the blues brothers movie review

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This is some weird movie. There's never been anything that looked quite like it; was it dreamed up in a junkyard? It stars John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the Blues Brothers, Jake and Elwood, characters who were created on "Saturday Night Live" and took on a fearsome life of their own. The movie tells us something of their backgrounds: They were reared in a sadistic West Side orphanage, learned the blues by osmosis, and, as the movie opens, have teamed up again after Jake's release from the Joliet pen.

The movie's plot is a simple one, to put it mildly. The brothers visit their old orphanage, learn that its future is in jeopardy because of five thousand dollars due in back taxes, and determine to raise the money by getting their old band together and putting on a show. Their odyssey takes them to several sleazy Chicago locations, including a Van Buren flophouse, Maxwell Street, and lower Wacker Drive. They find their old friends in unlikely places, like a restaurant run by Aretha Franklin , a music shop run by Ray Charles , and a gospel church run by James Brown .

Their adventures include run-ins with suburban cops, good ol' boys, and Nazis who are trying to stage a demonstration. One of the intriguing things about this movie is the way it borrows so freely and literally from news events. The plot develops into a sort of musical Mad Mad Mad Mad World, with the Blues Brothers being pursued at the same time by avenging cops, Nazis, and an enraged country and western band led by Charles Napier , that character actor with the smile like Jaws. The chase is interrupted from time to time for musical numbers, which are mostly very good and filled with high-powered energy.

Aretha Franklin occupies one of the movie's best scenes, in her South Side soul food restaurant. Cab Calloway , as a sort of road manager for the Blues Brothers, struts through a wonderful old-style production of Minnie the Moocher. The Brothers themselves star in several improbable numbers; the funniest has the band playing in a country and western bar where wire mesh has been installed to protect the band from beer bottles thrown by the customers.

I was saying the musical numbers interrupt the chases. The fact is, the whole movie is a chase, with Jake and Elwood piloting a used police car that seems, as it hurdles across suspension bridges from one side to the other, to have a life of its own. There can rarely have been a movie that made so free with its locations as this one. There are incredible, sensational chase sequences under the elevated train tracks, on overpasses, in subway tunnels under the Loop, and literally through Daley Center. One crash in particular, a pileup involving maybe a dozen police cars, has to be seen to be believed: I've never seen stunt coordination like this before.

What's a little startling about this movie is that all of this works. The Blues Brothers cost untold millions of dollars and kept threatening to grow completely out of control. But director John Landis (of “Animal House”) has somehow pulled it together, with a good deal of help from the strongly defined personalities of the title characters. Belushi and Aykroyd come over as hard-boiled city guys, total cynics with a world-view of sublime simplicity, and that all fits perfectly with the movie's other parts. There's even room, in the midst of the carnage and mayhem, for a surprising amount of grace, humor, and whimsy.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Blues Brothers (1980)

133 minutes

James Brown as Rev. James

John Candy as Burton Mercer

John Belushi as Jake Blues

Ray Charles as Ray

Cab Calloway as Curtis

Carrie Fisher as Mystery Lady

Charles Napier as Good Ol' Boy

Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues

Aretha Franklin as Waitress

Henry Gibson as Nazi

Murphy Dunne as Piano Player

Directed by

John Landis

Produced by

Robert K. Weiss

Screenplay by

Dan Aykroyd

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The blues brothers, common sense media reviewers.

Cult classic has lots of profanity, some violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

While a comedy in which the two lead characters ar

While their hearts are in the right place, the lif

Comedic violence in many scenes. A nun slaps the B

While stuck at a gas station, Elwood Blues proposi

An older African-American man tells the Blues Brot

During a ludicrous car chase through a shopping ma

Cigarette smoking. The bass player is always smoki

Positive Messages

While a comedy in which the two lead characters are constantly on the wrong side of law and order, the movie teaches an appreciation for jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues music by giving prominent roles and musical sequences to many of these genre's most celebrated performers, as well as through the legendary studio musicians who back up the Blues Brothers' live performances, and the music they listen to in their car in their flophouse hotel room.

Positive Role Models

While their hearts are in the right place, the lifestyle of the Blues Brothers perpetually puts them on the wrong side of the law, resulting in Jake Blues getting out of prison after serving time for robbing a gas station so his band could get paid. Elwood falsifies his driver's license, listing his address as Wrigley Field, vandalizes police vehicles so their tires explode, and sprays epoxy on the gas pedal of a Winnebago. Despite their many transgressions, they clearly love music, and want to make others happy through the music they play. They are also motivated to reunite their old band as a way to try and rescue the orphanage where they grew up.

Violence & Scariness

Comedic violence in many scenes. A nun slaps the Blues Brothers repeatedly with a ruler due to their bad language, culminating in Jake falling down steep stairs while still in a too-small school desk. Over-the-top car chases, in a shopping mall, and, later, from a summer resort town in Wisconsin to the Loop in Chicago involving The Blues Brothers pursued by literally hundreds of police vehicles. A blind man who runs a music store fires a gun at a young boy attempting to steal a guitar. A country and western group who had a gig stolen from them by the Blues Brothers pursues them in their touring Winnebago and fires a rifle at the Blues Brothers' vehicle. Neo-Nazis also chase after the Blues Brothers and shoot at them. A woman jilted at the altar by one of the Blues Brothers follows them and detonates explosives, fires a rocket launcher, and shoots a machine gun at them, resulting in one instance in a building being destroyed.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

While stuck at a gas station, Elwood Blues propositions an attractive English woman (Twiggy) to meet him at a motel at midnight. She is later shown waiting for him.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

An older African-American man tells the Blues Brothers that if the orphanage closes, he will be "just another ["N" word] on the street." Use of "f--k" and its variations. "Bulls--t." "S--t." "Piss." "Damn." "Peckerhead." In a soul food diner off of Maxwell Street in Chicago, a waitress tells her husband working in the kitchen about the "honkies" at the counter and what they ordered.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

During a ludicrous car chase through a shopping mall, the Blues Brothers point out various stores in the mall, such as Pier One Imports, and other now-defunct stores.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cigarette smoking. The bass player is always smoking a pipe. Whiskey drinking, shot drinking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Blues Brothers is a classic 1980 comedy in which John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd play music-obsessed siblings trying to reunite their old band in order to save the Chicago orphanage where they grew up. There's frequent comedic violence, including some of the most ludicrous, over-the-top car chases ever put to film, as well as a jilted bride (played by Carrie Fisher ) who detonates explosives, fires a rocket launcher, and shoots a machine gun at the Blues Brothers in order to get revenge. There is one use of the "N" word, occasional use of "f--k" and its variations, and other profanity throughout the movie. Characters smoke and drink. On the positive side, this movie features classic performances from so many of the legendary performers of jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues, including Cab Calloway, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, as well as the studio musicians backing up the Blues Brothers, legendary musicians in their own right. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (16)
Kids say (58)

Based on 16 parent reviews

Amazing music, hilarious scenes, sunglasses at night

What's the story.

