All the way to eleven!

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2006)

The only thing funnier than 'This Is Spinal Tap' is the people who didn't get the joke. Leafing through the reviews on Amazon and IMDb, I came upon a couple of one star reviews along the lines of 'it was an okay documentary but why make a film about this band nobody's heard of when there were lots of better bands around?' There was even one guy who, apparently attempting to appear musically educated, stated that he remembers hearing some of Spinal Tap's hits in the 70's, but they were nothing special. The fact that there are a few who failed to realize that Spinal Tap were a fictitious band, created specifically for this mockumentary, is a testament to the subtle intelligence of the humor and the preciseness of the film's parody, as well as to the dreadful overall state of mainstream rock in the late 70's and early 80's.
In his first feature film, Rob 'Meathead' Reiner disguises himself as documentary maker Marty DiBergi and follows around the comeback US tour of has-been heavy metal dinosaurs Spinal Tap. Reiner did not invent the fake documentary  and I don't care what Charlie (or was it Donald?) Kaufman says, it wasn't Fellini either  the concept can be traced back to the brilliant opening scene of 'Citizen Kane' and even earlier than that  but no film prior to 'This Is Spinal Tap' was this loyal and uncompromising in its documentary structure and in its invented reality. Reiner, Guest and co. took the joke to the very limits, and it's easy to see that with the DVD bonus features, which include TV commercials made by Spinal Tap, video clips, press conferences and TV appearances from across the band's history, even an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
Spinal Tap are everything that was silly, trite and ridiculous about the music industry in the early 80's. In their Prima Dona behavior, their stupid quarreling, their idiotic, half-baked pseudo-philosophic wisdom, and most of all in their songs, Spinal Tap put a distorting mirror in front of half the bands that were around at the time; and any band that was insulted because they thought the joke was on them, merely proved the point. The songs use every cliché of rock music without shame, and the performances of Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer as the band-mates are precise, merciless and hilarious. Best of all is Guest as virtuoso guitarist Nigel Tuffnel, who is beyond brilliant in several unforgettable scenes (including the classic 'the dials go up to eleven' routine), but is also hilarious when he doesn't say a word; his body language and facial expressions while playing on stage spoof any self-proclaimed genius guitarist of the time, and there's no need for mentioning any names.
Again, what makes 'This Is Spinal Tap' great is the subtleness of the humor. Reiner and co. felt no inhibition to supply jokes by the minute as way too many comedies do, and it's an ability he proved again later in the classics 'The Princess Bride' and 'When Harry Met Sally'. The jokes in 'This Is Spinal Tap' do not overshadow the characters and the story told, but with very few actual jokes the film is still unbelievably, consistently, laugh-out-loud roll-on-the-floor funny. Especially for musicians and music lovers in general, who will immediately laugh at many of the easy to miss jokes, 'This Is Spinal Tap' is essential viewing, and one of the funniest films you'll ever see. The DVD is also great, with lost of supplemental material and wonderful deleted scenes, including several with the great Billy Crystal.