about This Is Spinal Tap, but I'm going to limit myself to 10 items.

1. Often imitated but never duplicated, this is the quintessential mockumentary. Director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) follows England's loudest band, Spinal Tap, on their 1984 North American tour. However, nothing seems to go right for these heavy metal gods. Shows are canceled on a weekly basis and the crowds are far smaller than they were on the last tour. Of course, their manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra) insists that they're not less popular, they're just playing to "a more selective audience". To make matters worse, tension among the band is rising as David St. Hubbins' (Micheal McKean) girlfriend Jeanine (June Chadwick) becomes a modern day Yoko Ono and drives a wedge between band. The film is so well made that a lot of people who don't know better still think that Spinal Tap is a real band.

2. Of course, the illusion of reality is only reinforced by great acting. I have the feeling that Rob Reiner (who also directed) is just playing himself, but it works. Micheal McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer are absolutely brilliant as the members of the band. Everyone in the film plays it completely straight, which is good because any ironic, self aware, tongue in cheek comments would have ruined the whole film. Can you imagine what it would have been like if there was a scene where someone was referred to as "meat-head"?

3. What makes the acting all the better is the fact the film is mostly a "guided improv". They know the structure of the film and what needs to get across in a scene, but the dialogue is almost all improvised.

4. One part of the film that isn't improvised are the songs that Spinal Tap plays. However, they are entirely written and performed by the lead actors. It's amazing that they're both hilarious and musically sound. For my money, "Big Bottom" is the best Tap tune, but they're all great examples of 80's hair metal at its finest.

5. If you know your 70's and 80's music, you'll appreciate all the parodies and references. I was listening to kids music for the best part of the 80's and I still recognized references to Bon Scott's death by misadventure and the Rolling Stones' back stage antics to name but a few. I'm sure they'll be even funnier to anyone who actually lived through the era.

6. This is Spinal Tap is filled with all sorts of iconic moments that give the film its identity. Off the top of my head there's the 18 inch Stonehenge monument, the dead drummers, the little sandwiches, the metal detector, the black album cover, the fine line between stupid and clever, the pods, the trademark solos and, of course, the amp that goes to 11.

7. It also amazes me how people keep the kayfabe of Spinal Tap alive. You can look around the internet and find fans on message boards who pretend to be fans of Spinal Tap. Not the movie, but fans of the band. Spinal Tap released a new album, "Break like the Wind", back in the mid 90's. The lead actors have done talk shows in characters and still tour every once and a while.

8. If I have to say once bad thing about the film it's that every once and a while there's a show that would be almost impossible to get in a real documentary. But if that's the worst thing you can say about a movie you know they're doing something right.

9. The movie was also a launching pad to many great careers. It allowed Rob Reiner to make the transition from actor to director. He's done some great films (and some not so great ones), but none are better than this one. Harry Shearer has gone on to do about a hundered different voices on The Simpsons. Christopher Guest has gone on to do his own particular brand of Tap-ish movies that are damn good in their own right. Fans might be interested to know that the Tap actors reunited to write the songs for Guest's film 'Waiting for Guffman".

10. This is Spinal Tap is one of my favourite movies and MGM has released an equally good DVD. There are the usual trailers as well as some unusual ones. There's one which just shows footage from a cheese festival and there's a hilarious fake ad for a Best of Spinal Tap album. There are all the Spinal Tap music videos and a lot of the in character media appearances they've made. There's a recent interview with Marty DiBergi who hasn't had a lot of work since the movie came out. However, the real meat can be found in the never before seen deleted scenes. Nothing in there is as funny as what's in the actual film, but there are some real gems. And you get to learn how the entire band caught herpes.

And since this review goes to 11....

11. The commentary track is the best ever. It features the band members, in character, defending themselves. They claim that the film is nothing more than character assassination and it's haunted them ever since. "Why couldn't he show all the times we did find the stage? Or all the times the band didn't break up?" It's also a rather clever parody of other commentary tracks as they keep claiming every other person on the screen is dead since it "adds perspective and shows time has passed". They also spend a lot of time trying to remember what they named the large, horned skull that's on stage with them.