Retro Geek Throwback Thursday: This is Spinal Tap

I remember when I went to buy my first DVD player; I was so excited that I forgot I would need to buy an actual DVD movie to watch and try it out. So what was my first purchase? The extended version of This is Spinal Tap, of course. Suddenly my excitement had shifted from the DVD player to watching one of my favorite movies of all time, again and again and again.

Most often described as a ‘rock band mockumentary’, This is Spinal Tap has not only been recognized by rock bands around the world as mirroring part of their own lives as musicians, but has also been recognized by the Library of Congress as being significant enough to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry.

With all that being said, the movie is just damn funny from start to end. Director Rob Reiner also appears in the movie as Marty Di Bergi, the maker of this ‘documentary’. The films big three stars, and the main members of Spinal Tap, are Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer). Together these three form a band whose day has long past and none of them are bright enough to realize it.

The movie switches back and forth from a documentary/interview style to recording the bands mishaps and blunders as they try and find an audience while touring the USA to promote their new album Smell the Glove.

As a lover of rock and roll and going to concerts, the scenes of the bands misadventures while on stage (or trying to find the stage) were especially funny to me. Horribly made ‘heavy metal’ props and ones that simply malfunction are things I’ve actually seen from real bands.

However, the genius of the movie lies with the acting and musical talents of the three ‘band’ members. Guest, McKean and Shearer are absolutely brilliant and spot on as the dimwitted trio. They adopted the fake accents and actually wrote and performed the songs which made them even more convincing in their roles. In fact, when the movie was first released back in the early eighties, many in the audience thought that the band was actually real.

The songs themselves were brilliant and still make me laugh so hard it brings tears to my eyes. Wonderful song titles and lyrics that lampooned the sexist views of some heavy metal bands, while in the movie the band thought that they were being sexy, not sexist (Of course, they had no idea what the difference was). Great tunes like ‘Big Bottom’, ‘Tonight I’m Going to Rock You’ and ‘Sex Farm’ were just a few of the gems they rolled out.

Of course, there were fantastic characters they encountered along the way as well. Ian Faith (Tony Hendra), the band’s manager who insists that the crowds for Spinal Tap aren’t getting smaller, it’s just the fans are getting more selective. You also had Fran Drescher as the annoying record executive, Bobbi Fleckman, Paul Schaffer as Artie Fufkin, the not so swift record promoter… the list goes on and on.

All the characters and scenarios in this film are written and acted to perfectly capture the atmosphere and absurdity of a touring rock band. The expressions on the band members faces as they spout some idiotic nonsense that they actually believe is true, is priceless. They totally sell the characters in such a way that in between fits of laughter you actually feel sorry for them on occasion.

That I believe is one of the biggest attractions people have when it concerns the members of Spinal Tap. They aren’t mean or nasty people and in fact, they are pretty nice guys. That and the fact they are, and probably unwittingly so, trying to achieve one last taste of glory in the world of rock and roll is somewhat endearing to the people watching.

The fact is while they are bumbling across the screen, the fault most times being their own, you can’t help but laugh with them as well as laugh at them. In the end, who really doesn’t want to see them achieve some sort of success?

A magical film that I will never tire of watching over and over, there is no way I could possibly rate this movie any less than a ten out of ten. However, riffing on a quote from the now immortal Nigel Tufnel, I will say that ‘This film goes to eleven!’