After three years in prison for robbery, Jake Blues ( John Belushi ) is released with one thing on his mind: Getting the band back together. His brother Elwood ( Dan Aykroyd ) has something else on his mind -- getting right with God. The brothers discover that the orphanage where they grew up will be sold if they can't raise $5,000 to pay the tax assessor, and set out to raise the money by getting the band back together and holding a benefit concert. Along the way, they meet up with some of the great R&B musicians of all time: James Brown preaching in a Baptist church; Aretha Franklin belting out "Think!" in her soul food restaurant; Cab Calloway singing to a packed house; Ray Charles singing about doing the twist in a pawn shop. Along with great music, their quest is full of car chases, property destruction, and repeated explosions. Jake and Elwood are scamps, but they pay for the damage they do, and do good in the end.

Is It Any Good?

THE BLUES BROTHERS holds a special place in cult movie lovers' hearts for a reason. It's surreal, it's got style, and it has great music. Indeed, it's a cross between a Saturday Night Live skit and a really great musical. Even if you hate the flimsy plot, you're likely to be humming the songs days later.

Though teens may find parts of it slow and may need to be educated about old school R&B, the film is likely to become a favorite. Expect to hear them quoting lines ("Mom, we're on a mission from God," when you question where they're going) and to see them wearing their sunglasses all the time. In the end, you get the sense that this movie is the teenage boy's dream inside Dan Aykroyd and John Landis, the cowriters.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Elwood and Jake's morals are -- or aren't --reflected in their behavior. For instance, they want to save the orphanage they grew up in, but they lie, cheat, and steal to raise the money. Is the damage they cause justified by their goal?

What are the ways in which this movie exposes viewers to legendary performers of jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues? Why do you think these sequences are so prominent in this movie?

How is violence used for the sake of comedy in this movie?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 16, 1980
On DVD or streaming : August 30, 2005
Cast : Aretha Franklin , Dan Aykroyd , James Brown , John Belushi , Ray Charles
Director : John Landis
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
Studio : Universal Pictures
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Music and Sing-Along
Run time : 133 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : comic violence and language
Last updated : February 7, 2024

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The Blues Brothers Reviews

One of the great American comedy films... It’s just a joy to watch even forty three years on. John Belushi was never better as the lead. He’s funny just standing there.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 24, 2023

More energetic than funny.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 20, 2023

No matter that the big screen story gets convoluted and improbable-the characters make it work. They sing classic rhythm and blues songs well enough, but better yet, perform with the greats.

Full Review | Aug 11, 2021

The Blues Brothers are a popular novelty, and have a definite tongue-in-cheek appeal. But this film does nothing with the characters, except to portray them as a couple of one-sided and unlikable hoods.

Full Review | Dec 21, 2020

The Blues Brothers is the year's best film to date; one of the, all-time great comedies; the best movie ever made in Chicago. All are true, and, boy, is that ever a surprise.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 21, 2020

The Blues Brothers is unlike anything you've ever seen before, at once touching and far-far out -- and most of all, best of all, it is hugely entertaining.

Too many times, The Blues Brothers is static when it should be ecstatic. When it tries to hit the heights, it's not nearly dizzying enough And when it should soar, it simply hangs there.

Despite the temporary lift that the old pros give the picture, it is difficult for the non-cultist to feel anything but dismay, again, that so much has been squandered to produce so little that is truly artful or genuinely entertaining.

As spectacular as the chases are, Blues Brothers works because of Aykroyd and Belushi, who play off each other with nearly flawless timing and sustain it throughout the movie's two hours and 10 minutes.

The film is a monument to car wreckage, with a tip of the hat to rhythm and blues. If you've seen the preview, you've seen the movie.

Only the music, a collection of rock and blues hits, is palatable but not enough to pull this film out of the gutter.

With a simple narrative based around the- brothers trying to put together a band and raising money for the orphanage that moulded them with numerous complications along the way there are plenty of chances for viewers to be entertained.

The film is a dreary waste of crude gags and misfiring stunts. But... small relief is afforded along the way by musical encounters (all too brief) with John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

But, for all those excesses. The Blues Brothers is jaunty enough often enough and joyous enough just enough to escape total disaster and to tantalize the determined.

Landis' staging and camera blocking aren't always up to the task, but the performers are so electrifying, it doesn't much matter.

The Blues Brothers is a joke that went too far.

The Blues Brothers really is the sort of enterprise that makes, you wonder what the world is coming to.

The Blues Brothers keeps our attention with its general good humor musical expertise and the myriad of comic details with which Landis fills every scene.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 21, 2020

Elsewhere flat characterisation and flimsy subplots -- who ever dreamed up those Nazis? -- numb the brain and add up to an expense of spirit in a waste of time, talent and money.

Between [musical] numbers there are a number of good laughs, but most of the comedy falls flat through constant over-statement. The 20-car prang where two might do philosophy, spills through the whole film.

‘The Blues Brothers’ Review: From Saturday Night Live to the Silver Screen

A t several points in “The Blues Brothers” (1980), for no particular reason except the glee of destruction, police cruisers chasing the titular rogue siblings go airborne, spiral, smash into one another and even fly into the cargo hold of a moving tractor-trailer truck. One pipe ramp, a piece of stunt technology designed to put air between tires and pavement, worked so well that cars entered the frame already airborne and upside down. In serene contemplation of such vehicular mayhem, the film’s cinematographer, Stephen Katz, turned to a colleague and quipped: “I’ve always wanted to make an art film.”

Few would have guessed that, 30 years later, “The Blues Brothers” would be recommended by the Vatican or that, a decade after that, it would be officially designated “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress. In “The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic,” the journalist Daniel de Visé combines a dual biography of lead actors John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd with insider accounts of the tribulations that attended the production of a movie like no other: a Catholic rhythm-and-blues car-chase musical. As Jake and Elwood Blues—a ragged tribute act with more enthusiasm than talent—Belushi and Mr. Aykroyd were indulging their love of a dead musical genre. R&B has perhaps never been farther from the mainstream than it was in the disco-driven late 1970s.

But the Blue Brothers themselves were hot: Their act, first seen by the public on a 1978 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” was initially taken as a jokey spoof—Rolling Stone writer Dave Marsh scolded it as “racist”—but was eventually welcomed as a fond homage. Their covers album “Briefcase Full of Blues” hit No. 1 right after Belushi and director John Landis collaborated on one of the biggest comedy hits ever, “Animal House” (1978). That picture was considered a crass embarrassment by many at Universal Pictures until the cash registers started to sing.

In 1970s Hollywood, the old studio chiefs were sweatily aware that their taste was irrelevant to baby boomers and were inclined to say “yes” to whatever oddball idea came across their desks—if they sensed it was what the kids liked. “The Blues Brothers” was supposed to cost $5 million. When the budget hit $16 million, Variety cited it in a cover story on the “megabuck era.” By the time it wrapped, Universal acknowledged $27.5 million had been spent. This was a mind-boggling sum for any movie, let alone one centered on a novelty musical act. While “The Blues Brothers” was under way, Belushi flopped in Steven Spielberg’s “1941”; wags started calling the actor’s soon-to-be-released follow-up “1942.”

