This is Spinal Tap
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- This article is about the film. For the soundtrack album, see This Is Spinal Tap (album).
Much of the film was ad libbed, and several dozen hours of footage were shot before Reiner edited it down to the released film. A 4½ hour bootleg version of the film exists and has been traded among fans and collectors for years.
In addition to the three members of Spinal Tap; David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls (Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer - respectively - all of whom actually play their instruments) plus Reiner, who appeared as "Marty DiBergi", the maker of the documentary, the film starred Paul Shaffer, Fred Willard, Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Howard Hesseman, Ed Begley Jr., and Anjelica Huston. Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal also had small roles in the film.
The name Spinal Tap might come from the 1959 dystopian science fiction novel 'Wolfsbane' by Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth that includes the draining of spinal fluid (using a spinal tap) as a particularly unpleasant and long drawn out form of execution. This could be seen as a parody of the late 60's and early 70's penchant of rock groups taking inspiration from science fiction motifs; for instance, bands such as Jefferson Airplane, Yes, David Bowie, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Genesis and Rush, among others.
This film is number 64 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.
Plot overview
This Is Spinal Tap chronicles the group's waning popularity during a tour of the United States while promoting their latest record, Smell the Glove. The sexist, misogynist and overly-masculized elements of heavy metal music are parodied throughout. Marty DiBergi (Reiner), a director of television commercials, films the tour and interviews the musicians.
David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel were childhood friends, and ran through many bandnames at the beginning of their career before settling on The Thamesmen, who had a hit with "Gimme Some Money". Renaming themselves Spinal Tap, they had an early hit with the flower power anthem "Listen to the Flower People" before turning to heavy metal. (This would seem to be an allusion to both Status Quo who had started out as a psychedelic band before turning to the more traditional rock and roll sound that made them famous, and Black Sabbath, who were originally a blues-based psychedelic band before turning to their current heavy metal stylings.) The original name of the band was "The Originals" which they had to change to "The New Originals" because there was already another band going by the name "The Originals".
The film notes early on that Spinal Tap — "One of England's Loudest Bands" — have had a succession of drummers, all of whom have died under odd circumstances: one died in a "bizarre gardening accident"; another "choked on vomit," though it may not have been his own (Smalls notes that "you can't really dust for vomit"); and one seems to have fallen prey to spontaneous human combustion. St. Hubbins reports that "Dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. It's just not really widely reported." This run on drummers was a nod towards several bands; both Led Zeppelin's John Bonham and The Who's Keith Moon had died years before, the former having actually choked on his own vomit, whilst Judas Priest were, for a variety of reasons, on their seventh drummer at the time of the film's release.
Their concert appearances are repeatedly cancelled due to low ticket sales, and tensions rise when several major retailers refuse to sell Smell the Glove due to its sexist cover art (inspired by Whitesnake's Lovehunter album art), and when St. Hubbins' girlfriend — a slightly spacy but exceptionally spiteful and manipulative yoga and astrology devotee — joins the group on tour.
"Polymer Records" (not Polydor Records) decides to release Smell the Glove with an entirely black cover, though without consulting the band (four years after The Damned's The Black Album, some versions of which were genuinely all-black, but embossed; and seven years before Metallica's eponymous 1991 album, which featured a nearly-all black cover). This prompts more distress from the band; St. Hubbins delivers the memorable observation, "There's a fine line between stupid and clever."
In an interlude, Nigel Tufnel is shown during his guitar solo spot, playing the guitar first with his feet (parodying Jimi Hendrix's habit of playing his guitar with his teeth) and then with a violin parodying Jimmy Page's violin bow solo spot on "Dazed and Confused".
A memorable segment of the film occurs when a miniature replica of Stonehenge is lowered onto the stage behind the band and two dwarves come on stage to dance around it. The band members were expecting a full sized 18-foot replica, but were instead presented with an 18-inch model, made exactly as indicated on the original plan (a bar napkin with two tick marks after the "18" instead of one). St Hubbins laments during the gig debrief, "I think that the problem may have been... that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed... by a dwarf." It is believed this was a play on Black Sabbath's tour for 1983's Born Again album, which featured massive Stonehenge sets that barely fit on the stages the band played (Sabbath's management had ordered the set measurements in feet, but the manufacturers accidentally built the set using meters). But in reality the reverse may be true, as the Stonehenge bit appeared in a 1982 20-minute demo of the film.
After the Stonehenge debacle, Spinal Tap's manager Ian Faith (played by humor writer Tony Hendra) quits in disgust when St. Hubbins suggests his girlfriend co-manage the group. She takes over his duties, and begins plotting astrology charts for the entire group, even basing their concert appearances on the stars' alignments. Her character is drawn chiefly on the public image of Yoko Ono, Linda McCartney, and Nancy Spungen as inexperienced interlopers in their lovers' music careers.
