Two Blokes, a Battered Car and One of the Best Soundtracks Ever Put on Film
Nerdy Up North
The setup
Jake Blues is released from prison and reunites with his brother Elwood. When they discover the orphanage where they grew up is in danger of closing, they decide to put their old band back together and raise the money — while attracting the attention of police, angry country musicians, neo Nazis and one extremely determined ex fiancée.
The Blues Brothers is completely ridiculous, and that is exactly why it works. The plot is basically an excuse to send Jake and Elwood from one disaster to another while destroying what feels like every police car in Chicago, but the film commits to it so hard that you just go with it.
John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd are brilliant together. Jake barely needs to say anything to be funny, while Elwood can deliver the most absurd line with a completely straight face. They look like two men who have somehow wandered into their own action movie and still refuse to take their sunglasses off.
Then there is the music. Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, Cab Calloway and John Lee Hooker are not just shoved in for cameos. The film actually stops and lets them perform, and those scenes are some of the best parts of the whole thing. Plenty of films have good soundtracks. The Blues Brothers feels like the soundtrack built the film around itself.
Carrie Fisher turning up every few minutes with increasingly insane ways of trying to kill Jake is another thing I love. Nobody really questions it. A building explodes, they climb out of the rubble and just carry on. That is the level of reality the film operates on.
It is long and there are definitely sections that could have been tightened, but I never really care once the final chase begins. The amount of practical destruction is unbelievable. Modern films can destroy entire cities with CGI and somehow make it feel weightless. The Blues Brothers smashes actual cars into actual cars until the whole thing becomes beautiful nonsense.
It is a musical, a road movie, a comedy and an action film all at once. It probably should not work. It absolutely does.
Positives
Belushi and Aykroyd are perfect together, the soundtrack is ridiculous, the musical cameos are genuinely great and the practical car chases are still spectacular.
Negatives
It is a bit too long and some stretches between the big musical or comedy moments drag more than others.
Verdict
The Blues Brothers is pure entertainment. It has one of the greatest collections of musicians ever assembled for a film, two brilliant leads and enough smashed police cars to supply an entire scrapyard.
