The Blues Brothers (1980)

Happy Labor Day!  In the spirit of honoring the American worker by having a day off, this is a repost.  After last week's total downer of Chinatown, I wanted to pick a movie for Bethany that was a little more light-hearted.  This is an absolute classic comedy and you owe it to younger generations to ensure that it is passed on.  If you don't own it, and really why wouldn't you because it's a goddamn classic as I previously said, it is streaming through Starz.  Originally published 21 Sep 13.    This is one of those rare movies that completely breaks free of its Saturday Night Live origins.  It's such a classic, both as a comedy and as a showcase for some of the greatest R&B, Blues, and Soul songs ever made.

Jake Blues (John Belushi) is released from a three-year stint at Joliet Prison and picked up by his brother Elwood (Dan Ackroyd) in an old cop car.  The pair travel to the nun-led orphanage where they were raised to see The Penguin (Kathleen Freeman), who informs them that the building will be sold to the Board of Education if they can't come up with $5000 in a week.  Their mentor, Curtis (Cab Calloway), sends them to see Reverend Cleophus James (James Brown) for inspiration.  Sure enough, Jake sees the light and decides to put their blues band back together to put on a show to raise the money.  This is easier said than done as the band members have scattered to pursue their own careers, Elwood is wanted by the cops for multiple traffic violations, Jake is ditching his parole officer (John Candy), and a mysterious woman (Carrie Fisher) keeps trying to kill them.

This movie used to be on TV every time you turned around, heavily edited for language and content.  I don't think I realized that until I saw it on video.  It caught me completely off-guard.  Nowadays, with the availability of cable and movie networks, I would think it would be more shocking to find the edited version. For some people, that might be enough to put you off the movie entirely but I hope not.  It really is one of the best movies of the decade.  I recently upgraded from VHS to blu-ray (I know!) and the transfer is amazing.  You really need the full surround-sound experience for this one with all the musical numbers.

Also, I'd like to give a shout-out to Lynn and Mark on their wedding day.  I don't know if they read this, but congratulations all the same.