When the group performs at an Air force base (managed by Fred Willard, who calls the group "Spinal Tarp"), Tufnel's wireless guitar-amplification system receives interference from an air traffic control broadcast, and he storms offstage. After Tufnel leaves the group, DiBergi asks St. Hubbins how he feels about his longtime-collaborator's departure and St. Hubbins replies, "Well, I'm sure I'd feel much worse if I weren't under such heavy sedation."
Spinal Tap regroup, and attempt to rearrange some of their songs to account for the absent guitar, which leaves them with about 20 minutes of material. Against St. Hubbins' initial reluctance, the group launches "The new birth of Spinal Tap mark two" with Smalls' fusion-esque "Jazz Odyssey", which is roundly rejected by their already-diminishing fan base. (This would seem to be based on the career of Jeff Beck who turned from hard rock to jazz funk later on in his career. The Tufnel character would also appear to be based, at least partly, on Beck). Adding insult to injury, their only performance of the Jazz Odyssey takes place at an amusement park where they are the opening act for a puppet show (although various viewers have also interpreted "Puppet Show" as the name of an equally shambolic band, rather than an actual puppet show). The fact that the group is mostly concerned with not being the headline act speaks volumes about their grossly naive and misguided hubris and sorry state of existence.
St. Hubbins and Smalls reconsider "Saucy Jack", their long-abandoned idea for a musical play based on Jack the Ripper (presumably in homage, a mockumentary television series, Brasseye, used a version of this conceit, but with the Yorkshire Ripper, thirteen years later.)
Tufnel returns to tell the group that "Sex Farm", one of their Shark Sandwich songs, is a big hit in Japan and their former manager would like to arrange a tour. His entreaties are initially rebuffed, but St. Hubbins relents, and invites his friend back onstage.
The film ends with Spinal Tap performing in Japan, and with new drummer Joe "Mama" Besser after Mick Shrimpton's sudden death from spontaneous human combustion.
Response
This Is Spinal Tap was a modest success upon its initial release, suffering from, among other things, the failure of many viewers to understand that it was not a real documentary. Audience feedback cards from early screenings had comments such as "Too shaky. Get new cameraman." However, the film found greater success, and a cult following, after it was released on video.
Film critic Roger Ebert selected This is Spinal Tap as a "Great Movie" alongside Casablanca, Taxi Driver and others. [link]
In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 11th greatest comedy film of all time.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
In 2002 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.[link]
In 2005, Rolling Stone magazine rated This is Spinal Tap the best music movie in history in their top 50 list.
The idiom "Up to eleven," (or "goes to eleven") inspired by a scene from the film, has entered the pop cultural lexicon and has even received an entry in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary with the definition "up to maximum volume."[link]
Spinal Tap plays at a fictitious club in Milwaukee called Shank Hall. A "real" Shank Hall was opened in Milwaukee on Farwell Ave in 1989 with a stonehenge piece as part of its original front sign.[link]
DVD
This Is Spinal Tap has been released twice on DVD.The first release was a 1998 Criterion edition which used supplemental material from the 1994 Criterion laserdisc release. It included an audio commentary track with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer; a second audio commentary track with Rob Reiner, Karen Murphy, Robert Leighton, and Kent Beyda; 79 minutes of deleted scenes; a documentary Spinal Tap: The Final Tour; a mock promo film, Cheese Rolling; a TV promo, Heavy Metal Memories; and a music video, Hell Hole. Sales of this edition were discontinued after only two years and the DVD has become a valuable collector's item.
In 2000 a "Special Edition" was released with new supplemental material. It has a new audio commentary track with Guest, McKean, and Shearer performing in character throughout, commenting on the film entirely in their fictional alter-egos, and often disapproving of how the film presents them; 70 minutes of deleted scenes (some of which were not on the Criterion DVD); a new short, Catching Up with Marty DiBergi; a shorter version of Cheese Rolling; the Heavy Metal Memories promo and six additional TV promos; music videos for Hell Hole, Gimme Some Money, Listen to the Flower People, and Big Bottom; segment of Spinal Tap appearing on The Joe Franklin Show; and the theatrical trailer.
On IGN, This is Spinal Tap was the only DVD- and seemingly the only thing reviewed on IGN- to get 11 out of 10, though it is more than likely a joke in reference to the memorable scene in the film.
Other musical parodies
This is Spinal Tap was predated by a similar British heavy metal satire: The Comic Strip Presents... Bad News Tour (Channel 4, 1983). The plot varies - for example, Bad News has a permanent drummer named Spider (played by Peter Richardson), and some of the band still live with their mothers - but is similar in being a mock documentary about a metal band that isn't very good on a doomed tour.Bad News had a later sequel, More Bad News, in 1988. Bad News were Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, and Rik Mayall, all original members of the British comedy troupe The Comic Strip. Bad News also guested on some TV music shows and released an album, although the project was overshadowed by Spinal Tap.
