Book Store



 Location:  Home » Books » This Is Spinal Tap (Cultographies)  
Books Home

  • Movie Store
  • Music Store
  • Game Store
  • Software Store
  • Tool Store
  • Shopping Mall
  • Categories
    Books
    Kindle
    Magazines
    Related Categories
    • History & Criticism
    Movies
    Entertainment
    Subjects
    Books
    • Genre Films
    Movies
    Entertainment
    Subjects
    Books
    • General
    Movies
    Entertainment
    Subjects
    Books
    • General
    Entertainment
    Subjects
    Books
    • General
    Social Sciences
    Nonfiction
    Subjects
    Books
    • Paperback
    Binding (binding)
    Refinements
    Books
    • Printed Books
    Format (feature_browse-bin)
    Refinements
    Books
    Subcategories
    Paperback
    Mass Market
    Trade

    This Is Spinal Tap (Cultographies)

    This Is Spinal Tap (Cultographies)Author: Ethan de Seife
    Publisher: Wallflower Press
    Category: Book

    List Price: $15.00
    Buy New: $4.95
    as of 2/10/2010 03:31 EST details
    You Save: $10.05 (67%)



    New (9) Used (6) from $4.95

    Seller: bibliobsession
    Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars 1 reviews
    Sales Rank: 1433779

    Media: Paperback
    Pages: 144
    Number Of Items: 1
    Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
    Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 4.4 x 0.7

    ISBN: 190567449X
    Dewey Decimal Number: 791
    EAN: 9781905674497
    ASIN: 190567449X

    Publication Date: September 30, 2007
    Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

    Similar Items:


    Editorial Reviews:

    Product Description

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




    Customer Reviews:
    2 out of 5 stars Pretentious and ponderous   March 21, 2009
    Dan Amrich (Bay Area CA)
    9 out of 9 found this review helpful

    Nobody can destroy the joy of movies quite like a film professor. For a short book, Ethan de Seife's analysis of This is Spinal Tap feels mind-numbingly long, mostly because it repeats itself. A handful of points (Tap owes a lot to cinema verite; Tap simultaneously uses and breaks the rules of both conventional and documentary filmmaking) get overexplained with new and fancier words, like a grade-school book report stretching to meet its minimum word count with the use of a very large thesaurus (A sample: "The formlessness of alleged actuality is rendered more cinematically palatable by the use of mechanisms of narrative"). There are some interesting insights -- the film's parallel with traditional Hollywood musicals was well presented, and the author does a good job of looking at the rock culture the film lampoons -- but many of the insights from the filmmakers are lifted straight from the DVD commentaries, and better told by them than regurgitated by a stuffy academic. Rarely engaging to the reader, it's simply too overwritten and self-important to be enjoyable.


    CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME.

    Proud member of the Celebrity Pro Network. Make sure you check out these other great sites:

    Lyrics Database   Celebrity Blog   Celebrity Thing   Celebrity PC   Latest Celebrity Photos   Web Portal   Travel Photos   Quotes   Flash Games


    Inside Jacket




    Is there a better
    price available?


    Find out: