The Blues Brothers
I ended up watching the 147-minute cut of John Landis’s 1980 musical comedy rather than the theatrical cut, but that’s perfectly fine. This film was always going to feel shaggy, off the beaten path and jam-packed with musical numbers; the longer version just gives me more to take in. This story of Jake and Elwood Blues, and their attempts to get the band back together to save their childhood orphanage still plays with delight and wild energy.
This was only my second time watching “The Blues Brothers,” which, given my musical bent, feels wrong, but since I’ve never really been a “Saturday Night Live” fan, and didn’t really care about that connection when it came to people like Dan Aykroyd. I also was too young to watch films like this and “1941” and “Animal House” as a kid, so it wasn’t until adulthood that I got into these type of films. When I first watched it after “Blues Brothers 2000,” I enjoyed it, but I didn’t really have the affection other people who grew up with it had. I don’t know that I every will, but I still enjoy every second of it.
“The Blues Brothers” is held together by a threadbare storyline that is simply an excuse for Landis and Aykroyd to stage ridiculous car chases and wonderful musical numbers by the likes of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab Calloway and more as Jake and Ellwood are on their “mission from God,” all the while finding themselves on the run from cops, neo-Nazis and a mystery woman (the delightful Carrie Fisher) with a violent streak for the boys that we don’t realize until later. This movie is as silly and ridiculous as they come, but it works in every way that it should. That’s because we care about Jake and Ellwood’s journey. The first thing we see is Jake (played by Belushi) being released from prison, but while we get an idea of why they may have been in trouble with the law, and the wanton destruction of the car chases is on another level from anything we’ve seen elsewhere, we never see them as bad guys. We see them with the nun at the Catholic orphanage they’re trying to save, and they are kids in trouble as they continue to give her reason to smack them with her ruler. We see them with the janitor (Calloway) at the church, and in a quick scene we see why they are who they are, and we have genuine affection for them. As they get the band together, we see why people liked them, and also why they owe everyone in the band money. These guys are the best protagonists for this story, and they keep this film movie with dry, acerbic personality. The mayhem is a great counterpoint.
John Landis was a madman when he made this and “Animal House”- he was all about chaos in this movies, regardless of how loud it was and how crazy it was as humor. That anarchic spirit had to change after the tragedy on the “Twilight Zone: The Movie” set, but there is something about watching the insanity at work in this film that is joyous and ridiculously fun. These car chases are too big to work, but they do. Because we are watching something with vision and purpose to the chaos. That said, it comes down to the musical numbers at the end, and there isn’t a false note hit here. This movie seems like a bit much, but it’s also a big smile movie that leaves us with a stupid grin on our face, at the end.
I absolutely agree. It’s one of my favorite films of all time.