oscar@utcsrgv.UUCP (Oscar M. Nierstrasz) (04/22/84)
Deadpan `rockumentary' about a fictitious over-the-hill heavy metal band.
Directed by Rob `Meathead, son of Carl' Reiner.
Very clever and very funny. Except for a few points where they go
a little too far, this is a perfectly convincing parody of rock
music documentary film-making. Complete with Aging English Rock
dinosaurs (wonderfully portrayed by Christopher Guest, Michael McKean
& others), internal squabbles, Yoko Ono-reminiscent interfering girlfriend,
old TV clips from the mid sixties and later from their psychedelia period,
and convincing concert footage.
Much of this film was improvised, but with a supreme effort to keep it
as believable as possible ("There's a fine line between clever and stupid",
says one of the group during the film). "When we started out we called
ourselves The Originals. Then we found out there was another band in
the city also called The Originals so we changed our name. But then
the other band broke up, so we decided to take the old name back,
except call ourselves The New Originals ..." And so on.
Go see. Enjoy.
Oscar Nierstrasz