Yet the kids indeed loved it: “The Blues Brothers” grossed $115 million worldwide, and it endured. Both of 1980’s biggest comedy hits—“Airplane!” and “9 to 5”—today seem locked in a previous era’s broader notions of what was funny. They try too hard. But “The Blues Brothers” was infused with deadpan anarchy that remains as cool as ever.

Mr. de Visé’s book, though awkwardly written (“Judy responded with patriotic platitudes parroted from her parents”), races along on a whoosh of marvelous details and crackling anecdotes. Many are recycled from previously published accounts, but Mr. de Visé has fleshed things out with dozens of his own interviews, some of them shocking. Mr. Landis, for instance, told the author that the owner of several movie theaters in Westwood, one of L.A.’s more genteel neighborhoods, told him, “I’m not gonna book your picture” because “I don’t want Blacks in Westwood.” Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway found their careers rejuvenated after starring in the movie’s dazzling production numbers.

The early days of both lead actors make for amusing background. Belushi was a football star and teetotaller in high school outside Chicago, and Mr. Aykroyd, a Catholic schoolboy from Ottawa, was an expert mimic and inexhaustible fount of technical lore on seemingly every subject, including plumbing. Equally drawn to mischief and authority, he would have found it ideal, a friend said, to rob a bank and arrest himself; at one point he hoped to be a prison guard. That comic tension—the subversive who looked like a G-man, the lunatic conformist—was the essence of the Blues Brothers. Lest we forget, these raffish characters (one of them just released from prison) start their road trip on a “mission from God,” aiming to raise $5,000 to save the Catholic orphanage where they were raised. They end up being chased by half of Chicagoland.

Any Belushi tale—he died of a drug overdose in 1982 at age 33—must lean to the sordid, and many passages are dizzying. Friends, colleagues and the actor himself were aware that he wasn’t so much playing with fire as setting himself alight, at times literally. At least twice during the film’s production he was rescued from flames after nodding off with a lighted cigarette; twice paramedics were called in to revive him after he was found unresponsive in his trailer. Mr. Landis intercepted a film canister sent to the actor filled with cocaine. Only with the help of an ex-Secret Service agent, Richard “Smokey” Wendell, who spoke to Mr. de Visé about the many times he stopped Belushi from acquiring drugs, did the comic manage to stay relatively clean in 1980-81. “You’re fine now,” the minder told Belushi in March 1981, walking away from an exhausting job despite Belushi’s offer to buy him a house.

No one was surprised when Belushi was found dead almost exactly a year later, after taking heroin and cocaine together. “SNL” producer Lorne Michaels, at the funeral, looked at the corpse and said: “I’ve seen him look worse.” At a memorial service in Manhattan, Mr. Aykroyd eulogized: “In some cases, real greatness gives license for real indulgence, whether it’s as a reward, as therapy, or as sanctuary. For as hard as John worked, there had to be an additional illicit thrill to make the effort all worthwhile.” His death led to much re-evaluation in Hollywood, though talent manager Bernie Brillstein recalled that, upon leaving the burial on Martha’s Vineyard, music executives snorted cocaine in a car as it passed the cemetery.

The Blues Brothers’ final performance in the movie finds their entire band behind bars, blasting “Jailhouse Rock” in front of a rendering of a sign Mr. Landis had spotted in the real Joliet (Ill.) prison: “It’s never too late to mend.” This was a final ironic gibe: Jake and Elwood could never change their outlaw ways, just as Belushi could never change his.

Mr. Smith is the Journal’s film critic.

Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi in ‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980).

WhichFilm | Film Reviews | Audience Film Reviews

The Blues Brothers (1980)

“The Blues Brothers” is a classic musical comedy film released in 1980, directed by John Landis. Starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, the film follows the misadventures of Jake and Elwood Blues as they reunite their old band to save the Catholic orphanage they grew up in from financial ruin. “The Blues Brothers” is known for its energetic musical performances, hilarious comedy, and iconic car chase sequences.

Plot Summary: “The Blues Brothers” centers around Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd), two brothers who are on a mission from God to save the orphanage where they were raised. To raise the necessary funds, they embark on a mission to reunite their old rhythm and blues band and put on a big concert.

As Jake and Elwood set out on their musical quest, they encounter various obstacles and enemies along the way. They are pursued by the police, led by the relentless Illinois State Trooper, played by John Candy. The brothers also find themselves entangled with a neo-Nazi group, a country and western band, and a mystery woman named Carrie Fisher, who seeks revenge for Jake leaving her at the altar.

“The Blues Brothers” is filled with musical numbers featuring legendary blues, soul, and R&B artists such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway. These performances showcase the energy and talent of the cast and contribute to the film’s vibrant and joyful atmosphere.

Themes and Impact: While “The Blues Brothers” is primarily a comedy filled with outrageous antics and comedic set pieces, the film also explores themes of redemption, loyalty, and the power of music. Jake and Elwood’s unwavering commitment to their mission, despite the obstacles they face, reflects the bond of brotherhood and the belief in the transformative power of music.

The film’s impact extends beyond its initial release. It has become a cult classic, beloved by audiences for its memorable characters, quotable dialogue, and catchy musical numbers. The success of “The Blues Brothers” led to a resurgence of interest in rhythm and blues music and helped introduce a new generation to the genre.

Legacy and Cultural Significance: “The Blues Brothers” has had a lasting impact on popular culture. It spawned a dedicated fan base and inspired a number of spin-offs, including an animated television series and a live concert tour featuring Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, John Belushi’s brother. The film’s iconic car chase scenes, featuring the Bluesmobile, have become some of the most memorable in cinematic history.

Moreover, “The Blues Brothers” demonstrated the comedic and musical talents of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, solidifying their status as comedy legends. The film’s blend of comedy, music, and action has influenced subsequent comedies and musical films, leaving a lasting imprint on the genre.

Conclusion: “The Blues Brothers” is a riotous and joyful musical comedy that continues to entertain audiences with its humor, lively performances, and infectious music. It celebrates the power of friendship, the importance of sticking together, and the joy that music can bring. With its timeless appeal, memorable characters, and iconic musical sequences, “The Blues Brothers” remains a beloved and influential film in the world of comedy and music.

