The Blues Brothers

Universal, 1980
Starring John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Carrie Fisher, and Cab Calloway
Directed by John Landis
Music and Lyrics by various

We're going to kick off a week of 80's musicals with this huge hit. The title group started out as Belushi and Ackroyd's skits on the early days of Saturday Night Live, but by the early 80's, the Brothers had gotten too big for the small screen. How does the Brothers' silver screen debut look today? Let's head to a jail house in Chicago, Illinois just as "Joilet" Jake Blues (Belushi) is being released and find out...

The Story: On his release from prison, Jake and his brother Elwood (Ackroyd) return to their old orphanage, only to find from Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman) that it'll close unless she can gather five thousand dollars in back taxes. They head to the nearby baptist church, where the Reverend James (James Brown) and his choir's sermon move Jake until he lights up with an epiphany. The'll get their old band back together and play gigs to raise the money for the orphanage.

That's easier said than done. The Illinois state police goes after them after they catch Elwood driving without a license. A mysterious woman (Fisher) keeps trying to blow them up, and isn't happy when they survive her gunshots and explosions. They run a group of Nazi sympathizers off a bridge on their way to picking up two more members, sending that group after them. Another band member's wife (Aretha Franklin) gives him a hard time about rejoining. Even when they do get a job, it's at a country music bar...and while they go over with the crowd, they spend their pay on drinks, and the band that was originally supposed to play goes after them, too. Jake hopes one big show at the Palace Hotel Ballroom will finally get them the money...unless half of Chicago, including the angry mystery lady, gets to them first!

The Song and Dance: The cameos are the thing here. The rousing numbers are performed by a who's who of soul, blues, and R&B stars. Along with Brown and Franklin, we have Ray Charles as the owner of a musical instrument store, Cab Calloway as friend of the Brothers', and John Lee Hooker as a street singer. Belushi's antics may have delayed filming, but it was worth it in the end. He and Ackroyd are hilarious as the brothers, whether seeing the light or romping through another number. Fisher does well with her few appearances; her sadistic smile at the end when she catches the brothers is chilling. Also look for John Candy as a parole officer, Frank Oz as a corrections officer, Twiggy as a woman who flirts with Elwood at a gas station, and Henry Gibson as the head of the Illinois Nazis.

And yes, that's mostly the real Chicago the guys crash through, including an actual defunct mall. The gritty cinematography, especially in the wild and electric car chases, goes a long way to bringing realism to a story that can seem more than a little airborne at times.

Favorite Number: Franklin's rocking "Think" at the diner is my personal favorite. She really tears into that song, taking the Brothers along with her. Calloway does a great "Minnie the Moocher" at the Ballroom to cover the Brothers when they're late arriving. Brown and the choir raise the roof - and Jake - with "The Old Landmark." Likewise, Charles having a ball with "Shake a Tail Feather." The Brothers have so much fun with the theme from Rawhide at the country bar, you can understand why the cowboys got so into it.

Trivia: That was a real defunct mall they crashed through, the Dixie Square Mall. It closed two years before in 1978. No one ever cleaned up the mess the car chases left at the mall. It remained there as the building continued to deteriorate; it wasn't demolished until 2012.

A sequel, Blues Brothers 2000, was released in 1998. John Goodman, among others, stood in for the long-gone Belushi.

What I Don't Like: Not for people looking for a quieter or more introspective musical, or one with a strong story. The story is pretty much cliched piffle, and it's noisy and violent, what with all the cars crashing and Fisher blowing up everything in firing range.

The Big Finale: The musical performances and action sequences alone make this worth checking out for fans of the Brothers, rock musicals, or R&B and soul.

Home Media: As one of the most popular comedies of the last 40 years, this is easily found in all major formats, including many streaming companies.

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