“This is Spinal Tap” celebrates film’s 41st anniversary with limited return to theaters.
By: Kevin Vickery
If you’re unfamiliar with the 1984 film, “This is Spinal Tap” I’ll first start with a brief overview. It is credited as being the first ever, “mock-entry” or fake documentary. Director Rob Reiner plays the roll of Director, Marty DiBergi making a “rock-umentary” film about the fictitious band Spinal Tap credited as being, “one of England’s loudest bands”. He follows the band to deliver an insider’s perspective as they return to the US for the first time in several years to tour in promotion of their, “Smell the Glove” album.
The band features actors Michael McKean as frontman, David St. Hubbins, Christopher Guest as guitarist, Nigel Tufnel, and Harry Shearer as bassist, Derek Smalls. The band also features a rotating line-up of drummers who all die under unusual circumstances like a bizarre gardening accident, chocking on someone else’s vomit and on-stage spontaneous combustion.
McKean, Guest, and Shearer are all Saturday Night Live alumnus and have also collaborated as writers and actors on other similar, ensemble cast mock-umentaries like, “Best in Show”, Waiting for Guffman”, and, “A Mighty Wind”, which also features the trio as another fictitious band, “The Folksmen”. There have even been a handful of live performances over the years where The Folksmen served at the opening act for Spinal Tap shows.
Like, “This is Soinal Tap” these films also feature a largely unscripted approach allowing the actors to improvise and riff off of each other as well as other actors like Jane Lynch, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard and Catherine O’Hara to find the comedic gold.
Since “This is Spinal Tap” was released in 1984, the imagery of the group is everything you’d expect from a British rock band of that era. They of course wear skin-tight spandex pants, leopard print muscle shirts, and have the signature 80’s rock and roll hair styles.
The film centers around the comedy of errors that can accompany a band on the road, giving the audience a behind the scenes view of how musicians with inflated egos handle situations like design and operation failure of stage props, getting lost trying to find the stage, band member girlfriends taking over managerial roles, and shows being canceled due to low ticket sales – even being reduced to an opening act for a puppet show.
The film’s original release found only modest commercial success but after its VHS release, it developed a cult following particularly with musicians and touring industry professionals. I know that every tour bus I ever rode in the 90’s had a copy on board and I must have watched it at least 20 times over the years.
To commemorate the 41st anniversary of the film’s release, the 4K digitally remastered version was featured at theaters around the nation including AMC Theater in Muncie for a limited, three day run (July 5-8) on the big screen. In reality it was done to promote the sequel, “Spinal Tap II: The End Continues” which is scheduled for release in September of this year.
It seemed a bit silly to go see it in the theater considering I’ve owned a DVD copy for at least 20 years and have seen it so many times, but since I’d never watched it on the big screen and my friend and fellow columnist, Blaise (The Baker) Doubman had never seen it we headed to Muncie for the digitally remastered experience. I’m glad we did because he enjoyed seeing it for the first time and I was happy to experience it in an actual movie theater.
It was especially nice to re-laugh my way through the film that gave us such quotable lines as:
“Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It’s just not really widely reported.”
“It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.”
“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and uh…
Clever….Yeah, and clever.”
And of course the infamous, “The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven and… These go to eleven”
Because the film is so highly favored by musicians I decided to ask some of the guys in my band or that I have been in bands with over the years and get their thoughts on the film and the upcoming sequel.
Of the five guys I interviewed, all admitted they didn’t see the limited re-release, most not knowing that it had happened. They also all agreed that they were looking forward to seeing the long awaited sequel but wondered how it could ever match the first film.
My friend and band mate, “Banjo-Ben” Long from Anderson said, “I’ve probably seen it 20-25 times over the years.” Adding, “Love the movie. The music is actually pretty good. The non-intentional humor is hilarious. The quotes are endless like “You can’t dust for vomit”. And, having been in a band, even at the local level, you can see most of the situations being possible. Things like having big ideas such as Stonehenge, only to have the final product not being what you’d expected.”
Guitarist Dave Bagdade from Indianapolis who plays guitar and mandolin with Ben and me in The Cousin Brothers added, “I have been a fan of the movie since I saw it in the theater in 1984. It is truly a special film, and like a lot of guitar players, I quote liberally from the movie. I generally like all the stuff from that production team, like Mighty Wind, Best in Show, etc, but this one is the best. There’s much to laugh at, of course, but you also feel the cringing pain of the band in decline as well.
Our drummer, TR Yelton also from Indianapolis told me he’s only seen it a couple times but added, “I love “mock-u-mentaries” and didn’t even know what that movie was the first time I saw it.. after watching many of Christopher Guest’s movies later I realize how a film can make fun of, and show the love for a subject at the same time.
Another long time friend of mine and frequent musical collaborator, Michael Crider from Nashville, TN told me, “As a fan of rock music and rock documentaries it was the perfect spoof on the genre of music that I love so dearly. They pull so much from real life events and reflect the absurdity of the industry, which makes it so funny and timeless. I’ve seen it countless times and discussed it frequently with musician friends.” He added, “I definitely plan on seeing the sequel. Christopher Guest is a genius who really put mockumentaries on the map. I’m sure it will be hilarious and I look forward to seeing this long-awaited movie.”
And finally my friend, guitarist Robert Trowbridge of Shelbyville admitted to seeing it dozens of times and says that he’ll see the sequel but, “only if it goes to 12!” He described the original film as, “the ultimate parody of actual events and personalities in the insane world of rock stardom.”
I’d say it’s pretty much a consensus among my musician friends and myself included that it’s a great film, completely hilarious and totally worth watching multiple times. I’m personally very much looking forward to to the sequel in September and will definitely include a review in a future column after I’ve seen it.
To keep up with all things Spinal Tap visit their official website at spinaltap.com
For the schedule of all movies and showtimes at AMC Theatres in Muncie and elsewhere go to amctheatres.com
Make Some Noise 