Create your own review

The Blues Brothers, directed by John Landis and released in 1980, is a raucous and wildly entertaining musical comedy that brings the world of rhythm and blues to life with a contagious energy. Starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as the eponymous Blues Brothers, the film takes audiences on a hilarious and action-packed adventure through the streets of Chicago. The story follows Jake and Elwood Blues, two brothers on a mission from God to save the Catholic orphanage they grew up in. In order to raise the necessary funds, they assemble their old band and set out on a mission to put on a show and gather the money before the orphanage is foreclosed. Along the way, they encounter a motley crew of characters, including a vengeful ex-fiancée, a country and western band, and a determined group of police officers hot on their trail. The heart of The Blues Brothers lies in its phenomenal musical performances. Featuring an incredible lineup of talented musicians and artists, the film delivers one unforgettable musical number after another. From the soulful renditions of classic blues and R&B tunes to the electrifying dance sequences, the film never fails to get the audience's toes tapping and spirits soaring. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd showcase their comedic talents and on-screen chemistry as the irreverent and charming Blues Brothers. Their larger-than-life personalities and commitment to their characters make Jake and Elwood endearing and hilarious, as they navigate the chaotic world they find themselves in. The film's supporting cast, including Carrie Fisher, John Candy, and Aretha Franklin, add depth and humor to the proceedings, elevating the overall comedic experience. One of the film's standout aspects is its impressive and explosive car chase sequences. The Blues Brothers is known for its over-the-top stunts and high-speed pursuits, which inject adrenaline and excitement into the film's narrative. These sequences, combined with the energetic musical performances, create a unique blend of comedy, action, and music that sets the film apart. The Blues Brothers not only delivers on the entertainment front but also serves as a celebration of the rich musical heritage of Chicago and the spirit of the blues. It pays homage to the genre's legends while infusing it with a modern sensibility and comedic flair. The film's commitment to authenticity and reverence for the music shines through, making it a treat for both fans of the blues and newcomers alike. While The Blues Brothers is undoubtedly a rollicking good time, it occasionally veers into excess, with some of the comedic moments feeling overly exaggerated or prolonged. The pacing may feel uneven at times, and the plot takes a backseat to the film's musical performances and comedic set pieces. However, these minor quibbles do little to diminish the overall enjoyment of the film. In summary, The Blues Brothers is a riotous and musically infectious comedy that brings the magic of rhythm and blues to the big screen. With its exceptional musical performances, memorable characters, and adrenaline-fueled car chases, the film offers a wild and entertaining ride. It captures the spirit of Chicago's blues scene while delivering a heartfelt story of brotherhood, redemption, and the power of music. The Blues Brothers is a classic film that continues to captivate audiences with its infectious energy and enduring appeal.

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The 4K HDR extended edition not only looks better than expected but also shows that the shorter cut is the better movie

by Dennis Burger updated July 29, 2023

If nothing else, the 4K HDR release of The Blues Brothers: Extended Edition demonstrates just how far home video has come in the past 20 years. And if you’re not familiar with the provenance of the longer cut of the film, perhaps a little backstory is in order.

Director John Landis originally intended The Blues Brothers to be a three-hour roadshow with an intermission. Studio heads balked after a test screening and forced him to cut the movie down to 148 minutes, then again to 133 minutes for the final theatrical release. When Universal destroyed most of the elements for the original film in 1985, it was believed that only the 133 cut and its negative survived—until, that is, the son of a theater owner was caught trying to sell a print of the 148-minute cut on eBay in the early ’90s. And it is from this print that all deleted scenes and alternate cuts for the extended cut were sourced.

Back in the DVD era, the discrepancies between the quality of the original camera negative and of the lost-and-recovered print weren’t that blatant. Sure, you could tell that some scenes were a bit grainier, a little less detailed, a little more washed out, but it was hardly a distraction. In the HD era, the disparity started to become substantially more apparent.

Fast-forward to the UHD release of The Extended Edition , and I honestly find it nigh unwatchable, if only because the portions of the film scanned from the original camera negative are so utterly gorgeous it makes the preview-print footage look that much worse by comparison. After the opening credits pass by, The Extended Edition is simply a chaotic audiovisual rollercoaster, with one scene looking sharp, detailed, well-balanced, and properly saturated, with exactly the right amount of organic film grain, and the next looking like a blown-out, overly contrasty mess of crushed blacks, faded highlights, and about twice as much grain as it should have. It’s honestly such a distraction that I had trouble sitting through the extended cut, despite the absolutely fabulous DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio mix included with the Kaleidescape download.

Thankfully, purchasing the extended edition on Kaleidescape also comes with the theatrical cut, fully restored in UHD HDR as well, so I decided to give it a watch, despite not having seen the shorter edit in over a quarter-century. And what I took away from that viewing surprised me. When you get right down to it, the studio was right. The shorter cut is a better movie; better paced, more consistently funny, and with the focus more consistently where it belongs—on the musical numbers.

The original theatrical cut is also a better home cinema experience from beginning to end. Again, the opening and closing titles—which had to be sourced from what I believe is the interpositive, not the negative—don’t quite measure up to the quality of the rest of the transfer. But that aside, I never would have imagined The Blues Brothers could look this good while still looking true to itself.

And it isn’t merely the enhanced detail brought about by the 4K scan. HDR also allows enhancements to shadow depth, bringing details out of the darkness that have never appeared in home video presentations before.

Granted, the real star of the show is still the immaculate DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio mix, which doesn’t suffer from the tonal and fidelity inconsistencies that plague so many films of the era. Sure, the pre-recorded musical numbers shine brighter here, with deeper bass and better transparency than the rest of the mix, but dialogue and sound effects are still clear and well-presented, and the occasional surround sound effect doesn’t sound at all out of place. A lot of that probably comes down to the fact that the film was originally mixed in four-track stereo, with discreet left, center, and right channels and a mono surround channel, making it a little easier to conform to our modern surround-sound channel layout. But whatever the reason, The Blues Brothers sounds absolutely as wonderful here as you would hope.

In a weird way I think I’m grateful the 4K release of the extended cut revealed what a mishmash that version of the movie is, visually speaking. If not for that, I probably wouldn’t have returned to the theatrical cut and discovered just how much better it is. I’ve spent the past few decades treating the longer cut as the film proper, viewing the theatrical cut as a sort of historical artifact, when we should actually view these different cuts from exactly the opposite perspective. The extended edition is really just an incredibly long bonus feature, and one that quite frankly overstays its welcome.

If the only version of The Blues Brothers you know is the compromised, intermediate extended cut (it was, after all, the only version available on DVD for the longest time), I encourage you to give the shorter theatrical cut another shot—especially in its newly restored 4K/HDR form, it’s simply the best version of the movie that actually exists.

Dennis Burger is an avid Star Wars scholar, Tolkien fanatic, and Corvette enthusiast who somehow also manages to find time for technological passions including high-end audio, home automation, and video gaming. He lives in the armpit of Alabama with his wife Bethany and their four-legged child Bruno, a 75-pound American Staffordshire Terrier who thinks he’s a Pomeranian.

PICTURE | It’s hard to imagine The Blues Brothers could look this good while still looking true to itself, with the 4K scan bringing out enhanced detail and with HDR enhancing the shadow depth, bringing out details that have never appeared on home video before

SOUND | The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is immaculate, free of the tonal and fidelity inconsistencies that plague so many films of the era

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The Blues Brothers Review

01 Jan 1980

133 minutes

Blues Brothers, The

The 30-year-old Landis was coming off a hot picture and was perceived as something of a comic messiah. At the end of the 70s, this was of vital importance to the studios, who’d watched a whole generation of potential new stars, the Saturday Night Live performers become the hottest things on TV, only to transfer poorly to the big screen. So when wunderkind Landis and Aykroyd came up with a script based on characters which Aykroyd and Belushi had originally created and featured most successfully on the TV show, Universal’s Ned Tanen had little choice but to green-light the unusually big-budgeted rock’n’roll comedy.

