At one point, probably when I was 14 or so, The Blues Brothers was my favorite film.
That means at one point, probably when I was 14 or so, my favorite film in the whole world was a musical, and I pretty much just now realized that. This explains so much.
Yes, The Blues Brothers is a musical. You've got dance numbers, actors spontaneously breaking into song, large-scale choreography — all wrapped around a paper-thin plot that somehow gets stretched more than two hours.
But The Blues Brothers is unlike any other musical, according to my wife, in that it does not suck. I mean, you get great music, great comedy, and the kind of dialogue you can take to school to impress women.
The Blues Brothers is also one of the greatest comedies ever made, and did more to shape my sense of humor than any one other film not called Spies Like Us or Caddyshack.
The Blues Brothers is also an action film. You've got hundreds of cops, military personnel, Nazis, jilted lovers, and a country & western bar band (they play both kinds of music) chasing them, shooting at them, firing bazookas at them...and these are some epic chase sequences — the chase sequence at the end is one for the ages. Backflipping cars?
Oh, and Steven Spielberg shows up to take their tax money at the end, and the receipt is made out to Jake and Elwood Blues, 1060 W. Addison (Wrigley Field), and is signed by R.J. Daley. That's Richard J. Daley, who had been dead for 3 years at the time. I love everything about this.
This
However, I've been watching the wrong movie all along. Before we could really afford to own movies, I taped The Blues Brothers from TV. Now, my most vivid memories of this film are sullied by TV edits and jumpy VHS efforts to cut out the commercials.
Plus, this DVD edition is billed as having "Bonus Footage" — 12 additional minutes not in the original theatrical release or the TV edit. No wonder I feel like I'm watching a different movie. This is the film I should've known all along.
Entire scenes are missing from the TV version I know so well (Elwood quitting the spray can factory, much of the Nazi stuff, the gas station blowing up, etc.), and the language, oh the language. I don't mind the language, but after dozens, literally dozens of viewings, I'm used to the wrong version! Was I quoting TV edits in school? That explains so much.
I've had the DVD for a few years, but I've only watched the full, unedited version maybe twice, and never paying close enough attention to see all the differences. I prefer this version now, but man, I wish I'd known years ago. What a treasure.
"The Blues Brothers? Shiiit! They still owe you money, fool."
ReplyDeleteWe got two honkies out there, dressed like Hasidic diamond merchants.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know there was a version with bonus scene. I'm going to have to find that. Interestingly, for years I watched Blazing Saddles taped from TV, and not only did they censor the language, but they added scenes. Even stranger, there are a couple of scenes that they didn't even add to the special edition that has the bonus scenes.
ReplyDelete"Damn unions are strangling the west. Don't print that! Don't print that! I'll lose the blue collar vote."
-low-delta
low-delta: Apparently all DVDs have at least this version now. The newest version has both theatrical and extended cuts, so that should be pretty easy to find for about ten bucks.
ReplyDelete