THE FILM-DVD "THE BLUES BROTHERS" : A REVIEW

THEBLUESBROTHERS

Directed by: John Landis - Written by: Dan Aykroyd, John Landis
Starring: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Carrie Fisher, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles
Aretha Franklin, Steve Cropper, Donald Dunn, Murphy Dunne, Willie Hall, Tom Malone
Lou Marini, Matt Murphy, Alan Rubin, Cameos too numerous to mention.
Released: I980

Not so much a movie as an R&B music video, a hallucinated romp with some of the greatest black stars of the 20th century performing, plus the comedy of the short-lived Blues Brothers; Jake and Elwood, an idea that percolated in the Saturday Night Live TV show of the mid-70s between John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The white man's fantasy while stoned of being black is carried to its logical extreme in The Blues Brothers.

The plot line sends the two pilgrims “on a mission from God” through the Chicago area in an explosive send-up of the Americana of the time, with Carrie Fisher as the psycho love interest bent on revenge. There’s not a serious moment in the film, and even the making of this movie was one of the examples of the sloppy excesses of the era.

The Blues Brothers' joy-de-vie is such as to put all other movies in the shade. John Belushi’s brand of comedic genius is amazing, a kind of sophisticated anarchism alternating with one-liners. Aykroyd is the Bud Abbot to Belushi’s Costello, good as Belushi's straight-man, not so funny himself. The scores of great one liners and site-gags come so fast that the jokes that work cover those that don't.

A few lessons from the film (culled from the web); Blind men are excellent shots with a revolver; Chaka Khan and James Brown attend the same church; Bands don’t need to rehearse, even after a 5 year break; White men actually can jump, but only if they're blues men, and only in a church with James Brown singing; The best way to get out of a mall parking lot is to drive through the mall; Although you may be blown up with a building, just dust yourself off and you’ll be okay; If you’re an all-male band in a shit-kicker bar and the natives are getting restless, by all means launch into Stand by Your Man.

Seeing so many black faces: James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, etc., on screen in a I980 film is a wonderment as well, and gives one pause to ponder the racism of the previous years of the film business; that so many great black musical talents were so rarely on-screen. Other goodies include the mother of all car-chase sequences - using at least one hundred police cars - none of which has brakes; and cameos from Steven Spielberg, Twiggy, Frank Oz, etc. The real gold of this movie is the comedy of Belushi and Aykroyd - and the music. The Blues Brothers is destined to be a cult classic for anybody who wants to savor the music and madness of the era.


©Features-on-Film Inc.