The Blues Brothers<\/em> is one of those movies I don\u2019t remember seeing for the first time. When I was a kid, it was just always there. I feel like the ubiquity of The Blues Brothers<\/em> in pop culture iconography tends to obscure what an incredibly strange film this is — a massively budgeted stunt spectacular mashed up with an old-fashioned \u201cLet\u2019s Put on a Show\u201d musical featuring soul and R&B legends, fronted by a couple of guys in matching suits and hats who never take off their sunglasses. Saturday Night Live<\/em> superstars Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi appeared on the program as mythical brothers Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues. Was this a sketch? Were they serious? The two were so committed to the bit it was impossible to tell. The Blues Brothers ended up opening for Steve Martin and eventually touring the country with a band that could, in their own words, \u201cturn goat piss into gasoline.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The blockbuster success of National Lampoon\u2019s Animal House<\/em> had put Belushi on the cover of Newsweek<\/em>, and the zeitgeist juggernaut that was SNL<\/em>\u2019s early seasons had studios clamoring for a movie from these guys. Any movie. Even this movie. Aykroyd had never written a screenplay before, so he drove around the Midwest in a decommissioned cop car, coming back with a 342-page opus \u2013 the usual guideline for Hollywood scripts is about a page per minute \u2013 copies of which he dropped on his collaborators\u2019 doorsteps in the middle of the night disguised as phone books. It was up to Animal House<\/em> director John Landis to figure out how to film it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Blues Brothers<\/em> tells the story of two surly ex-cons from Chicago trying to save the orphanage where they were raised, getting their old band back together to perform a benefit concert despite being wanted fugitives on the run from angry rednecks, neo-Nazis, at least a thousand idiotic cops and one very angry ex-girlfriend. (She\u2019s played by Carrie Fisher, Aykroyd\u2019s then-girlfriend who spent so much time partying with Belushi that the two of them had to be physically propped up in certain scenes.) The plot is but a clothesline on which to hang the remarkable set-pieces, whether we\u2019re talking joyful rhythm and blues performances \u2013 plus a gospel number and a couple of amusingly chosen country songs \u2013 or insane scenes of automotive chaos for which the filmmakers destroyed a shopping mall and dropped a Ford Pinto from a helicopter 1,200 feet in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Savaged by critics \u2013 save for two Chicago boys named Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert \u2013 The Blues Brothers<\/em> was one of those unlucky movies for which the press decides in advance to get very upset about the money being spent, as if entertainment journalists had some sort of financial stake in the picture. The then-astronomical $27.5 million budget was endlessly called irresponsible, when that very excess is the point of the picture. What makes The Blues Brothers<\/em> so funny is the characters\u2019 nonchalant reactions to the wanton destruction surrounding them. It\u2019s the kind of picture in which Carrie Fisher can shoot at the leads with a rocket launcher and then after multiple explosions everybody gets back up and goes about their business without a word, an old wino still lounging on the steps undisturbed. Or think of Aykroyd careening the car through kiosks while offhandedly observing, \u201cThere\u2019s lots of space in this mall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike so many other comedy directors from that era, Landis had a genuine sense of scale. The trifecta of Animal House<\/em>, The Blues Brothers<\/em> and Trading Places<\/em> are comedies that look like actual movies<\/em>. With their fine location photography and Elmer Bernstein scores, there\u2019s something stately about the presentation of those early Landis pictures that makes their anarchic energy feel even wilder. Cinematographer Stephen M. Katz shot The Blues Brothers<\/em> with a wonderful, high-contrast grain and lenses that keep the entire frame in focus. He\u2019s said he modeled the look of the film on old Dick Tracy<\/em> comic books, and the matching suits with skinny ties and sunglasses make the characters look like black-and-white caricatures of themselves. It helps that Belushi is one of the most naturally expressive performers who ever lived. He could get away with wearing shades for two hours and 12 minutes because his physicality is such that there are shots in this movie during which I find myself laughing heartily at the back of his head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rap against The Blues Brothers<\/em> I\u2019ve been hearing my whole life is that it\u2019s two mediocre white guys performing historically black music, and these days they call that \u201ccultural appropriation.\u201d I hate this because the entire history of music has always been artists appropriating each other\u2019s sounds and innovations. Everyone has influences that they love and want to share, and that\u2019s what keeps culture from becoming stagnant. Besides, The Blues Brothers<\/em> is transparently designed as a love letter from Aykroyd and Belushi to the musicians they adore, with Jake and Elwood\u2019s stiff dorkiness while dancing behind legends like Aretha part of the joke. (Or sometimes it\u2019s just plain reverence, as when the movie stops dead in its tracks so we can watch John Lee Hooker perform at an outdoor street fair while an awestruck Aykroyd nods, saying, \u201cYep.\u201d) The movie was designed to shine a light on artists who weren\u2019t getting a lot of love at the moment. Meanwhile, Universal executives wanted to cut the Ray Charles song to make the movie shorter, calling him a has-been, and suggested replacing Aretha Franklin with \u201cCar Wash\u201d disco chanteuse Rose Royce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But maybe what I love most about The Blues Brothers <\/em>is how blessedly irresponsible it is, with a casual contempt for authority that\u2019s especially refreshing in our obsequious modern age. Comedies in the post-Apatow era are mostly conformist fantasies about how great it is to grow up and become a suburban dad. This movie argues the opposite, saying you should quit your stuffy day job, ditch your old lady, and get back on the road with your degenerate friends. They\u2019re getting the band back together. And when the opportunity arises to have a lesson learned, as when the full company sings \u201cJailhouse Rock\u201d together in the film\u2019s final scene, watch that crowd closely. They\u2019re about to start a riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Blues Brothers” is streaming on Amazon Prime Video<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/blues-brothers1-1024x576.jpg\")
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