A few words about...™ This is Spinal Tap -- in Blu-ray

Legendary commercial and documentary filmmaker Marty DiBergi's magnum opus is his 1984 film which follows the rock group Spinal Tap across the United States.  As a pure rocumentary it holds a special place between Robert Flaherty's 1922 Nanook of the North and the 1995 Forgotten Silver by Costa Botes and Peter Jackson, which traces the career of forgotten New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie after the discovery of a hoard of his original film elements.

Spinal Tap has been available in virtually every home video playback mechanism known to mankind, with its original Criterion lasers and DVDs still prized on the collectible market.

M-G-M's release on Blu-ray via Fox is the way to own this film, and it comes Highly Recommended for capturing the look and feel of the original work.

RAH

 Hi RAH,

Did you notice if they used the burned-in subtitles? Or at least tried to replicate the look and timing of the subs with the player-generated subs if they went that route? The subs were always, to me, part of the joke, and the DVD release which contained the player-gen subs completely missed out on it.

Thanks!

Does the Blu-ray go up to 12?

I'm curious as to whether the UK disc is the same as the US release and whether the UK disc is region free.  Does anyone have the answer to these questions?  Thx.

The UK disc won't be out until September so it will be hard to judge the region coding status (although, this being an Optimum release there is a fairly high chance that it's region B only), but extras-wise there seems to be quite a bit of stuff on there that's not on the US disc.

Big bottom drive me out of my mind
How could I leave this behind?

Well I just realized that my love for this film overrides the potential subtitle issue (please be original theatrical, please be original theatrical...) so I just placed my Amazon order and should get it by week's end.

The Boston's gig has been canceled...I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town...

Are you reading Yes I Can by Sammy Davis Jr? You know what the title of that book should be? Yes I Can if Frank Sinatra Says It's OK. Because Frank calls all the shots for those guys...

As excited as I was to see that this title was being released on Blu-ray disc.  I have to admit that the wind went out of my sails when I saw that it did not contain a Dubly audio track.

Regards,

Nice one, Ken

I have the disc in hand, and can confirm that 1) the original burned in subs are there, and 2) the "Cheese Festival" extra feature is also there.

I just picked up my copy earlier today and sampled a few parts. I'm happy to report that the subs are BURNED IN!! So, lesse...the last time this happened was with the Criterion version. I was somehow thinking there were a couple of DVDs since then but it was just the one MGM SE that had the player generated ones.

This is also my first Blu-Ray created from a 16mm source and I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Of course there are spots where the detail is obscured by heavy grain but it is exactly how it should be. No overprocessing has been introduced here. The DTS-MA audio has a fuller sound compared to past releases. The only thing lacking that I can see is the Criterion commentary. Too bad it wasn't included.

For the aspect-curious-- the packaging accurately lists 1.85:1.

I now have an idea what to expect from "Clerks", picture wise, whenever that comes to Blu-Ray.


Edited by Jeff Robertson - 7/29/2009 at 02:12 pm GMT

Serves me right for walking away from my editor window. You broke the news on the subs first!

Dark Sky/MPI's release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) was is also from 16mm elements and looks rather good, with the proper grain detail/saturation it should have, as does Criterion's release of For All Mankind (1989).

I've read somewhere that 16mm has the rough "equivalent" to 2000 lines of resolution, so a 1080p transfer certainly has room to work with as compared to a 480p SD transfer. (Of course, this could be completely off base).

Heh, Spinal Tap was on Jon Stewart last night, and he briefly interviewed them. Of course after asking them what they were up to here was a classic example of a reply:

Nigel: I've been raising miniature horses, breeding them, racing them, but it's really tough to find jockeys that small. So if you know of any, send them over. Also, we'll be eating them afterwards.

Burned in subs! My wait for the Amazon shipment will now officially be interminable! 

Seriously, I am very, very happy about this news.

This November.

I'm glad to hear this release was done correctly. I was on the fence regarding this BD, since I have the MGM SD-DVD already. With the Deep Discount 25% off sale, though, the cost was a little over $18 so I bit on the upgrade.

Now I just have to wait for DDD's interminably slow delivery in order to "smell the glove" in HD. 

When one is working with real estate smaller than a postage stamp, a millimeter or so extra can make a huge difference.  Spinal Tap took advantage of the space being shot in Super 16.  Even on Blu-ray the difference is obvious when compared to standard 16.  Spinal Tap is a beautiful disc.

RAH

I must have had my head in the sand in mid-July when this was announced. I totally missed it. Great news!

Agreed! MGM did a great job on this disc!! The same can be said for all of my recent MGM purchases. They're doing Blu-Ray right! I just don't know how much I have to credit Fox.

Geez between the news of the burned-in subs and RAH's endorsement, it isn't making the wait any easier.

Spinal Pap [Spinal Tarp?] should be debuting at my home theater by tomorrow night, Friday at the latest.

I used it as an opening act before a puppet show at my house last night.

USPS came through early! Just screened it and I am more than happy with the quality of the picture and sound, and of course the burned-in subtitles.

Chased down the Spinal Tap viewing by watching my DVR copy of last night's Daily Show (which featured Spinal Tap).

It's been a very, very good night.

Well done MGM and Fox. Very well done.

 

There is "none more blu"...

Except:

www.amazon.co.uk/This-Spinal-Tap-Limited-Marshall/dp/B002EEOSEY

Special Marshall amp 5-disc package, with a mini half-stack amp that goes to 11!!

Now that is an AWESOME package!

I remember a few years back when Marshall actually did release real guitar amps in honor of Spinal Tap that did go to 11. I was out of cash back then but I'd really buy one now if they re-released them. Of course I'd never get any real guitar playing done because I'd be too busy reciting the scene to my friends who came over to see the amp...

I wasn't really planning on upgrading to BD for this, but that SE with the Marshall amp is really tempting...