In late 2025, we tragically lost writer and director Rob Reiner, who was one of the most versatile filmmakers back in the 1980’s and 90’s, and continued a decent run of films in the following decades. Many fans remember him best for his romantic comedies like “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry met Sally”, while others likely remember him for directing dramatic pictures like “A Few Good Men” and “The American President”. I personally remember him best for his Steven King movie adaptions like “Misery” and “Stand by Me”. However, I feel the best way to celebrate the late director is by taking a quick look at his very first movie, and arguably his most acclaimed picture … the 1984 comedy classic “This is Spinal Tap”. It’s common to see this film ranked on lists of the most influential comedy classics, and while it’s never been one of my personal favorites, I’ve always respected its status.
This film is frequently cited for popularizing the concept of a “mockumentary”, which is meant to fool the audience into thinking it’s a real documentary film, when everything shown is fake, and presented as a satire. Rob Reiner himself portrays a fake director named Marty DiBergi, who’s a big fan of the British Rock Band Spinal Tap, and aims to cover their come-back tour, which is currently going through the US, and will coincide with their new album called “Sniff the Glove”. While director Marty DiBergi idolizes Spinal Tap and aims to present the band in a positive light for his film, the band is in fact as unoriginal and pretentious as they get. Their tour turns out to be a disaster, with a long-delayed album, appalling venues, hotel mix-ups, stage props malfunctioning, dwindling audiences and the band is plagued with the misfortune of drummers who keep dying mid performance. Through it all, Marty puts on a brave face as he observes, interviews and documents his favorite band.
The titular band Spinal Tap is obviously a creation for the film, with screen writers Michael McKean, Christorpher Guest, and Harry Shearer portraying the lead band members David St. Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls, while David Kaff and Tony Hendra fill in the other band positions. For me, I was in High School when I first saw this movie and was initially under the impression this was a real band, but gradually realized the satire being presented. In hindsight, this was a clever presentation of a spoof to make it look like a real band being documented. The genius behind the format is that as satirical as the film gets, it’s not too outlandish to imagine a pretentious band of this sort really existing. One of the overarching jokes of the film is how the band is always one step behind a popular fad. They’re always trying to emulate a contemporary trend, without being unique, and fail to realize that audiences have moved on … a concept that packs a more meaningful punch then ever in our current wave of entertainment.
The hummer likewise comes out more thematically in the satire, although there are certainly some goofy highlights. One of the more memorable jokes revolves around the band’s efforts to put on a show with a big Stonehenge stage design … only for it to appear as little more than a miniature. For me, the biggest laugh I got revolves around the band as they’re just about to put on a live stage performance … only to get lost backstage. It’s only mildly amusing at first, but as their need to get to the stage increases, the situation begins to spiral, and they only get themselves more lost. It’s a funny situation and got me wondering how many real bands have had a mishap of this sort. Of course, beyond the satire and the funny moments, the real takeaway of this film is its onslaught of quotable lines. To this day the film is cited as one of the most quotable comedies ever made, and even for a passive viewer like me, I still remember some of these lines and sometimes casually reference the material from this film.
Some of the best lines include - “What day did the Lord make Spinal Tap … and could he have not rested on that Day Too!”, and their reaction to their dismal black Albom cover - “It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none.”
My personal favorite line would have to be when the Director reads through negative reviews on their failed Albom titled “Shark Sandwich” … "The review for "Shark Sandwich" was merely a two word review which simply read 'Shit Sandwich'." In case you didn’t know, the majority of the lines were adlibbed and improvised on set, with several hours of film that didn’t get used, and it makes some of the character reactions in the film all the more amusing. Yet, the films biggest claim to fame comes in one remark … “Up to Eleven!”, or “these go to eleven” as it’s also phrased. This comes about when Band member Nigel modifies his amplifier to have an “eleven” as the highest volume setting, so now his amplifier is “one louder” then most other amps. To clarify, the terminology use of eleven as a maximum pre-date’s “This is Spinal Tap”, but the popularity of the film certainly put a face to the context. When people say: “Turn it up to 11”, they’re typically citing it from this movie. Also, while most amplifiers still go up to ten, some musicians and artists have taken inspiration to install an eleventh amp.
The amp setting was only the tip of a large summit of inspiration that Spinal Tap left on a generation of musicians and performers. Also, the fictional band Spinal Tap took on a life of its own outside of the movie, with the cast reprising their roles for live shows, performances and even a commentary track in character. Upon the films initial release, “This is Spinal Tap” did only “so-so” at the box office but was showered with praise from both critics and viewers. With the advent of home video, the film developed a massive cult following, and the rest is history. In 2002, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress, and then selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
At last, getting back to the late director Rob Reiner … he naturally went on to have a successful film carrier, even directing some Oscar awarded pictures. The one thing he never did was work on any sequels … that is until 2025, when he returned to produce, write, directed and star in the legacy sequel “Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues”.
Sadly, it would be the last movie of his career before his tragic death. Still, what he left behind was a worthy legacy of films, with Spinal Tap being the Golden Goose that birthed his career. I feel I must reiterate that 1984’s “This is Spinal Tap” has never really resonated with me as any kind of personal favorite, but there’s a reason it’s resonated with so many others. It was a unique way of presenting a spoof, it was able to make a life for itself outside the confines of a single movie, it impacted several artists both musical and non-musical alike, and thanks to the combined talents of Rob Reiner and his crew, they took what could have easily been a one-note gimmick of a movie and successfully elevated that note … to an eleven!
Thanks for
reading my review of the 1984 comedy classic “This is Spinal Tap” … continue
to enjoy the movies you Love …
And Rest in
Peace Rob Reiner
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