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This Is Spinal Tap

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This article is about the film. For the soundtrack album, see This Is Spinal Tap (album).
This Is Spinal Tap.
File:This Is Spinal Tap.jpg
U.S. DVD Cover
Directed byRob Reiner
Written byChristopher Guest
Michael McKean
Harry Shearer
Rob Reiner
Produced byKaren Murphy
StarringRob Reiner
Michael McKean
Christopher Guest
Harry Shearer
Fran Drescher
Bruno Kirby
Distributed byEmbassy Pictures
Release dates
United States 2 March, 1984
Running time
82 min
LanguageEnglish

This Is Spinal Tap (which is officially spelled with a non-functional umlaut symbol over the N) is a 1983 mockumentary directed by Rob Reiner and starring members of the semi-fictional heavy-metal glam rock band Spinal Tap. The film is a mock rockumentary that satirizes the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of bands such as Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen, Aerosmith, Kiss, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Sweet and The Beatles, among many others.

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.[1]

The three core members of Spinal Tap, David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel, and Derek Smalls are portrayed by the american actors, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, respectively. They all actually play their instruments and speak credible British English throughout the film. Reiner appears as "Marty DiBergi", the maker of the documentary. Other actors in the film are Tony Hendra as the group manager Ian Faith and June Chadwick as St. Hubbin's interfering girlfriend Jeanine. Actors Paul Shaffer, Fred Willard, Fran Drescher, Bruno Kirby, Howard Hesseman, Ed Begley Jr., Patrick Macnee, Anjelica Huston, Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal all play supporting roles or make cameo appearances in the film.

The name "Spinal Tap" alludes to lumbar puncture, a particularly unpleasant medical procedure.

This film is number 64 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies", and number 29 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.

Plot overview

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This Is Spinal Tap chronicles the group's waning popularity during a tour of the United States to promote their latest album Smell the Glove in the fall of 1982. The sexist, misogynist, and overly-masculinized elements the general public associates with 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 who ran through many band names at the beginning of their career — the initial 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 — before settling on "The Thamesmen". Under this name, the group found its first fame with the early hit, "Gimme Some Money".

'Listen to the Flower People'

Invariably, Spinal Tap tried to capitalize on whatever music trend was popular, but always as it was waning. Renaming themselves Spinal Tap, they had another hit with the flower power anthem, "Listen to the Flower People", before turning to heavy metal. Various real bands underwent similar musical development. Status Quo started out as a psychedelic band before turning to the more traditional rock and roll sound that made them famous; Black Sabbath were originally a blues-based psychedelic band before turning to their current heavy metal stylings; while Sweet went from bubblegum pop to hard rock.

A theme running through the story is that Hubbins and Tufnel possess genuine talent as composers, but have compromised their talents through laziness, stupidity, or through pursuit of commercial success. This idea is demonstrated when Nigel plays a complex new composition for Marty, discusses its minor key and relation to classical music, then reveals that the title is "Lick My Love Pump."

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 in a "bizarre gardening accident". (Coincidentally, in 1992, long after this film appeared, Toto drummer Jeff Porcaro suffered a heart attack and died after using a gardening pesticide and suffering an allergic reaction.) Another of Spinal Tap's drummers "choked on vomit", specifically someone else's 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, while 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. Tensions continue to rise when several major retailers refuse to sell Smell the Glove because of its sexist cover art (inspired by Whitesnake's Lovehunter album art [citation needed]) and there is growing resentment shown towards the group's manager Ian Faith (played by humor writer Tony Hendra). Nigel becomes even more perturbed when St. Hubbins' girlfriend Jeanine — a manipulative yoga and astrology devotee — joins the group on tour and proceeds to participate in band meetings and attempts to influence their costumes and stage presentation.

Airport Security.

"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; two years after AC/DC's Back in Black, also all black with embossed writing; 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".

As resentment towards Ian Faith grows Jeanine increasingly becomes involved in the group's problems. During a tense meeting where Jeanine's idea for new stage costumes based on astrological signs is rejected, Nigel suggests the band reinstate the Stonehenge set and scribbles out a diagram of Stonehenge on a napkin. To prove a point Ian agrees he will follow the band's direction to the letter; unfortunately he does not check the diagram properly and presented with an 18-inch (46 cm) model, made exactly as indicated on the original plan by Tufnel (a restaurant napkin with 18" instead of 18' written on it). The band nevertheless use the tiny Stonghenge in the show with two dwarves arriving on stage to dance around it; unfortunately it seems ridiculous to the concert audience who laugh at the band. 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." This may be a play on Black Sabbath's tour for 1983's Born Again album, [citation needed] 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).[citation needed] But in reality the film may have inspired the real-life band, as the Stonehenge sequence appeared in a 1982, 20-minute demo of the film. Led Zeppelin also had had a Stonehenge stage theme in the final US concerts held in Oakland, California in July 1977.

After the Stonehenge debacle, manager Ian Faith quits in disgust when St. Hubbins suggests that his girlfriend Jeanine can co-manage the group. Jeanine takes over management duties and begins plotting astrology charts for the group members and for the group itself, and begins basing thier concert appearances on the alignment of stars. 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.

Spinal Tap in Concert: Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean).

