This Is Spinal Tap Is Back in Theaters — And Still Goes to Eleven

“No one knows who they were or what they were doing.”

It is the 41^st anniversary of the very first mockumentary and one of the funniest movies ever made, This Is Spinal Tap. To commemorate the occasion, Bleeker Street Media and the Criterion Collection are re-releasing a 4k restoration of this absurdist comedy in theatres July 5^th-7^th and are aiming for an Ultra HD Blu-ray release in September of 2025.

The movie that goes to eleven, This Is Spinal Tap is a 1984 Embassy Pictures film. The first film directed by Rob Reiner, This Is Spinal Tap stars Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, and Christopher Guest along with an overstuffed ensemble cast loaded with celebrity cameos. This brilliant movie is almost entirely ad-libbed. The actors would know where their characters were going to be at the start of a scene, and where they were supposed to go, but how they got to the end was entirely their business.

“We toured the world and elsewhere.”

It is 1984. Marty Di Bergi (Reiner) is filming a documentary to promote the band, Spinal Tap as they tour in support of their new record, Smell the Glove. The group was formed in 1964 by three friends, Derek Smalls (Shearer), David St. Hubbins (McKean), and Nigel Tufnel (Guest). Tap floated around, following trends until the band hit it big with the track Listen to the Flower People, and then switched their style to pre-ballad heavy metal. They’ve toured incessantly, frightening girls from around the world with the armadillos in their trousers. Due to many tragedies (mostly to their many ill-fated drummers), over 37 people have been in Tap through the years.

Their harried manager, Ian Faith, tries to keep everything on track, but while Marty films, tensions in the group grow as they encounter difficulties with their record label over BDSM album art deemed degrading and sexist, leading to a lack of support and subsequently low sales. This is followed by diminishing crowds at their gigs and grudges that build between the bandmates. Things begin to boil over when St. Hubbins brings his girlfriend, Jeanine, along for the back leg of the tour, and she tries to horn in on Ian’s management tasks.

Faith quits. Tufnel and St. Hubbins argue over her toxic presence, but David is determined to stand up for his squeeze. Unfortunately, Jeanine doesn’t prove up to the task, leading to a mishap where the signal from Nigel’s guitar feed is lost during a show at an Air Force base. In disgust, Tufnel quits on the spot.

Can Spinal Tap finish their tour? Can Marty get a good ending for his documentary? Will David and Derrick be able to pivot to the Saucy Jack the Ripper musical that they’ve always dreamed of? Will Bobbi Flekman, the record-label flack who clashed with the band, get the last laugh? Please see This Is Spinal Tap (again) to find out.

“I’m sure I’d feel much worse if I wasn’t so heavily sedated.”

The movie’s restoration is impressive. For a 41-year-old film, it looks razor-sharp. The herpes sores displayed prominently on the lips of many of the main characters are now visible in all their glory, a sight gag this reviewer had never noticed before as he had only seen the film on a CRT using a VHS. The music tracks are appropriately thunderous. The audio transfer is nuanced enough to both pick up the subdued dialogue of an outdoors interview, along with the roaring clamor of Tap’s arena crowds

It is said in the film, “There’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.” Many people didn’t get the joke; they thought the film was a real documentary, just that Spinal Tap was a hapless band they’d never heard of instead of a deliberate send-up of the entire industry. Changes in trends, problems with album art, with management, with managers, with girlfriends, with lodging, other bandmates, cancelled gigs, failures in set design, petty jealousies, betrayal and confusing back stage layouts all ring true to anyone who’s ever worked in the music business, worked adjacent to the music business or just dated someone involved.

Everyone in This Is Spinal Tap is playing things as straight and serious as Sam the Eagle. It must have been the height of difficulty getting through scenes without breaking character, as the movie is almost too funny. This Is Spinal Tap deserves its reputation as one of greatest comedies ever put to film. The movie is full of timeless, quotable lines that are still golden. The dialogue from this picture has permeated so deeply into the culture that if a viewer were to drop an out-of-context line today, four decades after the initial release of the movie, most would know exactly what that viewer was talking about.

As the farce that is This Is Spinal Tap grows more risible, it’s easy to forget what an incredible director Rob Reiner is. At the helm of his first movie, he shoots his musicians right, he gets good, tight angles, and manages to match the fashions and film grain in the videos to the proper time periods when Tap and Marty reflect on the band’s history. The musical scenes were shot with an eye for the performance and edited to match guitar work, bass play, and singing to the visuals, leading many people to think that Spinal Tap was a real group. It’s a testament to the movie’s verisimilitude and depictions of acrimonious internal band strife that, throughout the years, many musical groups were sure the movie was secretly about them.

This Is Spinal Tap is a great film. It’s a side-splitting, classic comedy. The Criterion/ Bleeker St. restoration would be an excellent addition to anyone’s collection of physical media. Viewers would be remiss were they to skip a chance to refresh their memories of such an imaginative, pioneering picture. People who have never seen this film should see this film.

This Is Spinal Tap/ The Golden 41st Anniversary 4K Restoration is in theatres July 5^th-7^th, 2025.