Retrospective Film Review

This is Spinal Tap • 40 Years Later — the laughter’s still turned up to 11

Spinal Tap, one of England’s loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.

In 1984, Rob Reiner did something no film director had done before: make a mockumentary about a fictional rock n’ roll band. Inspired by behind-the-scene footage from the newly launched MTV, anecdotes from real-life musicians, and characters from a short-lived television sketch show, Reiner and his co-writers and stars (Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer) created This is Spinal Tap.

This is Spinal Tap has since entered the culture lexicon and spawned an entire genre of filmmaking that was largely confined to TV. The film’s become such a staple that excitement for its belated and upcoming sequel, Spinal Tap II, is high among film buffs and comedy fans. Admittedly, getting the original made at all in the 1980s was a feat in and of itself…