With the year of 2025 close to ending, Criterion have decided to re-release one of their earlier titles on Blu-ray and 4K disc: This Is Spinal Tap. Released in 1984, the movie was the directorial debut for Rob Reiner. While a box office flop, the movie was critically acclaimed and would achieve cult classic status in the years that followed. With a new sequel to the original movie out now, it’s a great time for this movie to return to the Criterion Collection.
A Little Bit of History
During the 1970s, Rob Reiner (who played Michael Stivic on All In The Family during this time) had become friends with the movie’s three main actors: Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer. For years, the four men had idea of creating a fictional band. The band known as Spinal Tap first premiered on a 1979 TV special called The TV Show, where the band were on a parody of The Midnight Special music show. Shortly after this, these men considered making a movie about roadies and their lives on the road. This idea was abandoned when the 1980 Roadies movie (starring singer Meat Loaf) was released. Instead, the idea transformed into a movie about a rock band going on tour. Inspired by The Last Waltz, The Song Remains the Same and Don’t Look Back, this served as the basis for This Is Spinal Tap. For the next few years, the four men worked on creating and building the story around the band and characters. The movie was filmed throughout 1983 with actors that the four men knew who could improvise. Given the mock documentary style they were going for, the movie was made with little to no script, ultimately leading to the final product.
The Movie
This Is Spinal Tap is presented as a documentary from director Marty DiBergi (Reiner). With his film crew, DiBergi documents British rock band Spinal Tap on their 1982 US tour in support of their latest album Smell The Glove. During the tour, the band encounters problem after problem: a banned album cover, onstage mishaps, canceled shows and poor management. This leads to tension within the band, all of whom are the victims of this misfortune.
Within its 81 minute runtime, there’s a lot to take out of This Is Spinal Tap. First off, all of the actors are brilliant. The three main members of Spinal Tap are David St. Hubbins (McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Guest) and Derek Smalls (Shearer). All three men play their characters well and you truly believe them in their roles.
– David serves as their frontman, who has a crazy girlfriend that joins them on tour
– Nigel is the lead guitarist who has a passion for guitars, with his solos being his trademark
– Derek is the optimistic bassist, who sees himself as the lukewarm water between the “fire and ice” of David and Nigel
Along with them, there’s a slew of other memorable characters. One of them is the band’s manager Ian Faith (Tony Hendra), who brings some Brian Epstein/Peter Grant energy in his managerial skills. Then there’s Bobbi Fleckman (Fran Dresher), the record label publicist who takes no bullshit from the band. DiBergi is also one of the movie’s many characters, as he put himself in the movie. This is a clever homage to how Martin Scorsese put himself in The Last Waltz.
With this being a mock documentary, Reiner and company went all out to make this believable. Along with the band’s tour being documented, their past is also shown. The band’s appearances on music television shows look realistic and true to life. Speaking of true to life, the camera angles and cinematography mirrors music documentaries from that time period. One of the cinematographers was Peter Smokler, who had worked on Gimme Shelter. With that, it makes the movie feel more realistic.
The movie also has stellar soundtrack to back it up. Songs such as the bass heavy “Big Bottom,” the arena rock driven “Hell Hole” and the iconic “Stonehenge” have all become classics. While the music in the soundtrack is humorous, it’s just great music in general and fits right up there with all of the rock music from the late 1970s to early 1980s.
The Extras
This Is Spinal Tap comes with a second disc, filled to the brim with bonus content.
– three audio commentaries: one with the three band member actors, another with producers and editors and a fun one with the band in character
– Rob Reiner in conversation with comedian Patton Oswalt
– The Cutting Room Floor (98 minutes worth of deleted scenes)
– Spinal Tap: The Final Tour (the demo video presented to movie studios instead of a script)
– Excerpts from The Return of Spinal Tap (1992 concert film with documentary-like footage from people in the 1984 movie. This is only the non-concert footage)
– Back From The Dead interviews (56 minute feature with the band talking about all of the songs from the 2009 album. This came with the album when released)
– Trailers, media and other promotional material
– Trailer for Spinal Tap II
– An essay from critic Alex Pappademas
Aside from the Patton Oswalt feature, most of the extras on the second disc have been released before in other formats. The deleted scenes, however, are worth looking at: while most of it isn’t new, it looks like some of them have been cleaned up. Amongst these deleted scenes are unreleased ones not found on previous releases of this movie, including scenes featuring Cherie Currie (The Runaways). While most of this material as been released, Criterion have conveniently placed all of this content onto one disc.
Conclusion
As a whole, Criterion’s new release of This Is Spinal Tap is the ultimate release. Not only is the movie newly remastered but it has almost everything that’s been done related to Spinal Tap. It is, however, missing a few things: the 2007 short film made for the Live Earth show, a few TV appearances like VH1’s The List or Nigel’s series of videos for National Geographic on Stonehenge. Not even the original TV Show skit is included on here. As some diehard fans know, there is a four hour workprint version of the movie floating around. Sadly, not all of those scenes are on there. Then again, there’s other places you can find these things. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if there was some copyright entanglement involved with some footage. With that, the missing content and be forgiven.
Whether you’re a long time fan or new to this movie, this new release of This Is Spinal Tap is well worth it.
Movie Rating: 11/10 (it’s one louder, isn’t it?)
Release Rating: 8/10 (docking points for the missing content. Though the amount on here is massive and it’s [mostly] remastered in Dubly!)
I'm a writer/journalist with a passion for music and pop culture. Having graduated from King's College in Wilkes-Barre, PA in 2014, I've been looking for a platform in which I can share my passions. Since 2009, I've been posting to my own blog- The Walrus' Music Blog- via Blogger. I'm also the author of two self-published books, "The Camp: Stories from the Summer" and "The College: Stories from King's." Together, the two books cover the story of my life from 2004 to 2014. I've been lucky enough to interview several of my favorite musicians over the years and go to concerts from time to time. I'm also very devoted to the CBS reality TV show Survivor, which I started watching in 2002 when its fourth season started. I currently live in New Jersey.