He soon came to regret the decision. Landis, though undoubtedly gifted at comedy, proved an indulgent director, inclined to choose the over-the-top option every time and pushing the picture way over both budget and schedule. Belushi’s drug consumption, too, was at an all-time-high — no pun intended — and was adversely affecting his performance.

From such circumstances are cults created. Landis’ instincts proved correct: The Blues Brothers, when it eventually opened, hit just the right nerve with its target audience of ageing hippies and young punks, serving as a kind of counterculture rebel-yell against the rising tide of late-70s conformity. It was a “style” picture before such things became widespread, the style being an amalgam of urban sleaze, automobile crunch and blackheart rhythm and blues, and the Brothers’ uniform of dark suits, hats and Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses quickly came to symbolise a protest against the dandified disco aesthetic.

And then, of course, there was the music, better music than any film had had for many years. The original impetus for the Blues Brothers characters was Belushi and Aykroyd’s abiding love of rhythm and blues, and they packed the picture with as many of their heroes as possible: Aretha storming through Think, Cab Calloway cruising through Minnie The Moocher one more time, John Lee Hooker boogying through Boom Boom in the street, Ray Charles demonstrating electric piano in an instrument shop, not to mention the hottest band since, well, since Booker T & The MG’s—which was hardly surprising since the likes of guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist “ Duck” Dunn were part of the original MG’s who served as the Stax house band on countless soul hits of the 60s. One of the more agreeable effects of the picture was that, as well as rehabilitating the then-unfashionable Ray-Bans, it also revived the careers of virtually all the musicians who appeared in it.

The plot barely deserves the epithet “basic.” The quest is portrayed through a series of set-pieces either musical or slapstick. The latter pitches the Brothers against the forces of darkness: the spectacularly badly-dressed John Candy’s enormous posse of traffic cops, a bunch of Illinois Nazis led by a saturnine Henry Gibson, a redneck country and western outfit and Jake’s estranged wife (Carrie Fisher).

These are the hyperbolically polarised forces of good and evil—hipsters and tightasses—with Belushi and Aykroyd playing the former almost as an updated Hope and Crosby reinterpreted via the Three Stooges. Certainly, there had never been as excessive a use of wanton slapstick violence in the movies before, albeit primarily aimed at automobiles. In one of the earliest set-pieces, the Brothers’ Bluesmobile is chased through a shopping mall by a posse of police cars, to the accompaniment of thousands of dollars’ worth of shattered plate glass; later on, several dozen more cop cars are run down embankments, piled up in streets and generally treated with violent disdain. It’s hardly surprising, really, that the film racked up such an enormous budget.

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Military on the streets of Chicago in The Blues Brothers

I've never seen ... The Blues Brothers

This 40-year-old comedy – repackaging blues for a white audience – in many ways uncomfortably mirrors what is happening in the UK and America right now

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W ho would have thought a genial comedy, 40 years old, would be so thoroughly refracted by current events? Whatever one might have expected from a first viewing of The Blues Brothers, it wasn’t that it would uncomfortably mirror what is happening in Britain and America right now.

But consider this: at various points in The Blues Brothers, you see cars driven through groups of pedestrians (including, at one point, a group of anti-fascist demonstrators); you see a big city police force responding to provocation with ultra-violence, and the military on the streets of Chicago; you see a far-right figurehead assuring the world his is “an organisation of decent, law abiding white folks, just like you”; and you see the African-American experience appropriated and repackaged as entertainment for a white audience. A month ago, none of that might have registered all that hard with me; right now it made watching The Blues Brothers a disorienting experience.

It’s worth remembering, perhaps, that cultural appropriation was not so much of a sin when The Blues Brothers was made in 1980. Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi were absolutely sincere in their love of the blues, and they fought for the legends who made cameos to have speaking roles, given to Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway and Ray Charles. On the other hand, though, it’s discomfiting to see John Lee Hooker playing Boom Boom for black people in the street, while Aykroyd and Belushi – who was, let’s be honest, a moderate pub singer – play R&B to a big theatre full of white people at the gig they put on to raise money for their old orphanage. Though one might well argue: well, isn’t that exactly what happened to the blues 20 years or so earlier?

Aretha Franklin with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd

But judge The Blues Brothers on its own terms, not as an illustration of the politics of race, rather as a comedy. Aykroyd and Belushi? Comic legends! John Landis? One of the most interesting American comedy directors of his era. So why didn’t I laugh? Because Aykroyd’s labour-of-love script (rejigged by Landis) neglected to put in actual jokes. It has a great deal of ridiculousness, and physical goofing, and situations exaggerated to preposterous extremes. Just not jokes. I’d assumed the line I’d heard quoted most often – “No, ma’am, we’re musicians” – came at the end of some bravura riff, not that it was a single response to a single question. That isn’t a joke. Nor is saying – “We’re on a mission from God” – every few minutes.

There is no internal logic: you suspect Aykroyd et al thought it was hilarious to have Carrie Fisher popping up over and over trying to kill Belushi, but it feels lazy, as if changing the pace and direction of the film was beyond the actors and script, and could only be done by bringing in a murder attempt, never to be mentioned again. It’s self-indulgent, rather than funny, which is to be expected from a film that was filmed amid a blizzard of cocaine, and which was a spin-off of a spin-off – from Saturday Night Live, to an album, to a film.

Still, The Blues Brothers moves quickly enough that it doesn’t have the chance to bore, and it has occasional moments of brilliance. A bunch of those, naturally, come from the special guests’ musical performances. Ray Charles, especially, is fantastic, with a bracing rendition of Shake Your Tail Feather , backed by The Blues Brothers band (an incredible collection of soul and R&B sidemen, who could probably make me sound tolerable).

Most compelling, though, is the portrayal of Chicago. The film was, at least in part, conceived as a love letter to the city, and was filmed on location. It opens with a jaw-dropping aerial shot of the heavy industry of the city’s south side, a Blakean panorama of dark Satanic mills, a world corrupted by humanity. The street scenes – like those of so many location-shot movies (think of The French Connection) – are compellingly grimy. In those sections, and those sections alone, the film manages to find the poetry in the city it hymns, especially in the big song-and-dance routines.

It’s a product of its time, of course. But I have to confess I’ve never fathomed the appeal of US comedy of that era. Perhaps it was only never having seen The Blues Brothers that made me think it might be different. I wish it had been. But I am fully prepared to accept it’s my particular taste that meant I watched it stony-faced. I’m sure, though, it won’t lead me to track down Animal House . Maybe you just had to be there.

The classic film I've never seen
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The action-comedy-musical classic turns 40 this year and remains both a staple of ’80s nostalgia & a love letter to Chicago.

Over the years, I’ve had several opportunities to write at length about The Blues Brothers , John Landis ’s mammoth musical-comedy centering on the misadventures of Joliet Jake ( John Belushi ) and Elwood Blues ( Dan Aykroyd ). However, I have noticed that, in almost every single case, those pieces have turned into elegies for the its lost elements—everything from departed cast members to the look of Chicago in its funky late-70s glory, when a film this gloriously strange could actually make it through the studio system in the first place.

