Scenes We Love: The Blues Brothers

This might sound strange to some of our readers, but they made movies all the way back in 1980. For example, one of them was called Popeye. Another was called Oh, God! Book II. But, more importantly, a third one was called The Blues Brothers. The very first (very best) "Saturday Night Live spinoff movie," The Blues Brothers was born unto the world on June 16th, 1980, in the city it virtually destroyed: Chicago, Illinois.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I was a kid I had a big handful of "Oh YES, I'm definitely begging to stay up late to see THAT one again!" movies. King Kong and The Wizard of Oz, obviously, but also weird stuff like 9 to 5, Silver Streak, The Fog, 1941, and (um) Popeye. But The Blues Brothers was probably #1 on the list, because it was dryly funny, it had a ton of great musical numbers, and it had more car crashes than an entire season of The Dukes of Hazzard. To me, this was cinematic perfection. (Plus the flick is kind of a "soft R," which means I didn't lose all that much when I saw it on television.)

But really, who doesn't love this movie? The only tough part for me was paring it down to one damn scene. Do I pick the rousing closing credits rendition of Jailhouse Rock? Perhaps the maniacal car chase through a MALL? But that James Brown church number is awesome ... ugh, and so is that great multi-dance sequence outside the diner in which Aretha belts out Think? Oh, but I love love love the elaborately over-the-top car wrecks, as if John Landis is staging a cool stunt while satirizing cool stunts at the same time! And Cab Calloway's number! Ugh, it's all so awesome.

So I'll just leave you with this simple sequence, one that epitomizes the humor, the style, and the soul of this classic comedy. Enjoy.




After-the-jump randomness:

A. Forgive me, but I think that YouTube clip is "sped up" in some small way. Doesn't sound entirely right to me.

B. Note how Landis uses a simple but strong shaft of light to create powerful shadows for his iconic (and virtually invincible) heroes.

C. Watching Belushi and Aykroyd dance together still gives me chills. Obviously it works so much better in the film, as it's taken them a LONG time to get there, but the scene still works on its own.

D. Hats off to those whomever wrangled all those extras, too.

E. Yes, I seriously adore Altman's Popeye. Don't even start with me.

F. First person to mention Blues Brothers 2000 in the comments section is being seriously punished. Like Epic Movie / Date Movie double feature punished.