This review was updated on September 21, 2024
Voted the Best Comedy Movie of All Time by a Time Out panel of filmmakers, comedy stars, critics and experts, Rob Reiner’s intimate evocation of ‘the sights, the sounds, the smells of a hard-working rock band on the road’ remains entirely unimprovable, four decades on. Shot for a relative pittance and starring three comedians pretty much no one had heard of, the film would go on to become arguably the most quotable comedy ever made, or at least this side of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
What’s remarkable about that, however, is not that Spinal Tap contains dialogue worthy of being ranked alongside the all-time great comic screenplays, but that almost every word of it was improvised. Shooting largely on location with only a basic idea of what each scene would contain, actor-writers Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer – plus a supporting cast largely made up of their friends and collaborators – would improvise at great length, shooting as much as 100 hours of footage in total. Indeed, so much of the film was made up on the hoof that Reiner wanted to credit the screenplay to the entire cast, only to be denied by the Writers Guild of America.
It would go on to inspire an entire genre
Reiner and his three leads would also write all the music for the film, resulting not just in some of the finest comedy lyrics ever written (‘the looser the waistband, the deeper the quicksand / or so I have read’) but some of the crunchiest riffs too, pastiche or otherwise. Indeed, Spinal Tap would be so effective – and seem so effortless – that it would go on to inspire an entire mockumentary genre, for good (Bob Roberts; The Office; the later work of Christopher Guest) and ill (um, anyone remember Fear of a Black Hat?).
Find out where it lands on our list of the 100 greatest comedies ever made.
What to Watch Next:
The Princess Bride (1987); Best in Show (2000); Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)