Five thousand years ago, the mysterious monuments of Stonehenge were built. Forty-one years ago, This Is Spinal Tap—a fictional yet true-to-life rockumentary of a fictional British rock band—sprang from the minds of four people: first-time filmmaker Rob Reiner (who went on to lead an incredible directorial career), and cast members and incredible improvisationists Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer.
This week, the movie is being re-released in theaters for a limited run thanks to Fathom Entertainment and new distributor Bleecker Street, after a long lawsuit between the creators and the rights-holders and studio led to a mutual settlement in 2019 and 2020. The film is remastered in 4K with the music sequences remixed in 5.1 DTS, and a Blu-ray is on pre-order with these same restorations. According to Reiner, who plays fictional filmmaker Marty DiBergi in the film, it was shot on 16mm originally, so the authentic documentary grain is still there, but all the dirt has been cleaned up.
Ben Falk of the BBC calls This Is Spinal Tap the funniest film ever made, and it’s easy to see why Falk thinks that way. Not only does this film satirize aging rock bands, a timeless parody that still holds true today (The Rolling Stones and Iron Maiden are still touring?), it also pokes fun at the very concept of the pretentious rock documentary, needling movies like The Song Remains the Same, Pink Floyd at Pompeii, The Kids Are Alright, Don’t Look Back, and The Last Waltz.
If there’s any film that movie nerds quote more than Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it’s this one. It’s nearly wall-to-wall some of the funniest dialogue ever devised, 90 percent of which was improvised on the spot by these comedy geniuses. “It’s a fine line between clever and stupid.” “There’s too much fucking perspective.” “These go to eleven.” “You can’t really dust for vomit.” And so on. Let’s not forget the Stonehenge scene, which has to be seen to be believed.
The thing that pushes Spinal Tap over the cliff to 11, though, is really the music: the three actors are musicians themselves and wrote the ridiculous lyrics to all the songs in the film, including this refrain, played at an Air Force base with unfortunate radio interference in the wireless unit:
Working on a sex farm
Trying to raise some hard love
Getting out my pitchfork
Poking your hay
Guest would go on to make a series of enormously funny faux documentaries (please don’t call them “mockumentaries”) upon the success of Spinal Tap, including reuniting these three for a folk music skewering in 2003’s A Mighty Wind, and others like dog show movie Best in Show and the community-theater-set Waiting for Guffman. Harry Shearer would go on to voice numerous characters on The Simpsons, and Michael McKean, already a comedy veteran from years on Laverne & Shirley, joined Guest’s repertory of players for his other films and also had a memorable turn as antagonist Chuck McGill on Better Call Saul.
Reiner, Guest, McKean, and Shearer are getting the band back together one last time on September 12 with the release of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, chronicling one final concert before the band retires for good. If the past is anything to go by, this farewell show will be a must-see.
