The Blues Brothers (1980) * * *

Directed by:  John Landis

Starring:  Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Henry Gibson, James Brown, Carrie Fisher

The Blues Brothers is among the first films based on a Saturday Night Live skit.    This genre has been met with mixed results over the years, but The Blues Brothers is among the better ones.    It is a chase-filled musical with high energy and plenty of laughs.     The plot itself is something to hang the chases and songs on.      Many of the laughs come from the Blues' unflappability in the midst of the chaos they cause.     A building falls down on the Blues Brothers?    They just dust themselves off and keep going.     Half of the state's police cars are chasing them?     They just sit cool, calm, and collected.    

The movie begins with Chicago-based Elwood (Aykroyd) picking up his brother Jake (Belushi) after Jake is released from prison.     Elwood drives an old police car and the brothers wear matching suits, ties, hats, and sunglasses (even indoors or when it's not sunny out).    They are never seen wearing anything else.    The brothers discover the orphanage in which they grew up is about to be shut down unless they can raise $5,000 in back taxes.     The Blues decide to get their old band back together, do some gigs, and raise the dough.     Sounds simple enough, but in some cases, recruiting the guys isn't as easy as expected.     One is happy being a maître-d' in a high class restaurant.     This leads to a hilarious scene where the Blues harass the snooty clientele.      This may be the only movie ever where "we want to buy your daughters" is a funny line.

The Blues intentionally, or in some cases unintentionally, catch the attention of the police and neo-Nazis (among others) who chase them all over the place causing untold amounts of property damage.    The Blues get some gigs and perform some high energy numbers while eluding seemingly everyone in the state of Illinois.     All they want to do is get the $5,000 to the Cook County clerk's office by 9am so the county won't close the orphanage.      I think even the National Guard gets involved in mobilizing outside of the clerk's office.

Despite it all, the Blues Brothers remain unflappable and indestructible.     They may be outlaws, but they're doing something nice for kids, so we forgive them their trespasses.     The funniest scene in the movie occurs when the Blues are quietly taking an elevator up to the clerk's office while every police officer and Illinois National Guardsman is chaotically and loudly setting up headquarters outside.     This juxtaposition is perfect.   

The musical numbers are well done, but they seemed to be marking time for me.    I liked the outrageous stuff where the Blues continue to make enemy upon enemy and elude them.      Believe it or not, there are subtle scenes of humor amidst the wreckage.     After one police squad car crashes into a mall, the driver says, "Damn, I think we broke a mirror."    Funny stuff.   



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