It almost sounds sacrilegious to state that the Vatican might be slipping a bit by deeming The Blues Brothers as a classic since really, it’s been a classic without vindication from a source that’s been seen as a bit hypocritical for a while now. Hold on a sec….nope, still here, lightning didn’t strike me down, yet. Let’s at least give them some credit for stating what the world already knew, that The Blue Brothers, campy as it can be at times, is a bonafide classic and has been for a while since John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd came up with the idea and rolled it out for people to see. Back in the day when it came out the movie was a bit hard to take since it was new, it was kind of eye-popping in some ways, and it definitely pushed the edge of good taste since it was one the many movies that were still not willing to show any shyness towards certain terms and ideas. But when it came to the whole idea of the movie it was about as inclusive as it could be and it actually carried a pretty positive message despite the idea that the two main characters were anything but saints.
The fun thing is that this doesn’t matter since the mission they were on turned them into the heroes of the movie no matter that they were kind of hopeless in a very big way. Jake after all was the kind of guy that cheated just about everyone, though he did make good by the end of the movie with the band and the people he owed money to. Elwood just kind of went along with his brother’s machinations, but was also kind of a hood all on his own, though he wasn’t nearly as charismatic as Jake. Why the Vatican is stating that this movie is a classic after so long is kind of confusing, but it’s better to go with it than sit here and continue to puzzle over why such a statement would matter. One reason this might be the case is that the movie did feature the Catholic church in the form of The Penguin, played by Kathleen Freeman, who beat the holy hell out of the brothers when they sat down to speak to her in her office near the beginning of the movie. The fact that they wanted to help was accepted, but the method they were bound to use was something The Penguin couldn’t abide as she kicked them out of her office following a swearing tirade that was met with a barrage of whacks from a yardstick and the threat of a much bigger stick that had the brothers up and running.
One great part about the movie was that it featured a host of famous singers such as Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, and a few others that were fun to watch. This was definitely a movie that got funnier the drunker one was, but even sober it’s pretty amusing since it has enough slapstick to be enjoyable and enough feeling throughout that makes it a real gem in the eyes of many discerning fans. Unfortunately, John Belushi passed away only two years after the movie’s release, and Dan Aykroyd did attempt to create a sequel, but to disastrous results, since many people would rather forget about the attempt at this point. There’s no topping the original movie since it had so much and featured so many famous faces that won’t come around again, even though Aretha Franklin did make it into the sequel, no matter that her role wasn’t quite as impressive as she was the first time around. But the loss of so much of the cast was kind of a hit that the sequel couldn’t afford to take, and it might have been better if it had never been made in the first place. But the classic status of the original movie is something that isn’t about to fade since enough people are still alive that remember growing up with this movie and enjoying the hilarious antics of the pair that made the skit come to life.
There are times when it feels as though talents such as those that John Belushi had don’t feel like they’re bound to come around again, but looking all over Hollywood it’s fair to say that as the landscape has changed, so has the talent, and in doing so it’s become something that’s not too far removed from the skills that helped to make The Blues Brothers, but it’s definitely different. Labeling this movie as a classic is kind of a given, but now that the Vatican apparently agrees it’s easy to think that people are going to assume that it means a little more. In truth, it’s classic status has been in place for a while now.
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