'Spinal Tap' Joins National Film Registry

December 19, 2002

"This Is Spinal Tap", the 1984 Rob Reiner spoof rockumentary, was recently nominated, along with 22 other films, to be preserved by the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Also selected for the honor was the 1991 John Singleton gangster film "Boyz N the Hood", which co-starred Ice Cube.

The 2003 slate, chosen by the Library of Congress, brings to 350 the number of movies in the registry's vault since its inception in 1989. The works have been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically" important enough to be saved for all time.

''The selection of a film, I stress, is not an endorsement of its ideology or content, but rather a recognition of the film's importance in American film and cultural history and history in general," Congressional Librarian James H. Billington said.

"I think the word 'mockumentary' was coined in response to 'Spinal Tap'," Gregory Lukow, the library's assistant chief of motion pictures, broadcast and recorded sound division, told the Hollywood Reporter. "It created a new form in American comedy. There were a lot of people who just didn't know. They weren't in on the gag until other people told them."

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