The first movie directed by Rob Reiner was the satirical comedy of a fictional band coming to the United States from the England named This Is Spinal Tap (1984). The fictional band is fronted by stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer, with the film’s director in the role of a reporter covering the band. Airport Friend, a supporter of Matt Lynn Digital, has declared his appreciation for the humor of this movie.
Rob Reiner stars as Martin ‘Marty’ Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows the fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap on their American tour. Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel, Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls and Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins portray the band that portrays the odd pretensions of a band that cannot decide who they are. The comedy begins with a revelation that the band cannot settle on a name or style, though do come to America in support of their so called Smell the Glove tour.
Ian Faith, as portrayed by Tony Hendra, begins the tour as the band’s manager. Owing to low ticket sales prompted in part from a sexist album cover for the album that the tour is intended to promote, tensions between the band and Faith increase due to both issues. After the distributor unilaterally releases the band’s album with an all-black cover, sales don’t improve. The hypocrisy of the situation hits a new low when autograph sessions for the album fail to draw fans.
The girlfriend of band singer David St. Hubbins, a devotee of yoga and astrology named Jeanine Pettibone, aims to inject herself into the band’s costumes and stage presentation at this point. This leads to Nigel Tufnel sketching plans for a Stonehenge theming for the band on a napkin, labeling the dimensions in inches rather than feet. When props meant to replicate the life size Stonehenge yet coming in at less than one-third the height of a human being, the joke is on the band. Jeanine Pettibone was portrayed by June Chadwick.
A collection of errors continues to plague the band from here, with smaller and smaller tour venues, equipment errors and ultimately members and band managers leaving the band. To those that get or will get the humor of saying that the movie ends with a bang, let me say that I salute you. My rating for This Is Spinal Tap as directed by Rob Reiner is 3.75-stars on a scale of 1-to-5.
Matt – Wednesday, March 9, 2022
Matt Lynn Digital 