When I was a wee one, often my friend’s father would have to work weekends in the city, and he would take me and my friend with him to hang out at the office. One weekend, on the way in, we saw a car fall from the clear blue sky and were amazed.
It turned out that it was the Nazi car from the filming of the Blues Brothers. A year or two later, my friend and I saw that movie and remembered that moment. We laughed a lot at that, and the fact that :eek: people were -swearing- in the movie! (We were quite young.)
So, remembering it as a great movie from my childhood, I picked it up again recently and… Wow. Blown away. I mean, as a kid I appreciated that there was some good music in there, but the idea of having so many legendary-level musicians put aside their egos and just perform like that… Blows me away. I had no idea who these people were when I was a kid, but now, looking at it, every other scene I have to squee at the talent they got involved.
One thing I wonder, though; I know that any attempt to do something like that today would be all about the celebrities, and would be covered for years of pre-production, and would likely have American Idol winners and the like, for the sake of demographics. I’m wondering… What was the hype like when the Blues Brothers first premiered? Anyone know / remember?
I don’t recall exactly how hyped the film was (maybe not much, compared to things today), but the film did get a piece in a news program here in the UK. I think it was mainly about the number of cars wrecked making the film. As a kid I especially liked the chase scene in the Dixie Mall.
I don’t think the egos were entirely put away, they did have some trouble with Calloway according to the documentary on my DVD. He wanted to use his Disco version of ‘Minnie the Moocher’…
I think that the critical reviews were pretty harsh, and the box office numbers were also disappointing, as the movie initially lost money, although by now it may have turned a profit, as it has become a true cult classic…
Mayor Daley the First would never allow filmmakers to come and shoot in Chicago, so when Jane Byrne essentially gave Landis and company a free pass to the city, it was a big deal. I remember the shooting being featured on the local news shows night after night (okay, maybe not every night, but a lot), and the movie opened to huge fanfare here.
I was 17 at the time and I can’t recall ever loving a movie as much as I loved The Blues Brothers when I first saw it (Woodfield 3 & 4, Schaumburg). It remains one of my all-time favorites.
My impression over the years, though, was that it never got a whole lot of attention, good or bad, outside of Chicago. I’m not at all sure how accurate that impression is.
It was the 10th highest grossing film of 1980 - cite.
Working purely off memory, the foundation for the movie came from Aykroyd and Belushi doing a more-or-less serious bit on SNL using some of the staff band members as backup. Dan even had a blues club where they worked on the act until it got to be big on their list of non-SNL gigs.
I do know that my teenage son (born 1969) was big into the whole concept with book and other such merchandise (had to go check The Blues Brothers - Wikipedia to supplement my memory of dates) in the early 80’s. I can’t remember if I saw the movie before the kids did or with them, but I loved it then and love it now. Saw it again within the past year and marveled at the destruction of cars in it!
1978 on SNL: - YouTube
I hate Illinois Nazis.
I recall the Blues Brothers on Saturday Night Live, and I also remember their Briefcase full of Blues album (1978), which predated the movie’s release in 1980. I’d imagine others did too, as “Soul Man” reached 14 on the Billboard chart. So they already had a following when the movie came out.
I don’t recall that the movie was promoted differently than any other–there were ads on TV, trailers in theatres, a snappy tagline (“They’ll never get caught. They’re on a mission from God”), and the poster appeared under the “Coming Attractions” sign at the theatre itself. There certainly wasn’t a lot of hype as regards the music or music stars in the film, as I remember–the musicians were billed (but not pictured) on the poster, and it was obvious that there was going to be a lot of music, but it was far from the hype that was generated about the music stars that were in Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band two years earlier. Rather, the publicity seemed to be more about Aykroyd and Belushi, in the roles they had developed for an SNL sketch, now in a movie.
I don’t think it had any more hype than any other movie. In Chicago, it was a big deal because of all the location work. Other than a couple of older movies, (North by Northwest, Call Northside 777, Chicago didn’t have a lot of movies filmed here at the time. Different story now.
