This is Spinal Tap is legendary not only for being endlessly quotable and hilarious, but for how it was made. It’s well known that the film was improvised by the cast (other than the songs, obviously), and it is held in high esteem as the Daddy of all “mockumentaries”.
I recently watched the proof-of-concept film - Spinal Tap: The Final Tour - which features the same ensemble and director, and was created to entice potential backers by selling the joke of an English heavy metal band on a disastrous tour of America.
This version - a demo reel of sorts - features identical scenes to those featured in This is Spinal Tap (re-shot for the movie) - it is essentially This is Spinal Tap boiled down to twenty minutes or so. All the jokes are here: tiny Stonehenge, dead drummers, the band arguing in the studio, smell the glove, Derek vs. the metal detector, the “Yes I Can” limo driver… some of the footage even winds up in the feature film (The Thamesmen singing ‘Gimme Some Money’, as well as the ethereal Tap fan), along with some of the supporting cast (inc. Paul Benedict on the hotel desk dealing with a wrong booking and Bruno Kirby as the Sinatra-obsessed limo driver). Even some of the beats/cuts that scenes end on are identical.
While the feature film feels completely improvised, the proof-of-concept shows that the big comic beats were carefully planned, and it is fascinating to see Spinal Tap: The Final Tour dispel some of the myth surrounding the feature version and see how characters were ever-so-slightly altered e.g., Derek Smalls goes from being quite shouty and argumentative to being more contemplative, lukewarm water. Ian Faith is first presented as a rougher, Michael Caine-bullish cockney manager to someone more aloof, unbothered, and with an air of authority. There are rougher edges to the performances, finely-tuned for the end product.
To see how the cast and director Rob Reiner took the idea for a test run and worked out the big jokes, you get a sense of how those improvisations were perfected for the feature film, and how they expanded on the story and characters.
The feature film scenes of the band interviews, and the storyline of the band falling apart, were improvised, but all the main beats - the big laughs of the movie - were all in place before filming began for This is Spinal Tap. It hasn’t altered my appreciation of This is Spinal Tap at all, but it does serve as a reminder that what is often presented as “genius” has most likely been thoroughly put through its paces.
I found the short version to be really encouraging and a perfect example of how to sell an idea, and if you’re considering shooting a proof of concept, then you should definitely take a look at Spinal Tap: The Final Tour because there’s a lot to learn from how this rough ‘n ready insight became a stone-cold classic.
Anyway, enough of my yackin’: Check it out for yourself!