This Is Spinal Tap

This Is Spinal Tap invented the mockumentary genre and created a film so convincing that real rock musicians thought it was a documentary about an actual band. Rob Reiner directed and starred as filmmaker Marty DiBergi, following the fictional British heavy metal band Spinal Tap on their disastrous American tour. The result is the most influential comedy format of the last forty years.

Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer created their characters so completely that the line between fiction and reality effectively disappeared. They wrote and performed all the music themselves, toured as Spinal Tap, and remained in character during press interviews. The amplifier that goes to eleven. The Stonehenge set that is 18 inches instead of 18 feet. The spontaneous combustion of drummers. Every scene became a reference point for real rock culture.

The film's genius is its specificity. Every absurd detail — the cold reception at military bases, the tiny bread at the deli tray, the jazz odyssey that empties the venue — is based on real rock and roll disasters. Bands from U2 to Metallica have confirmed that Spinal Tap happened to them. The film is so accurate that it ceased to be parody and became prophecy. Every rock documentary made since 1984 exists in Spinal Tap's shadow.