THIS IS SPINAL TAP

A documentary, a mockumentary, indeed a rockumentary, Rob Reiner’s phony road movie following the exploits of a fictitious heavy metal band has long been celebrated as a comedy landmark, but this is the first attempt to provide a sustained critical appraisal of its success. Addressing general cinephiles and devoted Tapheads alike, this study considers the film within its contexts of cult cinema, real and mock documentary, Hollywood comedies and musicals and the history of rock music. This detailed stylistic and comic analysis of the film offers new insights into the ardent Cult of Tap.

January 2007
144 pages

978-1-905674-49-7 (pbk)

£10.00

£8.50 with 15% online discount add to basket

Ethan de Seife received his PhD in Film Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently at work on a book about Frank Tashlin. He also plays stand-up bass in the Kansas City-based combo Four Jacks and a Jill.

‘One of a series of Cultographies on the more niche film classics. Seife knows the film backwards, but it's his warm tone, mixed with academic analysis, that makes this - it's good to read a critic who can pick apart a film and still sense that you may enjoy it just because it's funny.’ ****
Empire 

'Wallflower’s pocket-proportioned dissections of cult flicks prove that size isn’t important. Favouring keen concision over bloated verbosity, these Cultographies weave vigour into punchy brevity ... These are top-drawer textbooks ... The trio dish out a toned triple-punch of erudite passion, scrupulous study, theoretical heft and crap-cutting acuity. Case in point? Tap, says De Seife, is a cult film partly because it’s ‘brilliantly, remarkably, awe-inspiringly funny’. Top point. And you don’t need to stacked like an armadillo to make it’ ****
Kevin Harley, Total Film