Looking back, it seems odd that I would end up adopting even a mildly mournful tone in discussing a film as heedlessly joyful and entertaining as The Blues Brothers . Therefore, I want to try to reverse this trend by spending a little time not offering up a conventional review/historical overview of the film, but instead penning a few deeply self-indulgent words about the ways in which this silly knockabout study in excess helped to inspire, and even shape the life of one young lad.

I was born in 1971 in the Chicago area and saw my very first movie ( Dumbo ) at the age of three. From that moment, I was hooked, and over the next few years, I would watch them on TV (mostly on The 3:30 Movie on WLS, which never found a film that it couldn’t hack into a 90-minute slot), look at the ads in the newspaper that my dad would bring home from work every day and read up on them in library books. Put it this way—while other kids were reading comic books, I was reading copies of Variety .

It wasn’t just that I loved watching them—I wanted to know everything about them, and how they were made. If you had offered me a choice between a single day on a movie set or a month at Disney World, I would have taken the set visit without a moment’s hesitation. Alas, that seemed like a pipe dream, because, even at that young age, I knew that movies were made in California or New York, or other exotic locations that generally did not include Chicago.

What I didn’t know at the time was that there had been an unofficial ban on filming in Chicago. The story goes that, after an episode of the crime show M Squad involving a Chicago cop taking a bribe was aired, the long-reigning Mayor Richard J. Daley was so outraged that he would not allow anything to shoot there as long as he was in charge. When he passed away in 1976, filmmaking began to slowly return to the area (Brian De Palma’s The Fury made excellent use of the city) but the notion of movies being made in Chicago still seemed like an absurdity.

Looking back, it seems odd that I would end up adopting even a mildly mournful tone in discussing a film as heedlessly joyful and entertaining as The Blues Brothers .

However, when Jane Byrne became mayor in 1979, she began to push for more films to be shot in the city. When the idea of making a Blues Brothers movie came along at this time and promised to be a blockbuster (Belushi and Aykroyd were riding high from the success of SNL and the Blues Brothers album they had recorded), Byrne not only allowed them to shoot there, she essentially opened up the entire city to the producers to pretty much do whatever they wanted.

For a movie-mad 8 year-old living in the Chicago suburbs at the time, this was perhaps the greatest news ever. The notion of a Blues Brothers movie was exciting enough—thanks to a combination of lifelong sleep issues and reasonably liberal parents, I actually got to watch Saturday Night Live back then and Belushi and Aykroyd were already favorites of mine. The fact that it would be shooting in places that I knew and recognized from all my trips into the city was astounding. It’s hard to explain today how much the production took over and dominated the city between July and October of 1979. Cars were being driven through government buildings. A shuttered enclosed shopping mall in Harvey was completely redressed for an elaborate indoor car chase set. For one sight gag, the filmmakers literally dropped a Pinto from a height of 1200 feet onto Lake Shore Drive after getting special permission from the FAA.

Local newspapers and TV were filled with stories about these major stunts and other aspects of the production (though the seamier stories of drug use and spiraling budgets would only come out later) as well as reports on the return of hometown hero Belushi. Yes, there were other films shooting in the city around this time—a car was even famously launched from the Marina City Towers parking structure into the Chicago River for the Steve McQueen thriller The Hunter —but for all intents and purposes, this was the only game in town.

When The Blues Brothers finally came to theaters in June of 1980, it was perhaps the biggest gotta-see movie of my life to date—even the then-current The Empire Strikes Back paled in comparison. The one complication to all of this was that the film received the dreaded “R” rating, which pretty much made it a no-go. Luckily, two things broke in my favor—the realization that it got that rating exclusively because of a vast amount of foul language (that my parents were assured they would not be hearing afterwards), and the fact that my birthday was coming and I got to pick what I wanted to do. Thanks to this, it was a newly minted nine-year-old who settled into his multiplex seat one summer day to see the movie of his dreams and his first R-rated movie to boot (as my younger brother came along, this meant that he got to see his first R-rated movie at a younger age than I, a detail that continues to annoy me to this day.)

Obviously, I went in with unreasonably elevated expectations, but The Blues Brothers not only managed to meet them, it wildly exceeded them. Belushi and Aykroyd were hilarious as always—the former an incredible ball of energy throughout and the latter moving and speaking in a terse, almost robotic, fashion in which he only seemed to fully express himself when he was behind the wheel of the Bluesmobile. Although I was never especially big on cinematic car chases and pileups, the ones on display here were indeed inspired, such as the Bluesmobile jumping the bridge in the beginning, the cop car bearing John Candy launching into the back of a semi (“We’re in a truck!”) and, of course, the climax which included the Bluesmobile barreling through Daley Plaza and numerous police cars smashing together on Lake Street in an orgy of twisted metal.

Even better than that was the fact that all of this mayhem was occurring in places that I knew and loved—the Picasso statue, Wrigley Field, the slightly seedy downtown area filled with bright marquees. Over the years, dozens of movies have been filmed in Chicago, but to this day, with the possible exception of The Untouchables , none of them have presented the city in a manner as iconic as this one does.

Almost as significant as seeing things that I knew and loved put up there on the big screen was how The Blues Brothers introduced me to so many other wonderful things. By that point, I had probably heard of people like Ray Charles , Aretha Franklin , Cab Calloway and James Brown , but only to the extent that they existed. Thanks to the film, I got to see them all delivering musical performances of such a high caliber that it marks perhaps the only possible time in which Calloway could deliver a near-definitive rendition of his classic “Minnie the Moocher” and it wasn’t the unquestioned musical highlight. That crown goes to Aretha Franklin, when she transforms “Think” into something akin to grand opera—even my relatively clueless self knew that I was witnessing something really special. I even loved that comparatively quiet moment when legendary bluesman John Lee Hooker turned up in the crowd of people at the equally legendary Maxwell Street market to sing “Boom Boom.”

The soundtrack was an immediate post-screening purchase, and as I played it over and over again (alas, not “Boom Boom” since the record label declined to include it on the album), I sought out other music from these performers, which in turn led to developing an interest in R&B and straight blues. Some critics have accused the film in general, and Belushi and Aykroyd in particular, of being another example of white entertainers exploiting the work of black performers for profit. Strictly speaking, this may be true but, unlike others, Belushi and Aykroyd at least demonstrated a genuine interest and love for the music and culture and, speaking at least for myself, they were able to pass that interest on and expose this great music to new audiences, a feat that continues to this day. This also extends to Blues Brothers 2000 , a misbegotten-beyond-belief 1998 sequel that is pretty awful in most respects (who could have possibly thought that adding a Macaulay Culkin wannabe to the mix was a good idea?) but which justifies itself by presenting an even greater array of musical talents.