There was one “family” reviewer who gave it a bad rating because “It makes reckless driving and running from the police seem like great fun.” Ummm, yeah, I think that was the idea. But you can understand her concern because you remember just after this movie came out, there were those hundreds of teenagers killed when there was that brief fad of provoking cop cars into high speed chases? It was called “Mission from God”?
Don’t you remember that? That’s funny, I don’t either.
Anyway, the use of excessive violence in apprehending the Blues Brothers has been approved.
It was a good flick. The Saturday Night Live appearances and Briefcase full of Blues guaranteed a decent core audience for the movie. SNL was BIG and Ackroyd and Belushi were BIG at the time. The movie was done on the back of those two, and not really on the legendary musicians. I think Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin both gave stunning performances. John Lee who was kinda where the other legendary muscians were in the line up and for recognition. (John Lee Hooker had quite the resurgence a few years later when he could record again and did the concerts with Van Morrison, Rolling Stones, Clapton etc.)
I remember the Blues angle being hyped but most people in the teens and twenties only knew the white rock star blues and it was the first exposure to some of the blues legends.
I was and still am a huge blues fan, but the music just screamed “white boy blues” despite having a great backing band. Of course, the legendary old blues guys were great and it’s a damn shame that Muddy Waters was sick during the filming.
Joe Walsh makes a cameo in the prison riot (he jumps up on the table).
Nowadays a remake would feature American Idol winners and at least one Palin. Gah, I have to go bleach my brain.
It got a lot of pop culture play in my part of the midwest, when I was 10. The SNL blues brothers routine was a a hit before the movie and I remember how big the blues brothers costume was at Halloween, pretty much all through the 80’s (if not even today.) I think we even knew a guy who did a Blues Brothers tribute/ novelty/ booked gig. Quite a widespread thing…
I’m from Chicago – that movie was locally a legend before it came out. No hype necessary.
My recollection is there wasn’t a whole buncha hype, either. SNL + buzz was a pretty good boost by itself. It was more like a “sleeper/low-rent hit of the summer” deal.
Hit it.
I thought Arethra was great at the time as well, but listening to the DVD commentary ( or something ), Landis pointed out that she was just flat out awful at lip-synching and if you watch carefully you can pick up on that. The problem was of course that she had never really lip-synched and usually didn’t do any song exactly the same from performance to performance. So she was constantly getting out of rhythm and flubbing lyrics. Not really her fault in any real sense, but apparently it was a very frustrating scene to shoot ( apparently so was the RC scene, but more because of the dancers ).
I believe he said that by the time they got to JLH they just had him play live and screw the lip-synching and choreography ;).
Never saw it in a theater - my brother had it on VHS and I remember the grand hullaballoo when he brought it and his VCR to Mom’s house so we could watch it on the big screen TV. (Kids of today - there was a time when a 25" TV was a BIG TV. IIRC, 30" was the absolute max for the longest time as that was the largest CRT that could fit through a normal doorway.)
Not sure what was more awe-inspiring - the movie itself or that there was this big box that could be hooked up to a TV and you could watch movies with it.
Fix the cigarette lighter.
The Ray Charles number also had the world’s cutest little girl strutting her tail feathers. (Link- 1:52 seconds in, wearing the Mickey Mouse t-shirt.) I wonder what ever became of her?
It’s a hundred and six miles to Chicago. We’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
I like the brunette in the flimsy bra, usually seen either on the far left or far right. Pity she turns away from the cameras at the end.
I don’t know if you consider 1998 “nowadays,” and it’s not a remake, but they DID make a sequel (Blues Brothers 2000), and the only whippersnapper who played music in it was Johnny Lang. Yes, he LOOKED like one of the Hanson boys, but I think most would agree that he had sufficient blues cred to belong up there.
…and yes, the plot was even sillier than the first one, but who goes to a Blues Brothers movie for the taut screenwriting? The big battle-of-the-bands climax alone was worth the price of admission, and I’m not ashamed to admit I own both a DVD of the movie and a copy of the soundtrack.