In a similar but much much later vein, the British film Still Crazy (1998) starring Jimmy Nail, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly and Bill Nighy depicts the chaotic comeback tour of a 1970s glam-rock band. The film was written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
Other notable spoof rock bands (that bear no relation at all to Tap) include: The Rutles (a Beatles parody band created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes, who predate Spinal Tap); Raw Sex, a lounge duo from the French and Saunders show who play on top of elevators; Beatallica, a band that play "Beatles songs in the key of Metallica"; and The Hee Bee Gee Bees, who parodied the Bee Gees, and were largely the brainchild of Philip Pope, who also wrote satirical songs for the BBC's Radio Active, Not the Nine O'Clock News and ITV's Spitting Image.
is a cult movie, especially within Western Canada, that centres around two head-bangers who share a love of hard rock and beer.
Fear of a Black Hat is a 1994 Rusty Cundieff picture that, although it parodies the excesses of rap of the 90s instead of rock of the ’70s and ’80s, clearly (and explicitly, according to the creator) owes much to Spinal Tap.
Canadian director Bruce McDonald's Hard Core Logo, portrays a punk band's tour across western Canada.
In 1982, celebrity photographer Lynn Goldsmith and British character actor Gerrit Graham cut an album parodying the aerobic workout albums that were flooding the market at the time, suggesting what would occur if a psychiatrist cut an album of a similar nature. The album was entitled Dancing for Mental Health and the artist credit went to Will Powers, the fictitious psychiatrist supposedly "narrating" the record. Will was portrayed by Goldsmith during the speaking sections and by Graham during the sung sections.
2gether, was a movie about a fictional boy band of the same name.
Get Ready to be Boyzvoiced is a Norwegian movie from 2000 that parodies boy bands of the '90s. It was written and directed by Espen Eckbo and Henrik Elvestad. Henrik starred as Boyzvoice's manager while Espen played six roles in the film, including Boyzvoice lead singer M'Pete.
In 2005, a viral ad campaign for Ford featured the real satirical band Hurra Torpedo in clips purporting to be from a documentary of their first US tour.
Road to Rock, an online series of movies about an extremely unsuccessful band.
Comedic singer-songwriter Stephen Lynch, a veteran of New York comedy clubs and an upcoming star on Broadway, has stated numerous times that this film was his greatest inspiration to write comedy in the form of original music. Since the start of his career (c. 1996), Lynch has acquired a cult following of his own.
The 2003 videogame , set in 1986, includes an homage to This Is Spinal Tap in the form of an outrageous, fictional hair metal band called Love Fist.
Related works
Break Like the Wind was released in 1992.This is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion ISBN 074754218X was published in 2000. It featured a "Tap'istory", full transcript of the film (including outtakes), a discography, lyrics and an A-Z of the band.
Other work by the same actors
Many of the people involved in this film also went on to star in future "mockumentaries" together. Although Rob Reiner was not directly involved on those films, they were produced under his Castle Rock Entertainment company, to which he always received "Special Thanks" in the credits of each film.McKean, Guest, and Shearer also performed as the traditional, Kingston Trio-esque folk band The Folksmen in the film A Mighty Wind. The actors of the Folksmen also play similar parts to the ones they played in Spinal Tap. Michael McKean is the main singer, Christopher Guest plays banjo and mandolin (à la guitar) and Harry Shearer plays (upright-) bass.
Shearer went on to have further success, voicing a large variety of characters in the hit cartoon The Simpsons. In episode 8F21 ("The Otto Show"), Shearer, McKean and Guest reprise their roles as Spinal Tap.
See also
- A comprehensive Spinal Tap discography
- Mockumentary
- Waiting for Guffman (1996)
- Best in Show (2000)
- A Mighty Wind (2003)
- For Your Consideration (2006)
External links
- [SpinalTapFan.com] - fan site, includes the extensive guide [Spinal Tap A to Zed]
- [Peter Occhiogrosso essay at criterionco.com]
| Films by Christopher Guest and his frequent costars |
|---|
| Films: This Is Spinal Tap | Waiting for Guffman | Best in Show | A Mighty Wind | For Your Consideration |
| Actors:Bob Balaban | Paul Benedict | Ed Begley Jr. | Jennifer Coolidge | Paul Dooley | Christopher Guest | Rachael Harris | John Michael Higgins | Michael Hitchcock | Don Lake | Eugene Levy | Jane Lynch | Michael McKean | Larry Miller | Catherine O'Hara | Jim Piddock | Parker Posey | Harry Shearer | Deborah Theaker | Fred Willard | Scott Williamson |
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