THIS IS SPINAL TAP

(Check out Chris Reeds’s This is Spinal Tap movie review, it’s in theaters now celebrating it’s 41st birthday. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)

Born in 1947 to legendary comedian, actor, and filmmaker Carl Reiner (1922-2020), Rob Reiner got his start as a television writer in the late 1960s and then scored a big acting role, as Archie Bunker’s liberal son-in-law Michael (aka “Meathead”) on the long-running 1970s CBS sitcom All in the Family. He would continue to write throughout that decade before, in the 1980s, transitioning to directing, a role in which he would deliver enduring masterpieces such as Stand by Me (1986), The Princess Bride (1987), When Harry Met Sally… (1989), Misery (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), and The American President (1995). It all began with his feature-debut behind the camera, the 1984 This Is Spinal Tap.

Penned by stars Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer—who play the three lead musicians in the (fake) rock band Spinal Tap—the film would become a template for future mock documentaries (or “mockumentaries”), especially since Guest has since made the genre his stock-in-trade with films like Waiting for Guffman (1996), Best in Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003). Even those who have not seen it have probably heard some of its famous lines, songs, and scenes rehashed, including “up to eleven,” “Big Bottoms,” “Lick My Love Pump,” and “Stonehenge.” The movie was groundbreaking and career-launching (and/or career-enhancing), both.

And now it is out in theaters again via a gorgeous 4K remaster, courtesy of Bleecker Street, ahead of the September 12 release of the sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The original film will also come out on disc (4K UHD and Blu-ray) via Criterion on September 16. There is a previous video transfer out there, but this one looks even better.

I had the great pleasure of rewatching the movie on the big screen this past weekend, after many years, and I howled with laughter as much as I have always done (Stonehenge gets me every time). Even better, I had completely forgotten many of the supporting actors and brief cameos, from Fran Drescher to Bruno Kirby to Billy Crystal to Dana Carvey to Paul Shaffer, to name just some. Everyone shines, no matter the role. Tony Hendra, as the group’s hapless manager, and June Chadwick, as Jeanine, the girlfriend of Michael McKean’s David St. Hubbins, also turn in great work.

This Is Spinal Tap, which follows the once-popular titular ensemble’s sad (and very funny) tour through America as they struggle to fill small concert venues, is first and foremost a triumph of writing and performance (Reiner appears on camera, too, as Marty DiBergi, the fictional director of an ostensibly real documentary), with the songs very much driving the comedy. It’s hard to believe that 41 years have passed since the movie first came out. Catch it now, while you can, in a cinema near you.

– Christopher Llewellyn Reed (@ChrisReedFilm)

Rob Reiner; This Is Spinal Tap movie review

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