Musicians: This is Spinal Tap (Dir Rob Reiner, 1h22m, 1984)

There is something absurd, intentional or otherwise, about the bombastic world of hard rock and heavy metal, and nowhere is this more obvious than in the rockumentary. For every quite affecting - Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008), and Heavy Metal in Baghdad (2007) - tale of bands battling adversity, obscurity, and having to release music during wartime, there are scores of self-indulgent, absurd, or in some cases pictures spectacularly lacking self-awareness, ranging from Bros: After the Screaming Stops (2018) in which the Goss brothers seem detached from reality, and eventually from each other, to Lars Ulrich's confused bellowing at band member Jason Newstead daring to leave Metallica in Some Kind of Monster (2003) to the masterpiece, the epicentre of heavy metal excess, planet-scaled egos, and general hairy nonsence in Penelope Spheeris' gloriously titled The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988).

 All of this is very well, but none of these films are This is Spinal Tap, the mocku-rocku-mentary, in Rob Reiner directorial debut, introducing us, and goes on the road with, has-been rock dinosaurs Spinal Tap ( Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer, plus real-life musicians David Kaff and Ric Parnell) across the United States. It is a film that at once skewers the real-life rock and metal bands of the era, at the very point the fortunes of bands like Saxon, Uriah Heep, Deep Purple and their kin were dwindling with the arrival of (the unseen) MTV, the continual bombast of touring and performing as several forty-somethings create and play mildly misogynistic music for teenage boys, and pays loving tribute to the genre at the same time. It is also one of my favourite comedies ever.

Spinal Tap wastes no time in getting down to business, meeting up with the band via Reiner, himself playing a Scorsese-circa-The Last Waltz-ian figure, Martin "Marty" Di Bergi, introducing his history with the group, fast-forwarding to the start of their US tour promoting the gloriously stupidly titled 'Smell the Glove' amidst a fight with their label over its cover art, and its fallout. What immediately adds to the documentary feel, aside from Di Bergi's fly on the wall shooting style - DoP Peter Smokler would otherwise largely work in TV - and the ad-libbed nature of the film, often using only two or three takes to get a scene, with some of the film's best lines - of which there are too many to count, to the degree one could generate a complex, and liver-threatening drinking game of them all - often getting the spontaneous reaction we see in the film. 

These range from the wryly observed rock and roll minutiae, including Nigel's collection of guitars, his infamous one-upmanship with his amps that 'go to eleven' and absurdly named classical pieces, to the ridiculous, one scene depicting the group lost trying to find the venue's stage, and the group's complex history, exploding drummers, poison pen reviews, and juvenilia-titled songs. Frankly, This Is Spinal Tap has become one of those films where practically everything out of the band, and their hangers on, notably their cricket bat wielding manager, (a riff off Led Zeppelin's thuggish  manager,Peter Grant)'s mouths is someone's favourite quote from the movie. 

That this is all happening in this verité style in terms of the band members is one thing, but the gigs that punctuate the film, to ever-decreasing audiences and in ever more humiliating circumstances, the last two being a Forces dance evening (something that actually happened to the aforementioned Uriah Heep) and as second billing to a puppet show, are a real band playing to a real audience. Much of this comes from the main three actors having played music and acted together for years; in the case of Guest and McKean, who play the band's guitarists David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel, since the 1960s. As a result, the musical performances, honed further by Spinal Tap only becoming partly fictional and supporting Iron Butterfly whilst preparing for the film, are where the film is at its strongest, This is where both the band's talent, and their excess, from malfunctioning stage props to risible choreography to self-indulgent guitar solos are on full display.

One could argue, given all this, that This is Spinal Tap is satirising metal and rock fans at their expense; whilst no particular target of derision is squarely in the trio's sights, there is everything from the prog excess and pseudo-mysticism then following Yes around, whilst bassist Derek Smalls (Shearer) seems to be a composite of West Midlanders Saxon (appropriate, given he spent time with the band preparing) and Lemmy, whilst David St. Hubbins is a clear riff off opinionated rock frontmen like David Coverdale of Whitesnake, Robert Plant, and, perhaps unintentionally, Peter Frampton. There is something beautifully observed, and by the early 1980s, a degree of 'Tap imitating life' rather than vice versa, of rockbands past their prime playing to half-empty arenas, and Reiner and his crew milk it for everything its worth, both for comedy, and undeniably pathos. 

And yet, they're not laughing at, but with us; as a heavy metal fan, it's hard not to see any number of bands I've listened to reflected in them, in an entire music genre played for good natured laughs - after all, the joke is never on the band's fans, but on the egomaniacal members of the band unaware their best years are (seemingly) well behind them. There is unintentional, and often, intentional humour to be had out of the antics of heavy metal, as countless bands have found, but few films have left their impact on the music world like This is Spinal Tap, from the co-opting of the 'none more black' cover that 'Smell the Glove' is eventually issued in inspiring Metallica's colossally successful self-titled album's artwork, to multiple amplifier manufacturers producing equipment that went up to, yes, 11. 

There are few comedies thusfar to match the quotability, and the perfect skewering of the world of heavy metal, and none can hold a candle, or throw the horns, to match This is Spinal Tap, perhaps the greatest rock comedy of them all. 

Rating: Must See (Personal Recommendation)

This is Spinal Tap is available via DVD and BluRay from ‎Studiocanal and on streaming on AppleTV

Next week, we conclude our season, at a suitable tempo, with the battle of wits between teacher and student that is Whiplash