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Author Topic: The Blues Brothers (1980) Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-26-2016 10:20 PM                        I watched this last night and found it didn't have a review here, so what the hell. This is one of those movies that got a lot of bad reviews upon release, but is now widely considered a classic. I expect a lot of the change in attitude is due to John Belushi now being dead, and also the music, which is uniformly tremendous. For any "youngsters" who don't know about the Blues Brothers, the act started in the early days of Saturday Night Live, when John Belushi was introduced to blues music by Dan Aykroyd. It wasn't long until they teamed up with a group of seasoned jazz and blues musicians to perform on the show. The band made three appearances on the show, which proved enormously popular, so they toured with Steve Martin, opening shows for him. One of the shows was recorded, and became one of the best-selling blues albums of all time. It wasn't long until Aykroyd wrote up a movie screenplay about the brothers, complete with back-story. The story of the movie is a simple one - Jake Blues (Belushi) is in jail for various robberies. His brother Elwood (Aykroyd) isn't in jail at the moment, but we assume he's had a similar lifestyle. After Elwood picks Jake up from prison, they learn that the Chicago orphanage where they grew up (which is run by a fairly creepy old nun) is going to be sold and closed, unless $5000 in tax money can be raised within a few days. We learn that the boys used to front a popular blues band, members of which had gone their separate ways while Jake was incarcerated. After the nun at the orphanage refuses Jake and Elwood's offer to pay off the taxes via "filthy stolen money," the brothers decide to "put the band back together" and do a few shows to raise the money. Since the inspiration for this mighty task happens to come during a roof-raising Baptist church service, Elwood declares that "We're on a mission from God." Much hilarity follows as the brothers proceed to track down their former bandmates and convince them to leave their sometimes-lucrative careers to get back into the music business. They also manage to piss off just about every law enforcement officer (and a gang of Ku Klux Klansman, and a country-western band) in the state of Illinois in the process, which leads to some of the wildest chase scenes ever put on film. Periodically the action breaks for a rousing musical number, with most of the supporting players in the film being actual musicians. We hear from Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and in a show-stopping performance, Cab Calloway, all of whom get great support from the Blues Brothers band itself -- which includes blues luminaries Willie "Too Big" Hall, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, Murphy "Murph" Dunne, Lou "Blue Lou" Marini, and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin. The movie has lots of cameos too, with appearances by Henry Gibson, Steve Lawrence, John Candy, Frank Oz, Carrie Fisher, Paul Rubens, Chaka Khan, and Twiggy, among others. (Yes, there was a person named Twiggy who was popular in those days.) Steven Spielberg also puts in a cameo. Of course there is a big concert scene, where the cops expect to apprehend the brothers; but this movie has other plans up its sleeve -- it's not nearly over at that point. All these years later, I don't know which I like better about this film, the story or the music. The chases are great fun to watch, but the songs are too, so it's about a tie. It remains one of those movies that, if it comes on TV, I stop whatever I'm doing and watch it, at least until the next commercial comes on. I do know that I miss seeing this kind of movie, which is rated R but only for a few "F" words. The movie manages to be fun (and was a major crowd pleaser) without being the least bit raunchy, and has characters you can root for even though they tend to fall on the "wrong side of the law." Modern movies would do well to revisit this one and learn how it was done.  |  IP: Logged Allan Young Expert Film Handler Posts: 125 From: EGHAM, Surrey UK Registered: Jun 2011 posted 01-27-2016 10:18 AM                     Here's an interesting Vanity Fair article on the making of the film.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 01-27-2016 01:35 PM                     I recently ran a 35mm print of this, and it was fun to see it on "the big screen" again after so many years. The print, from a private source, was in great, in fact almost 'new' shape, except the colors were just barely beginning to shift a bit.  |  IP: Logged Paul Dorobialski Film Handler Posts: 11 From: west allis wisconsin Registered: Mar 2013 posted 01-27-2016 07:57 PM                        I have run this feature at my free outdoor open air cinema-Paul's Alley Cinema every summer with the start of Summerfest. Back in 1980 I cross plugged a cinema with a 70mm trailer for The Blues Brothers. At that time we were into a 70mm presentation of The Empire Strikes Back. I used to work in Chicago back in the 1980's for a electronic supply house-Triode Electronics. Every year when I screen Blues Brothers the crowds still gather to see the former "Bridge to Nowhere" here in Milwaukee.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-27-2016 10:12 PM                        Thanks Allan, that was a good read. I think it's kind of funny how (according to the article) the whole movie was pretty much cocaine-fueled and John Belushi almost torpedoed the whole thing by being wasted all the time, but in the long documentary "Stories of the Making of the Blues Brothers" from the DVD, said drug use is hardly mentioned, if it's even mentioned at all.  |  IP: Logged Louis Bornwasser Film God Posts: 4441 From: prospect ky usa Registered: Mar 2005 posted 01-28-2016 08:35 AM                        Thank you to: Robert K. Weiss Producer and mentioned in the Blues Bros 2000 film.  |  IP: Logged Jim Cassedy Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1661 From: San Francisco, CA Registered: Dec 2006 posted 01-28-2016 12:36 PM                     Most websites list the date of Belushi's death as March 5th, 1982. However, according to some sources, he actually expired on March 3rd. - - but it took another two days for his body to stop twitching.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 02-02-2016 07:22 PM                     A friend of mine did some of the 2nd unit camera work on Blues Brothers. I remember it going on and on and on when I lived near Chicago. I even visited a few of the locations back then. This was the Lloyds Tire location that was built on State Rt.59 in West Chicago. Although Lloyds Tire Clinic made it into the movie the explosion of the Tanker Truck which was sitting atop eight large air canon's went somewhat haywire. So that part only made it in the longer version of the preview which you'll find on Youtube...  |  IP: Logged

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