The Blues Brothers

The Blues Brothers, American musical comedy film, released in 1980, that was directed by John Landis and stars actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The movie centers on musicians and brothers “Joliet” Jake Blues (Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Aykroyd), who are reunited after Jake is released from prison. The brothers determine to fulfill a “mission from God” by bringing their old band back together for a performance to raise $5,000 to save the Roman Catholic orphanage where they had grown up. In the course of their fundraising efforts, they are pursued by police and other characters. The various action scenes and destructive car chases resulted in costly damage; these factors, combined with delays in production, made the movie one of the most expensive comedy films produced at the time. It was also wildly successful, however.

Formation of the band and characters

The characters Jake and Elwood were developed by Aykroyd and Belushi when the two were working together on the late-night comedy show Saturday Night Live. The characters’ debut came in 1978, in an episode hosted by comedian Steve Martin. Martin subsequently invited the Blues Brothers to open for him at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles later that year. For the gig, Aykroyd and Belushi assembled a band with Steve Cropper and Matt Murphy on guitars, Donald Dunn on bass, Steve Jordan on drums, and Tom Malone, Lou Marini, Alan Rubin, and Tom Scott on horns. The band recorded a live album, Briefcase Full of Blues, at the show.

Belushi suggested that their next step should be a movie. Universal Studios agreed to produce the film for $17.5 million. Aykroyd attempted to write the script, but having no experience with movie scripts, his draft was an unwieldy 324 pages. Landis reworked the script, significantly revising and shortening Aykroyd’s original work.

Production and action scenes

Filming of The Blues Brothers took place primarily in Chicago, beginning in July 1979. The shoot quickly became chaotic, however, and the scope of the story and complicated chase scenes and musical sequences proved overwhelming; within weeks, the film was over budget and behind schedule. Adding to the difficulties, Belushi was experiencing an addiction to cocaine and would fail to show up for filming or would arrive too exhausted to work. Filming in Chicago concluded in September. The cast and crew went to Los Angeles to film the final concert scene and other footage.

By the time production was completed, expenses had escalated to an estimated $27 million. Some 60 used police cars, at a cost of $400 per car, were refurbished for the film; the cars were driven by 40 different stunt drivers who were flown to Chicago every weekend. The Bluesmobile, the iconic car driven by the Blues Brothers, actually consisted of 13 different cars, all identical. Stunt drivers were given permission to drive more than 100 miles per hour along Chicago’s Lake Street. Another sequence in the film called for a car to be driven off the end of a 150-foot-long ramp. Yet another had the Blues Brothers driving through a mall (the sequence was filmed at Dixie Square Mall, which was located in Harvey, Illinois, and had been recently closed).

Release

The Blues Brothers premiered in the United States on June 20, 1980. Many movie venues, however, considered it a “Black movie” (owing to racial perceptions about blues music and the film having famous Black musicians and actors) and refused to book it in predominantly white neighborhoods. As a consequence, The Blues Brothers debuted in about 600 theaters, rather than the anticipated 1,400. Many reviews were negative. Nonetheless, the film grossed more than $115 million worldwide during its initial release.

The Blues Brothers was eventually followed by a sequel, Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), which was also directed by Landis. The making of the sequel had been delayed, in large part because of Belushi’s death in 1982.

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