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This Film On

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This Is Spinal Tap

It's the rare comedy that not only becomes an indelible part of the American consciousness, but also deserves the honor. This is Spinal Tap is among those films (it comes it at #29 on AFI's "100 Years…100 Laughs" list and ranks #1 on Entertainment Weekly's list of "Top 50 Cult Films of All-Time"). The story of an embarrasingly inept heavy-metal band called Spinal Tap, Rob Reiner's film set the mockumentary standard that has come to define much of modern screen comedy.

Star Christopher Guest would go on to direct an acclaimed series of mockumentary films (including the folk-music parody A Mighty Wind, which reunited him with co-stars Michael McKean and Harry Shearer as a different band). Yet more surprising is that This Is Spinal Tap turned a fake band into a real band of sorts, as Guest, McKean, and Shearer have enjoyed a second career appearing, recording, and touring as Spinal Tap over the years. It's undeniable evidence of the level of commitment that makes This Is Spinal Tap an enduring comedy classic and not just a disposable, tossed-off lark.

Reiner plays documentarian Marti DiBergi, who seems unable to believe the movie he's stumbled onto. Introducing his film, DiBergi claims Spinal Tap has "earned a distinguished place in rock history as one of England's loudest bands." No doubt inspired by Eric Idles 1978 TV mock-rockumentary The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, co-writers Guest, McKean, Reiner & Shearer devise a complete (and completely absurd) history of the band, which has had 37 members and sixteen albums, including the new disc "Smell the Glove," which occasions the U.S. tour the film "documents." Like The Rutles, This Is Spinal Tap allows for comedy involving British rockers and extensive parody of actual bands, including The Beatles. In the '60s, Spinal Tap was a hippie band (with the hit song "(Listen to) The Flower People"); a black-and-white Beatles-style news conference peppered with rapid-fire witticisms hit the cutting room floor, but a hilarious variation on The White Album remains part of the film.

The dimwitted core trio of the band is lead guitarist David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). They have a history of unfortunate and misfortunate drummers (the first of which is played by Ed Begley Jr.), a tenacious but stupid manager named Ian Faith (Tony Hendra), and a penchant for ridiculous stage theatrics. This volatile mix results at one point in a disastrous attempt at an epic stage effect to accompany their legendary song "Stonehenge." Fran Drescher pops up as Bobbi Flekman (Fran Drescher) from the band's label, Polymer Records, and Fred Willard, Bruno Kirby, Anjelica Huston, Billy Crystal, Dana Carvey, Patrick Macnee, Howard Hesseman, and Paul Shaffer also appear in funny cameos.

The movie is mostly a string of funny bits and improvised interview sessions in the course of the tour, but some nominal drama comes when the band climactically breaks up over the intrusions of David's new girlfriend Jeannine (June Chadwick), Spinal Tap's Yoko. Despite the Beatles allusions, Spinal Tap is famous for nailing the feeble self-defensiveness of the incompetent, and the shallowness and unearned egomania of arena rockers. The special stupidity of the heavy metal scene gets a particular thrashing in a series of hilarious original songs filled with sexual innuendo and pretentious fantasy, "Hell Hole," "Heavy Duty," "Sex Farm," and the immortal "Big Bottom" (Big bottom/Big bottom/Talk about mud flaps/My gal's got 'em./Big bottom/Drive me out of my mind./How can I leave this behind?").

"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever," David St. Hubbins muses, but This Is Spinal Tap walks it with ease. An exquisite parody and a sly satire, it's 83 minutes of comedy bliss.