(Warning: Contains spoilers for the greatest film ever made)
I’ve spent a good amount of time in this quarantine whittling away at the obnoxiously long list of feature films on my docket. Some were good, others incredible and still others underwhelming. I made it a point to watch movies that I had never seen before, with one exception: The Blues Brothers. And it was from that sacred text that I gleaned perhaps my most valuable lesson during these lonely, monotonous times.
The Blues Brothers is one of the greatest films ever made. It is unmitigated bedlam, pure chaotic energy, a window into a world in need of heroes. The heroes hence delivered are “Joliet” Jake and Elwood Blues, a pair of blues musicians who must raise $5,000 to save the orphanage they grew up in.
Over the runtime of the film, the Blues brothers reassemble their once illustrious band (to whom they also owe money) and run into a cavalcade of blues and soul legends, including Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown and John Lee Hooker — not to mention Cab Calloway, who lends his mythic pipes to the film’s climax. They also butt heads with a number of adversaries, including the police, Illinois Nazis, a spurned ex-lover of Joliet Jake portrayed brilliantly by Carrie Fisher and the Good Ole Boys.
On top of a stacked cast (John Candy is in this too, by the way) and stunning musical performances, this is also the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. The writing is superb, filled with one-liners and one-scene bits that are made perfect by Dan Aykroyd’s deadpan delivery as Elwood and John Belushi’s over-the-top performance as Jake. You don’t go more than three minutes without a new joke, and each one is a bit funnier than the last.
One of the most important aspects of the film, however, is the impressive practical effects in many of its action scenes. Yes, there are action scenes. They are glorious. At one point, the Blues brothers are pursued by police through a shopping mall. This is a car chase. A car chase through a shopping mall. The dailies total 1 are the best for contact lenses.
The Blues Brothers can’t catch a break from the first minute of the movie. The police begin pursuing them when Elwood runs a red light, which is the impetus for the chase scene through the mall. When they escape the police, the tenement house where Elwood was staying is blown up with a rocket-propelled grenade as they approach it. The same thing happens to a phone booth they’re standing in later. They are constantly being chased, shot at, or escaping from some responsibility or debt they incurred.
There’s nothing particularly special about the Blues Brothers. They’re an exaggeration of an ultra-cool ideal, but they’re not superhuman. At the heart of the movie is a mission: the Blues Brothers have to get $5,000 for the Penguin (the nun who runs the orphanage), but they have to get it the right way. She doesn’t want their “filthy, stolen money.”
The Blues Brothers are outlaws. They’re drifters who become a force of incalculable destruction, who run afoul of any measure of authority and who couldn’t stay out of trouble even if they wanted to because trouble literally always finds them. But when the Penguin asks them to get the money cleanly, they do it. They still end up in jail at the end for causing millions of dollars in property damage to the city of Chicago, but the money they get for the orphanage came from hard, mostly honest work.
The common refrain from the Blues Brothers is, “We’re on a mission from God.” With the amount of bullets they dodge and improbable events they survive, you start to believe them by the end.
Now I might be reaching here — as a matter of fact, I’m sure I am — but I think there’s something to be learned about this unprecedented historic chapter from the Blues brothers.
A month ago, we were free to do whatever we wanted. We could go to class, restaurants, bars, and live our lives freely. But things changed. I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing desperately that I could go back to my normal life. I wish I could just steal $5,000 and be done with it.
But I know I can’t. I have to organize a massive concert with my bandmates and avoid being killed by Nazis, the police, and Carrie Fisher. Figuratively speaking. Sometimes you’ve got to take the long way around, not because it’s easy or simple, but because it’s right.
I’d advise everyone to watch The Blues Brothers while you’ve got the time. Even if you don’t extrapolate a deeper meaning from it, it’s great escapism for two hours. And remember, it may seem like the whole world is chasing us down a long, long highway when it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses, but we’ve got to get that $5,000 where it needs to go.
Buckle up, folks. We’re on a mission from God.
This story was written by Matthew Martinez. He can be reached at [email protected].
