This was the big bang moment for cringe comedy and spoof mockumentary, and it was an American classic whose every superb gag came to be savoured and replayed through its massive 1980s popularity on home video, securing their international treasure status. Now it is rereleased in anticipation of the forthcoming sequel, prising open the chrysalis doors for the band to emerge once more into our lives.
The film is about the glorious nightmare of Britain’s heavy rock colossus Spinal Tap, and the horrendous contrast between their mythic pomp and their declining commercial prestige; it is a tragicomic and comically influential disconnect, flavoured with ironic self-awareness and poignant vulnerability. When lead vocalist David St Hubbins, secretly devastated by the thought of the band splitting up, says: “What does the end feel like? It’s like saying when you try to extrapolate the end of the universe, you say, if the universe is indeed infinite, then how … what does that mean?” Similarly, Tim in TV’s The Office, devastated by the apparent end to his relationship with Dawn, says: “Life isn’t about endings, is it? It’s a series of moments … if you turn the camera off, it’s not an ending, is it?”
