This Is Spinal Tap
Overview
This Is Spinal Tap is an American 1984 rock
musical mockumentary
directed by Rob Reiner
about the fictional heavy metal
band Spinal Tap
. The film satirizes
the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard rock
and heavy metal musical bands, as well as the hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries of the time.
Reiner and the three main stars are credited as the writers of the film, based on the fact that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
musical mockumentary
Mockumentary
A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...
directed by Rob Reiner
Rob Reiner
Robert "Rob" Reiner is an American actor, director, producer, writer, and political activist.As an actor, Reiner first came to national prominence as Archie and Edith Bunker's son-in-law, Michael "Meathead" Stivic, on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s...
about the fictional heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Spinal Tap
Spinal Tap (band)
Spinal Tap is a parody heavy metal band that first appeared on a failed 1979 ABC TV sketch comedy pilot called "The T.V. Show", starring Rob Reiner...
. The film satirizes
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
the wild personal behavior and musical pretensions of hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
and heavy metal musical bands, as well as the hagiographic tendencies of rock documentaries of the time.
Reiner and the three main stars are credited as the writers of the film, based on the fact that much of the dialogue was ad libbed by them.
Quotations
[Asked what his epitaph should be]: "Here lies David St. Hubbins... and why not?"
[After the disastrous "Stonehenge" concert]: I do not think the problem was that the band was "down". I think the problem was that there was a Stonehenge monument on stage that was in danger of being crushed...by a dwarf!
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
R.J. Parnell - Mick Shrimpton
David Kaff - Viv Savage