Blues Brothers

I watched The Blues Brothers in a 30th Anniversary celebration last night at our local theater.  Even though I must have seen that movie countless times on DVD and TV, I never get tired of it.  It's a perfect combination of slapstick, wit, and music.  I don't know what part of it appeals to me most.

Like everybody does who likes it, I have favorite lines.  The classic "We're on a mission from God" shows up with me and my friends, and I also love "Our Blessed Lady of Acceleration, don't fail us now!"  One day, if I ever get better with my figural ceramics, I have a piece in my head that is going to be a statue of Our Blessed Lady of Acceleration.  It's going to be a multi-media piece.  There are others, too, some of them spectacularly impolite. It's hilarious.

Belushi and Aykroyd are a perfect match.   The wild mania of Belushi and the straight man of Aykroyd team so neither overwhelms the other.  Both were also wise enough to let the true stars of the show, the musicians, shine, too, because The Blues Brothers is as much a movie about the roots of American music as it is anything else.

I've always thought of it as a love letter to the evolution of America's music.  It starts with gospel, touches country, Motown, pure blues, Chicago blues, and ends with rock.  Other styles are present, too, but those great touchstones of American music are present there.  Knowing that Aykroyd especially is such an aficionado of music, particularly blues, makes me think this film must have been special.  I think I've read somewhere that when The Blues Brothers was made, most of the artists who were in it were actually in sort of a decline in their musical careers at the time, and the movie revived interest in them.  It's hard to believe that anybody could ever forget John Lee Hooker, Aretha, or Ray Charles, but if that is true, then it's just another thing about this movie that I love.

Funny, musical, and loaded with everybody in the world from Carrie Fisher and Frank Oz to Stephen Spielberg and Pee Wee Herman, The Blues Brothers is always going to be one of my favorites.  I'm thinking of watching it again tonight, in fact, just to see some of my favorite scenes again since I was so very tired at the end of a long school day yesterday.  After all, here at home, I can sing along with my favorite musical numbers and clap when the Illinois Nazis get theirs at the end....