Film Review: The Blues Brothers (1980)

(source: tmdb.org)

Saturday Night Live, as the cryptocurrency traders have recently been reminded, is still very powerful and influential institution of American culture and media. In the past the show was also known as the springboard for careers of many successful entertainers and also as a basis for number of popular Hollywood films. Among the later none has received popularity and iconic status as The Blues Brothers, 1980 comedy directed by Joe Landis.

The film is based on the series of recurring skits on Saturday Night Live in which John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd played blues musicians Jake and Elwood Blues. The plot begins with Jake being released from Joliet prison and reunited with his brother Elwood. They come to Chicago and visit the old Catholic orphanage where they have been raised; they are informed that the orphanage will be closed because of unpaid property taxes. Jake gets an idea to prevent that by raising money through concerts and brothers start reforming their old blues band. Along the way Elwood gets stopped by Illinois State Police and gets informed that is due to be detained over series of traffic violations. Elwood refuses and flees, leading to pursuit that would ultimately involve hundreds of policemen, country and western band, group of Illinois Nazis, while they are at the same time stalked by mysterious woman (played by Carrie Fisher) who wants to kill them in spectacular fashion. Despite all their obstacles, brothers manage to reform the band, hold concerts and get money which are trying to deliver to Chicago tax authorities before the deadline.

Script, originally written by Aykroyd and later re-worked by Landis, provided The Blues Brothers with relatively simple plot which served mostly as an excuse for the series of spectacular music numbers and even more spectacular action scenes, all filled with humour, often directed against the authorities. Landis has utilised the same anti-establishment approach before in his previous film, massively popular comedy Animal House, which also featured Belushi. Unlike that film, which was set in 1960s and had bits of nostalgia towards the past, The Blues Brothers is firmly established in the present or, to be precise, America under Carter’s administration, which is the period usually associated with inflation, gas shortages and other economic woes. Those woes were made worse by what happens to be the main catalyst of the plot – high taxes, which became increasingly difficult for average persons to pay and which would soon lead those very people to turn to economic and political alternatives embodied in Reagan. The Blues Brothers also shows the only effective public services that those taxes support are those dealing with people being chased by hordes of heavily armed men in uniforms or put behind bars. And this is exactly what happens to protagonists, which is the reason why The Blues Brothers, despite all of its humour, could be interpreted as a very dark and serious film.

Those dark overtones are well-compensated with what somewhat idealistic notion that those problems can be overcome by music. It is the music that helps the protagonists to achieve their goal, it is the music that gives them comfort in the famous ending when they perform their rendition of “Jailhouse Rock” in state penitentiary and it is the music that helps overcome divisions in American society. The latter is best seen in the scene when the band, specialised in music associated with black Americans, manages to win over the crowd in honky tonk bar which is composed of white Americans. The music happens to be the key ingredient of the film and The Blues Brothers features one of the most formidable and the most easily recognisable soundtracks in the history of cinema. This film also features some of the legends of blues, jazz and soul like Cab Calloway, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles and it definitely brought them to the new generations of fans.

Not everything is perfect in The Blues Brothers. There are some scenes that could have been left on the cutting room floor, most notably the subplot involving Nazis, which is not that comprehensible or effective for modern audience, which is likely unfamiliar with controversial events in 1977 Skokie which had obviously inspired the script. Subplot involving Carrie Fisher’s character is relatively weak and might be interpreted as nothing more than excuse to spend few extra millions of dollars on pyrotechnics. In the end, The Blues Brothers succeeds in being one of those very rare films that are epic and funny at the same time, an achievement even more commendable in light of production beset by delays, notoriously bloated budget and rampant cocaine use on the set (which would ultimately contribute to Belushi’s tragic death two years after the premiere). Some might not like or understand this kind of humour, some might prefer different genres of humour, but it is hard to argue that this is a grand film and the best thing ever to come out of Saturday Night Live.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)