When the group performs at a US Air Force base (managed by Fred Willard, who calls the group "Spinal Tarp"), Nigel Tufnel's wireless guitar-amplification system picks up interference from an air traffic control broadcast. After the various problems of the tour, resentment towards Jeanine, and the general unsuitability of the air force gig, this latest problem prompts Nigel to storm off stage. We soon learn that he has left 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."

The remaining band members continue the tour. After arriving to play at an amusement park where they are given second billing after a puppet show ("Puppet Show and Spinal Tap") they plan the show omitting all the the Tufnel-composed tracks. This leaves them with about 10 minutes of material. Against St. Hubbins' initial reluctance, faced with a dearth of material to perform the group is forced to launch "The new birth of Spinal Tap, Mark 2", with Smalls' fusion-esque, "Jazz Odyssey", which is roundly rejected by their already diminishing fan base.

After that, it becomes apparent to the remaining members that Spinal Tap cannot continue as it has been, and consider winding-up the band. St. Hubbins and Smalls reconsider "Saucy Jack", their long-abandoned idea for a musical based on Jack the Ripper. Backstage at their last show, before the band takes the stage, Tufnel returns to tell the group that "Sex Farm", one of their songs from the album Shark Sandwich, treated with a frosty reception in the States (with one review only reading "Shit Sandwich") has become a big hit in Japan and that 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 with new drummer, Joe "Mama" Besser (a reference to one of the latter members of The Three Stooges as well as a pun on the comic insult standby "yo mama"), after Mick Shrimpton's sudden death from spontaneous human combustion. Besser himself then combusts in the background, right at the film's finale. As the band plays on stage, reinstated manager Ian Faith stands proudly offstage, aggressively brandishing the cricket bat he carries to assert his dominance, while David's girlfriend sits by passively.

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Reception

Wikiquote has quotations related to This Is Spinal Tap.

This Is Spinal Tap was only 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.

In 2002 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.[2]

The movie cut a little too close to home for some musicians. Eddie Van Halen has said that when he first saw the film, everyone else in the room with him laughed as he failed to see the humor in the film. "Everything in that movie had happened to me," Van Halen said. When Dokken's George Lynch saw the movie he is said to have exclaimed, "That's us! How'd they make a movie about us?"[3]

It became a common insult for a pretentious band to be told they were funnier than Spinal Tap. As George Lynch put it, the more seriously a band took themselves, the more they resembled Spinal Tap.[3]

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; Spinal Tap: The Final Tour, the original twenty minute short they shot to pitch the film; 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. Much of this material had appeared on a 1994 CD-ROM by The Voyager Company that included the entire film in QuickTime format.

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; segments of Spinal Tap appearing on The Joe Franklin Show; and the theatrical trailer. The special features were produced by Automat Pictures.

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.

In the video game Guitar Hero II the last song of the first set list is Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight!". After completing the song in career mode, the camera zooms in on the stage, where the band's drummer explodes. Also, the final venue in the game's career mode is Stonehenge, and in Guitar Hero (I not II) during some of the loading screens various amplifiers are shown that go up to 11.

A cameo is made by the band in the animated sitcom The Simpsons. Harry Shearer, a member of Spinal Tap, is one of the voice actors on The Simpsons.

In the video game The Simpsons Road Rage when playing as the character of Otto, he is often heard to remark "Woah, that one went all the way to 11".

A 2007 American Express commercial uses the Spinal Tap (as "The Thamesmen") song "Gimme Some Money."

On Gilmore Girls, Lorelai tells her daughter that her idea is riskier than "auditioning to be the drummer of Spinal Tap"

Sue Townsend, in her Adrian Mole series of 'Diaries' made the reference that doing a particularly risky activity is "Like being the drummer of Spinal Tap" i.e. suicidal.

In the movie Toy Story 2 (and in merchandise based upon it), Emperor Zurg's gun goes to level 11, which creators confirmed in the DVD audio commentary as a direct reference to This is Spinal Tap.

Frequently throughout the British TV series Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson uses the "goes all the way up to 11" quote.

Nigel Tufnel's neon green ribcage T-shirt is noted in Maxim's Hilarious Movie T-shirts slideshow; the publication declares that it screams "Tonight I'm going to rock you tonight."[4]

During the WCW pay-per-view Fall Brawl, wrestler Chris Jericho and his enoutrage got "lost" on the way to the ring, with Jericho repeatedly shouting "Rock and Roll! Hello Winston Salem!" in a fashion identical to the scene in the film, where Spinal Tap get lost backstage.

Other musical parodies

Other notable "rockumentaries" include:

Break Like the Wind, a follow up to Smell The Glove, was released in 1992.

This is Spinal Tap: The Official Companion (ISBN 0-7475-4218-X) was published in 2000. It featured a "Tap'istory", full transcript of the film (including out-takes), a discography, lyrics and an A-Z of the band.

Audio samples

See also

References

  1. ^ spinaltapfan.com
  2. ^ http://www.loc.gov/film/titles.html
  3. ^ a b Konow, David (2002). Bang Your Head. Three Rivers Press. pp. 216–217. ISBN 0-609-80732-3. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ Hilarious Movie T-shirts, retrieved on March 19, 2007.

The complete 'This Is Spinal Tap' script http://www.music.com/person/tapman/1/

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