Rob Reiner discusses the cult fandom of ‘This is Spinal Tap’
One of the greatest filmmakers of late 20th-century cinema is a director and actor who too often goes under the radar, with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola taking the limelight. But, for his indelible contributions to Hollywood, Rob Reiner deserves to be discussed among the very best, bringing such classics as When Harry Met Sally, Stand By Me and A Few Good Men to the big screen.
Working closely with author Stephen King for the screen adaptations of Stand By Me in 1986 and Misery in 1990, Reiner became a trusted pair of hands in the industry as an industry filmmaker who wasn’t afraid to push the cinematic form. In addition to his collaborations with the iconic novelist, Reiner also worked with some of the greatest comedians of the era, including Harry Shearer, Michael McKean and Christopher Guest, for the influential mockumentary, This is Spinal Tap.
A light-hearted jab at modern rock music, Reiner’s film followed the fictional English band Spinal Tap on a fateful tour that would lead to farcical mistakes and scandal. Starring Reiner alongside McKean, Shearer and Guest, who also wrote the screenplay, This is Spinal Tap became almost an instant favourite across the world.
Seen as one of the first and most influential mockumentaries, Reiner was asked about the pertinent popularity of the film in an interview with The Talks, where the filmmaker attempts to explain the film’s fandom.
“You know, it’s hard to explain the cult of Spinal Tap,” the filmmaker states, adding, “Now, you get generations to pass it on, it’s even got into the National Film Registry!”. Speaking about a peculiar fan encounter with none other than Elon Musk, Reiner explains: “The biggest kick I got was, maybe 10 years ago I was at a fundraiser and Elon Musk shows up. He’s got this new car, and he says, ‘Look, I want to show you this, it’s a brand-new car I’m going to come out with, it’s called a Tesla’”.
Continuing, he added: “It was a really cool looking car, but he brings me over and sits me in the passenger seat, and he turns on the radio… And it goes up to 11! He says he put that in there because he loves the movie so much. And now it’s part of the vernacular, it’s part of the lexicon. But when the film first came out, people didn’t get it”.
The movie is so popular that Reiner is even planning to do a modern sequel, where he presumably aims to take down contemporary music, much like he did back in the 1980s.
Explaining his surprising move to do a sequel, he clarifies, “It was only because we started to talk to each other and we came up with an idea we think might work – we don’t know it will. We’re going to try. The bar is incredibly high. We debated whether or not we should do it… I said, ‘Look at us, we’re all in our 70s. How much time are we going to have [left] to have some fun?’”.
