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| Michael
McKean, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Fran
Drescher |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Nigel Tufnel: The numbers
all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven,
eleven and -
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it's louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it's *one louder*, isn't it?
A documentary filmmaker follows an
aging British heavy metal band on their new American tour.
 This
fake documentary has probably gone further than any other in blurring
the line between fiction and reality. Originally devised as a hilarious
and sharp satire of the self-glorifying stupidity found in rock
stars and their entourages, the Spinal Tap phenomenon continued
as the actors went on tour in character, released albums with titles
like Break Like the Wind, gave press conferences, appeared
on numerous TV shows and commercials, launched their own web service
(tapster.com) and now lend in-character audio commentary to this
DVD re-release of the movie that started it all. A tiny movie that
went almost unnoticed upon its initial release, This is Spinal
Tap quickly developed into one of the biggest cult movies of
the 1980s, and the Internet has contributed greatly in the past
decade to the movie's now enormous popularity as 'Tap-heads' spread
the word via innumerable fan websites.
Bewildering - and often unamusing - as this phenomenon may be, the
movie itself remains a wittily observant comedy that is both uproariously
funny and surprisingly layered. It demonstrates how clever one must
be to convincingly portray convincingly stupid characters without
resorting to one-note broad humor. The actors have got the band
members down pat, from their vacant stares and unselfconsciously
incoherent ramblings to their sophomoric lyrics and insipid but
completely realistic stage performances. The jokes walk the line
between clever satire and outrageously over-the-top parody, and
the convincing documentary style that allows for plenty of overlapping
improvised dialogues and striking character observations pulls off
the illusion perfectly. How difficult it is to make convincing and
funny fake documentaries like this was demonstrated by Christopher
Guest's own attempts to direct similar efforts like Waiting for
Guffman, which provided some entertaining moments but had none
of the veracity or credibility of Spinal Tap. It is indeed a fine
line between clever and stupid. |
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This is Spinal Tap was first
released on DVD as a region-free Criterion Edition which has long
since gone out of print and is now a rare collector's item. This
edition includes two audio commentary tracks and a great amount
of supplementary material. MGM/UA more recently released a new Special
Edition for Region 1 and Region 2 that includes most of the extra
features on the Criterion release - apart from the commentaries
- as well as a new anamorphic transfer, a new Dolby Digital 5.1
sound mix and an audio commentary track from the actors in character
as the band. There has also been a movie-only Region 2 release from
Polygram on DVD.
This review deals with the MGM/UA Special Edition.
The anamorphic widescreen image
is framed at 1.77:1 and looks about as good as this movie ever will.
The movie's shoestring budget is visible in the film's grainy, washed-out
look, which sometimes helps in enhancing the illusion that this
is a real fly-on-the-wall documentary but that in other scenes just
looks pretty awful. The source print has very few defects and there
is hardly any visual noise, but several sequences clearly show too
much edge-enhancement, especially some of the on-stage shots.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix is good for a film that was not
originally shot for any surround effects. The songs are sometimes
strangely mixed, with the bass guitar coming from the rear and the
other instruments from the front speakers. The overall sound quality
however is impressive and well-mastered.
The Criterion Edition that was released
of this movie several years ago is still making certain people a
lot of money on Ebay. Its non-anamorphic widescreen transfer and
Dolby Digital 2.0 sound have dated badly, but the two audio commentary
tracks (which are also to be found on the equally rare Voyager CD-ROM
of the movie) are excellent and are sadly missing on this new edition.
 The
audio commentary on this release is rather unique as it has the
actors commenting on the movie in character as the Spinal Tap band
members they play. Of course they are very critical of the film,
complaining that Marty DiBergi's movie was a hatchet job on them
and that they were being set up to look ridiculous. It's a funny
and entertaining audio track that illustrates how far these actors
have gotten underneath these characters' skins by now. The short
interview 'Catching Up with Marty DiBergi' is much less amusing,
and reminds us how long it's been since Rob Reiner actually made
a funny movie.
The other major addition on this release is the 65 minutes of outtakes
and deleted scenes. They have been edited together rather haphazardly
and the image quality isn't that great, but several of the scenes
are very amusing and some are hilarious.
The numerous other features include a half-dozen trailers (the 'Cheese
Rolling Trailer' is the funniest and is in anamorphic widescreen),
three music videos that are only so-so, a funny 'Flower People press
conference', an appearance on a TV show, and a few other items that
aren't particularly memorable but make for fun viewing. The
main menu screen starts with a hilarious audio commentary from the
band members as the black screen is filled by the logo which then
rapidly diminishes in size until it is hardly visible at all. The
subtitles menu screen also has some amusing audio commentary, and
all other animated screens have full tracks from the movie soundtrack
playing in the background. The audio commentary in the menu screens
can be skipped if you want to get to the menu options quickly by
pressing the Menu key. Navigation is very clear and user-friendly,
but the chapters are rather oddly organized: you sometimes have
to sit through one of the live tracks to get to the dialogue you
want to. It would have been much better to have the songs in completely
separate chapters so they can be skipped when not in the mood for
heavy metal music...
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on This
is Spinal Tap.
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