This Is Spinal Tap

Screening as part of These Go to 11: The Films of Rob Reiner

"There is a fine line between stupid and clever" – David St. Hubbins

In 1978, at the height of his All in the Family fame, Rob Reiner began developing a pilot for a sketch comedy project called “The TV Show”, the core of which was a parody band called Spinal Tap made up of comedians and musicians Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer.  When the pilot was not picked up for series, the principals all switched gears and changed the comedy world forever.

Released in 1984, This Is Spinal Tap is the definitive mockumentary, skewering the excesses of heavy metal with pitch-perfect absurdity. Making his directorial debut, Reiner—who also appears on screen as the hapless documentarian Marty DiBergi—follows the fictional British band Spinal Tap as they embark on a disastrous U.S. tour plagued by shrinking venues, spontaneously combusting drummers, and spectacularly not-to-scale stage sets.

McKean, Guest, and Shearer star as the band’s blissfully oblivious members, improvising much of the film’s razor-sharp dialogue. Nowhere near the cultural juggernaut it is today, “Spinal Tap” landed with a thud at 129^th at the Domestic Box office charts.  But, with metalheads and video stores, it grew into a cult phenomenon, forever reshaping comedy. Its influence can be felt in countless mockumentaries, from Best in Show to The Office, and its phrases have permanently entered the pop-culture lexicon. 

These Go to 11: The Films of Rob Reiner

Rob Reiner emerged as one of Hollywood’s most versatile and influential directors during a remarkable decade-long run beginning in the mid-1980s. Reiner, the son of iconoclastic author/comedian/director and screenwriter Carl Reiner, transitioned from acting (famously as Mike “Meathead” Stivic on CBS’ All in the Family) to directing in 1984. 

That year, Reiner broke through with the pioneering mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, redefining screen comedy with an absurdist take on rock star puerility. He followed with a string of genre-defining hits: the road trip teen movie The Sure Thing (1985), the nostalgia-fueled classic Stand by Me (1986), the ultimate storybook-story The Princess Bride (1987), and the “I’ll have what she’s having” touchstone When Harry Met Sally… (1989). Reiner continued to defy categorization with the chilling adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery (1990) and the courtroom drama A Few Good Men (1992) for which he received a long-overdue Oscar® nomination (as Producer). Together, these films cemented Reiner’s reputation as a director capable of mastering tone, character, and genre with an unheard-of consistency. 

In many ways Reiner occupies a strikingly similar place in the legacy of American film as that of Frank Capra (It Happened One Night, It’s a Wonderful Life…).  Both function as chroniclers of national character, using popular genres to articulate what America believes about itself at any given moment. Capra focused on an aspirational landscape often by reflecting the child-like innocence of his protagonists. Reiner’s heroes are rarely naïve; they are wounded, ironic, and self-aware with Reiner serving as a post-Vietnam Capra: not as a builder of national myths, but as a custodian of them, revisiting America’s stories after innocence has faded and asking what still remains at the twilight’s last gleaming.

_{1984, 82 minutes, USA, In English and Japanese, Directed by Rob Reiner, Rated R}