For most people, The Blues Brothers may just be a amusing musical comedy—the kind of film that you can stumble upon on cable at any given point while channel hopping and stick it out to the end—with a downside that includes things ranging from the too-soon death of John Belushi to being the inspiration for couples awful karaoke renditions of “Sweet Home Chicago.” As for me, despite having seen it countless times over the years, every time I sit down to watch it again, I am instantly transported back to when I was nine years old, and it was still possible to be completely taken in by the magic of movies, and the spectacle of my city in all of its big screen glory. The only difference is that when I watch it now, I can do so while enjoying another delight that the film revealed to me.

Orange Whip? Orange Whip? Three Orange Whips.

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Jotted Lines

A Collection Of Essays

The Blues Brothers (Movie): Synopsis & Review

They’re ‘on a Mission from G-ahhd!’ Not ‘God’, let alone the high-English, biblical epic ‘GAUGHD’, but pure Chicago Ethnic-Catholic ‘G-ahhd’. The Blues Brothers follows siblings Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) and fresh-out-of-prison ‘Joliet’ Jake Blues (John Belushi) as they try to re-unite their blues combo. They do this in order to raise $5,000 to save the orphanage in which they grew up.

Its loose plot creates a chain of vignettes and musical numbers that are at once over-the-top and strangely authentic to the blues experience. It is a loving homage to blues music. The musical cameos – from John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Ray Charles – are fantastic. Cab Calloway does a rendition of ‘Minnie Moocher’ that is a tribute to his own showmanship.

But it is also a very funny representation of the below-the-margin existence that both inspires the blues and is the domain of those who endeavour to do it for a living: bad gigs, woman problems, poverty and, of course, Nazis.

The Blues Brothers features the strangest amalgam of enemies in cinema history: the Illinois State Police, the Chicago Police, the National Guard, a country and western band, a jilted hairdresser and the Illinois Nazi Party. John Landis was deft enough to use the loose plot structure as a license to throw a bunch of disparate characters into motion. In lesser hands this would have meant chaos. But each character is driven by such white-hot contempt for the brothers that they are woven together to a single magnificent conclusion.

One can tell this is a fondly conceived film. ‘The Blues Brothers’ first appeared on Saturday Night Live. Belushi and Aykroyd created the characters strictly as a pre-broadcast warm-up act (as much for their own performance energy as for the studio audience). It is a blend of broad and subtle comedy. There are literally thousands of car wrecks countered with some of the coolest understated reactions ever seen on film. The sublime moments are genius: my brothers and I never to fail to laugh at the strange qualification and specificity to the line, ‘I hate Illinois Nazis.’

This film is also in love with Chicago, and Chicago with it. So personal is my relationship to the film as a Chicagoan, I was amazed to discover the passionate following it has worldwide, particularly in the UK. It has the same local identification that Edinburgh must have with Trainspotting (1996). In being so authentically local, its sincerity registers universally.

It’s such a glorious mix of hilarious situations, quotable lines and superb characters. Dan Aykroyd has yet to find a roll to eclipse our memory of Elwood. And great performances abound in small parts from other actors: Carrie Fisher (‘waiting in celibacy!’), Charles Napier (‘we’re the Good Ole Boys’), Kathleen Freeman (a nun known as ‘the penguin’), John Candy (‘Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips?’), Henry Gibson (‘and he’s a Catho-lic’) and Ray Charles (‘I hate to see a boy that young go bad’). Also look for cameos by two famous directors: Frank Oz (‘soiled’) and Steven Spielberg (the Cook County Clerk) in one of the few parts where he doesn’t play himself.

It goes without saying that John Belushi died way too young. The Blues Brothers remains a testament to what he was capable of doing, and a standard for all musicals and comedies when pure joy, energy and commitment are permitted to exceed the boundaries of ‘formula’.

Date: 1980

Director: John Landis

Writer(s): Dan Aykroyd and John Landis

Runtime(s): 133 minutes, 148 minutes (USA, extended version)

Country: USA

Language: English

Source Credits:

Soren McCarthy, Cult Movies In Sixty Seconds: The Best Films In The World In Less Than A Minute, Fusion Press, 2003.

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THE BLUES BROTHERS

An epic friendship, the rise of improv, and the making of an american film classic.

by Daniel de Visé ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024

A complete portrait of a classic film and the zeitgeist of its era.

An award-winning journalist chronicles the story of the iconic 1980 film and the bond between its two stars.

In the first half of this exhaustively researched, highly informative book, de Visé, the author of King of the Blues and Andy & Don , provides an in-depth profile of the upbringing and career arcs of the film's stars: the immensely talented, overgrown child John Belushi, who needed constant stimulation and elicited among his friends and colleagues the need to protect; and the quieter, highly intelligent Dan Aykroyd. The author also describes the rivalry-rich, drug-fueled evolution of 1970s comedy in the forms of Saturday Night Live , National Lampoon , and Chicago's Second City group, all of which laid the groundwork for the movie. Gleaned from primary research and interviews with Aykroyd and director John Landis, among others, the narrative details the relationship between Belushi and Aykroyd, the sincerity with which they immersed themselves in the blues to live out their fantasies of fronting a great band, and how they overcame accusations of cultural appropriation to revive and amplify the careers of talents such as James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Cab Calloway. The book is also the definitive scene-by-scene account of a film—ambitious and over budget, panned by most critics of the day—that endures as a well-written and directed comedy doubling as a loving homage to a uniquely American genre and its capital city. “ The Blues Brothers endures as a big, noisy, noir valentine to the city of Chicago,” writes the author. “Landis and his crazy car-crash musical ushered in a golden age of cinema filmed in the city and its suburbs,” and “no film inhabited the Windy City quite like [it].” Ultimately, writes de Visé, the film “earned immortality as a priceless artifact of American music.”

Pub Date: March 19, 2024

ISBN: 9780802160980

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly

Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023

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New York Times Bestseller

by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.

Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.

Pub Date: July 12, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022

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by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton

by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton

LOVE, PAMELA

by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.

According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that ." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy , which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.

Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023

ISBN: 9780063226562

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023

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Book: Tim Allen Exposed Himself to Pamela Anderson

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‘The Blues Brothers’ was gloriously dumb. It still matters.

A new book delves into the crazy true story behind the making of a film that became a cult classic and turned john belushi and dan aykroyd into screen legends.

Does “ The Blues Brothers ” deserve a book? In the pantheon of gloriously dumb movie comedies derived from “Saturday Night Live” and the National Lampoon, the 1980 John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd R&B farce sits a notch below “Animal House,” “Caddyshack” and “Ghostbusters.” Maybe two notches. An absurdist demolition derby of a film, it’s most memorable for spotlighting soul-music legends like Aretha Franklin and James Brown and providing a loving portrait of Chicago at its smoggiest and seediest.

But is it book-worthy? Arguably not. Still, Daniel De Visé makes the case in his subtitle, “ The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic ,” that his book isn’t just about a movie.

It’s a triple-helixed biography of the main contributors to the counterculture comedy revolution of the post-’60s: SNL, the Lampoon, and the Second City comedy troupe in all its stage and TV iterations. It’s a tale of Hollywood excess — both budgetary and pharmaceutical — that beggars belief. And, at its essence, it’s the story of a great American bromance, a partnership that was kept alive by one man’s creative discipline before crashing on the rocks of another man’s addictions.

