In this golden age of home viewing, the Criterion Collection still provides some of the best editions of the best movies ever released, usually with a rich selection of extras and often including audio commentaries (a feature they pioneered, and perhaps the greatest gift ever to film students and cinephiles alike). This column features one Criterion release per week, based entirely on where my interests lead me.
Rob Reiner may not have invented the mockumentary (which some date as far back as Luis Buñuel’s 1933 film Land Without Bread) but he popularized the term and created one of the best examples of the genre with his satirical comedy This Is Spinal Tap (1984). Given Reiner’s recent untimely death it’s a bit spooky to see him in this film’s cold open in the character of “Marty Di Bergi” (based on Martin Scorsese, who at first disliked then came to embrace the character). But that’s the thing about films: they outlive their creators, and what better way to pay tribute to Reiner’s life and career than by enjoying his films?
The setup is that Marty Di Bergi is making a documentary about the British rock band Spinal Tap, consisting of David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), Viv Savage (David Kaff) and Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell) to promote their recent album Smell the Glove and upcoming American tour. If you haven’t caught the tenor of Spinal Tap’s humor from the character and album names, this may not be the film for you, because there’s a lot more where that came from.
If the humor is laddish (and bad language is the main reason for the film’s “R” rating since the central characters aren’t mature enough to have actual sex lives), so was 1980s rock culture. Spinal Tap critiques that culture as well as hagiographic rock documentaries like Don’t Look Back and The Last Waltz by turning everything up to 11, so to speak, at which point it’s impossible to take anything seriously. “Treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry,” as one reviewer within the film puts it, pretty much sums up the band. The real joke is that they don’t get it.
I’m not going to reference any more jokes, which means discussing what happens in this movie is pretty much off limits. But I will say that part of the fun is spotting notable actors in small roles, which suits the film’s construction as a series of blackout jokes (could this be a tribute Rob’s father Carl, a noted sketch writer for TV programs like Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour?). These include Patrick Macnee as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg, President of Polymer Records, Bruno Kirby as a limo driver, Dana Carvey and Billy Crystal as mimes, Paul Schaffer as a promoter, Ed Begley, Jr. as a former band member, and Fran Drescher as A & R woman Bobbi Flekman, who is way smarter than anyone else in this film. | Sarah Boslaugh
Spine #: 12
Technical details: 82 min; color; screen ratio 1.85:1; English.
Edition reviewed: Blu-ray (2 discs).
Extras: Three audio commentaries: “The Actors” (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer), “The Crew” (Rob Reiner, producer Karen Murphy, and editors Robert Leighton and Kent Beyda), and “The Band” (“Derek Smalls,” “David St. Hubbins,” and “Nigel Tufnel”); video conversation between Rob Reiner and Patton Oswalt; 98 (!) minutes of cut scenes; “Spinal Tap: The Final Tour” (1982 short made to raise money to complete the feature film); clips from The Return of Spinal Tap (1992); Back from the Dead (album) interviews; collection of promo materials; trailer for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues; CD booklet in the style of a music magazine with an essay by Alex Pappademas.
Fun Fact: In 2016, Harry Shearer sued Vivendi and StudioCanal for fraud and breach of contract, claiming “Hollywood accounting” (a.k.a. “Profits? What profits?) claiming he, McKean, Guest, and Reiner had been unfairly deprived of income from the film (the suit claimed they received only $81 in merchandising income and $98 in music sales; the case wassettled in 2019 (terms undisclosed, but the original ask was for a minimum of $125 million, raised to $400 million when Guest, McKean, and Reiner joined the suit).
Parting Thought: Reiner first came to fame playing the role of Michael Stivic, a.k.a. “The Meathead” in Norman Lear’s sitcom All in the Family, and was so identified with the role that he once claimed “I could win the Nobel Prize and the headline would read, ‘Meathead Wins Nobel.’” Given his long and distinguished career as well as his support of causes like LGBTQ rights and environmental protection, is it time to give the Meathead moniker a rest?
