‘Spinal Tap’ Director Rob Reiner on Sequel and Remasterd Original Film

If ever a film seemed at first like a long shot for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, it’s “This Is Spinal Tap.”

A “mockumentary” before the term existed, it was a comedy show skit that gradually evolved into a full-length film about a fictional — and terrible — British heavy rock band’s disaster-filled U.S. tour. It was shot on handheld 16mm cameras, and it was nearly all improvised. Yet it was also made by four professional actors who were gifted at improvisation — Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, all of whom are also talented musicians, and “All in the Family” actor Rob Reiner, who directed.

Every film studio rejected a 20-minute demo reel the creators had shot (most of the scenes from which made it into the final cut). But “All in the Family” creator Norman Lear saw something in it — his connection with Reiner certainly didn’t hurt — and invested the $2 million that got the film made and finally released in March of 1984.

Despite the confusion that surrounded its initial release, “This Is Spinal Tap” got good reviews, some of them rapturous. But its legend grew after it was released on home video, as more and more musicians saw it and talked about it; U2’s the Edge said it was so close to reality that it made him weep, Ozzy Osbourne himself told this writer a few years after its release, “Seen it? I’ve lived it!”

By the end of the 1980s, a VHS copy was pretty much mandatory for any rock band’s tour bus, and 41 years after its release, not only are David St. Hubbins (McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Guest) and Derek Smalls (Shearer) more famous than most real-life rock stars, the film is in the National Film Registry, a line from it is in the Oxford English Dictiornary, and the Writers Guild of America listed it as the 11th funniest screenplay of all time. But most of all, it is still side-splittingly funny, and most of its jokes about the music industry…