De Visé, a journalist and the author of books on B.B. King and Greg LeMond, leans heavily on previously published group biographies: Bob Woodward’s 1984 Belushi bio “Wired”; Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller’s 2002 “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of ‘Saturday Night Live’”; and two books by Belushi’s widow, Judith Belushi Pisano, among others. But De Visé has gone back and talked to many of the principals as well as the secondary and tertiary figures, and he’s read and listened to every interview. This is a well-researched book.

Better, it’s a well-told story, one that rarely loses its focus on the larger picture — the many forces that came together to create comedy by the baby boom generation for the baby boom generation — while engaging the reader in a close-up view of two very different, very funny men.

“The Blues Brothers” goes back to its star duo’s beginnings: Belushi’s Chicago childhood as the class-clown son of Albanian immigrants, and Aykroyd’s early years in Ottawa, where Tourette’s syndrome made him the target of bullies. Both men rose through local comedy groups to star in their respective Second City outposts of Chicago and Toronto, but Belushi was tagged early on as a comic force of nature. By the time he met Aykroyd, he was scouting Second City Toronto for “The National Lampoon Radio Hour,” where he’d already become a breakout talent. On their first meeting, Aykroyd told a radio interviewer, he felt “the jump you get when you see a beautiful girl. It was a pit-of-the-stomach feeling.”

Belushi brought the manic slapstick to the first “SNL” cast, and Aykroyd brought the inspired weirdness — remember the “Bass-o-Matic”? — and a deep, abiding love for American R&B, which he quickly imparted to his new best friend. By the time “The Blues Brothers” movie came together in 1979, Belushi had become a movie star by way of “National Lampoon’s Animal House”; the two had debuted their fedora-and-shades R&B alter egos, Jake and Elwood Blues, on “SNL”; and Belushi’s intake of cocaine and other substances had swollen to frightening proportions.

Indeed, everything about the “Blues Brothers” shoot, which forms the detailed heart of De Visé’s book, seems staggering even today. Originally budgeted at $5 million, under director John Landis the production ballooned to over six times that much. Shooting the car chase through the shopping mall alone cost nearly a million dollars. The film set a record for the number of automobiles destroyed in a single film: 103.

Was it worth it? Your mileage may vary. For the most part, critics in 1980 hated “The Blues Brothers,” but audiences embraced it, and it remains a peculiar artifact of Hollywood overkill, funny in its baffling too-muchness. The musical numbers are still the best part, and De Visé is wise to address the accusations, then and now, that the movie and the accompanying Blues Brothers concert tours and hit records represented White cultural appropriation of Black music at its most blithely entitled. But he also reminds readers that the careers of Franklin, Brown, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway were all in serious decline, and that the film gave them new audiences and renewed success that lasted well beyond the film.

The one thing the author fails to address — and it’s hardly his blind spot alone — is how Belushi was allowed to destroy himself while the entertainment industry watched and fans cheered. The “Blues Brothers” set was awash in cocaine — it literally arrived packed in film-reel canisters — and while the studio hired a former Secret Service agent to babysit Belushi, the comedian had plenty of star-struck crew members and hangers-on to bury him in blow. The picture De Visé paints is of a comic genius hurtling toward oblivion as fast as he can, fueled by misery, drugs and enablement. Many times in this book a reader may pause to wonder why production on “The Blues Brothers” wasn’t simply halted while Belushi got the help he needed. The unwritten answer is that this would have jeopardized the profitability of the movie and its struggling star. The story here isn’t just about a film, a friendship and a comedy generation. It’s about a man who became a commodity until it killed him. But that’s another book.

Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr’s Watch List.

The Blues Brothers

An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic

By Daniel De Visé

Atlantic Monthly Press. 400 pp. $28

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Book Review: THE BLUES BROTHERS

Paul McGuire Grimes

THE BLUES BROTHERS: An Epic Friendship, The Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic

Yes, you read that correctly. I’m doing a book review. I love books about movies, especially when they hit a sweet spot of being a fun oral history and a deep dive into the history of its stars and filmmakers. It was a real treat to get my hands on a copy of “The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic” by Daniel de Visé, as it also dives into the beginning of Saturday Night Live. The release of this book seems to perfectly coincide with the release of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire starring Blues Brothers vet Dan Aykroyd. Ghostbusters vet Jason Reitman is also currently filming SNL 1975 about the making of the pilot episode. As a massive fan of Saturday Night Live , I love the renewed attention on the sketch comedy giant.

Author Daniel de Visé could have just stuck to the making of 1980s big screen adaptation of The Blues Brothers and its erratic filming and ultimately cult classic status. Instead, he turns this into a rich look back to where it all began. This wasn’t just a movie with two costars hired for the title characters. As his title suggests, he goes back to what led to the immediate friendship between Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi years before they started working on Saturday Night , which was the original title of Saturday Night Live . The book’s first few chapters detail John Belushi’s childhood, his days performing in high school and his eventual work with the comedy troupe Second City in Chicago. de Visé then details Aykroyd’s childhood, his teenage love for the blues, and how he came to meet SNL creator Lorne Michaels and his work with the Toronto cast of Second City. Readers will be interested to learn about their connection to Second City cast members Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, Catherine O’Hara, Eugue Levy, Martin Short, and Gilda Radner. Aykroyd and Belushi would meet when the two casts worked together, and there was an immediate connection between them. They had a different way of working but connected over music and comedy. De Visé offers a plethora of trivia, details, and little known facts with the copious interviews he used for the book. Did you know Oscar winning composer Howard Shore was the one who originally suggested the name “Blues Brothers” to the duo? This was years before they were cast together on Saturday Night Live.

It’s 100 pages into the book before we even get to the pilot episode of Saturday Night Live , and the rocky road to getting Belushi cast and him signing his contract. It’s three years later when Aykroyd and Belushi donned their official suits and performed on Saturday Night Live as The Blues Brothers. It wasn’t just a sketch as they appeared in the opening credits and were credited as The Blues Brothers. No one really knew if this was a sketch, if they were serious, or what the intent of this bit was going to be. Daniel de Visé lays is all out in great detail. Their appearance became a huge hit, and that episode has been lauded as one of the best episodes of Saturday Night Live of all time.

John Belushi had become a huge star given the box office success of Animal House . It’s halfway through the book when author Daniel de Visé starts to dive into the making of the movie of The Blues Brothers which boasted appearances by James Brown and Aretha Franklin in her film debut. He covers it all including Belushi’s untimely death due to a drug overdose, and the future of the Blues Brothers after his passing.

Much like the movie, the book “The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic” works on so many different levels and should appeal to a variety of readers. Whether you’re looking at learning more about improv, the early days of Saturday Night Live , want to revisit the classic movie or remember the comedy legacy of John Belushi, Daniel de Visé offers a rich history of how Jake and Elwood Blues came to be and why it’s still making audiences laugh forty-four years later.

Pick it up today from Grove Atlantic books! Here’s the video I made for TikTok.

Hey, I’m Paul, thank you for checking out my site and following me in my love for all things film and entertainment .

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