What has made The Blues Brothers endure for nearly a quarter of a century after its initial release? That’s a really tough question to answer, as the movie falls into so many different categories and genres that it becomes very hard to classify into one particular genre.
It has as much music and dance numbers as a Bollywood production, car chase scenes that compare favorably to some of the best in action movies, comedy that still has the same sort of poignancy now as it did over two decades ago and a couple characters that are wholly one-dimensional yet are a joy on screen meshed with a big heaping dose of pure, unadulterated joy. Placing it in just one category, or even two, defines narrowly what can only be described in the broadest of terms.
Rich Hyde and Corey Stisser at the Lincolnshire, IL, showing of The Blues Brothers 25th Anniversary on 8/29/05.
The “fun factor” is the most likely reason it stands the test of time, as the reason it is replayed on cable television as often as it has over the years is because The Blues Brothers offers a break from anything too complicated or dramatic; it is a big dose of fun injected into the jugular vein. If there’s a lesson to be learned from The Blues Brothers it is that sometimes goofy is good.
With every poster hung up in a college dormitory with Dan Aykroyd’s famous soliloquy comes another generation of fans, as The Blues Brothers is a rare phenomenon that still endures across generational lines. And it’s amusing in a certain way, as one would expect the movie to be some epic masterpiece with complex characters and a once in a lifetime plot featuring tremendous acting, fabulous directing and fantastic scenery.
And on the surface, The Blues Brothers has none of this. It’s about two brothers, Jake (Aykroyd) and Elwood (Jim Belushi) Blues, who want to raise $5,000 to save the orphanage they grew up in. It’s not something they’re inspired to do out of the goodness or their hearts or the love of the orphanage, and its abusive nuns, from whence they came. It’s something much simpler, really.
In order to raise the money, they need to get their blues band back together and get some instruments before they can get some paying work. Along the way they piss off members of the Illinois branch of the American Nazi party, the police and some country music artists en route to trying to make the money and get it to the county assessor’s office before it closes the orphanage for good.
The frenetic level of fun is one of the true joys of this film; that is enjoyable and easy to share amongst cinematic fans. But what stands out about the movie is its homage to the city it is based in: Chicago.
As a resident of the Greater Chicagoland area, it’s amusing to see the ways cinema focuses on the city of Chicago. Often times other cities are used to double for it, like Canadian Vancouver in Wicker Park, and certain landmarks are inserted to try and give it that Chicago style feel to it.
The Blues Brothers goes off the beaten path and shows you Chicago and the surrounding suburbs in all their glory. And it doesn’t pay lip service to the geography as well; the Blues don’t go from being on Lower Wacker to the outskirts of Alsip in five minutes, they go from one part of the city to another and it’s actually possible. As a native of the area, it’s the little things they get right that are pleasing. It’s not insulting geographically, which is the usual sin committed in film when dealing with the city of big shoulders. Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, Buckingham Fountain nor any of the other landmarks renowned throughout the land are not on display. It’s the magnificence that is Chicago.
With a new DVD release on 8/30 featuring more, The Blues Brothers is a rarity in film; most comedies end up being good for the time and lose some of that edge as the years go by. 25 years later it’s safe to say that The Blues Brothers still stands the test of time as one of the few perfect comedies to remain perfect many years after it topped the box office charts.
