The Blues Brothers: the perfect movie?

Last week, Arte (a French/German tv channel dedicated to culture) aired again The Blues Brothers (1980). I zapped on it… and once again, even if I know the movie by heart, I couldn’t help but watch it to the end.

A musical, a comedy, an action film, a “live” cartoon, the Blues Brothers is all that at the same time and a whole that is worth much more than the sum of its parts; a delicate balance that could have led to something wobbly, but which ultimately functions in a completely coherent way. The proof being, the miracle will remain unique and misunderstood, including by its own creators.

To look after the universe and the motivations of the protagonists, is all that will be forgetten in the sequel “Blues Brothers 2000”. The sets of the first film were phantasmagoric, those of the sequel will be mundane. When James Brown sings in a sumptuous church in 1980, in 1999 he does it… under a tent. Where the motivation of the brothers are clear in the first movie (saving the orphanage), those of the Blues Brothers 2000 will be very fuzzy (to gain a systranLinks,-31,-,100">Blues competition so vital that they won’t even win it?). The repetition of the same sequences doesn’t turn to the sequel’s advantage (the neo-Nazis, car stunts setting a new record but meh). And it doesn’t have Steven Spielberg in the end. And what to say about the musical numbers which, if they are successful musically (extraordinary Johnny Lang!), they are only seldom integrated into the pretence of intrigue that is BB2000.

In short, The Blues Brothers, it is an enthusiasm-filled miracle, a musical UFO that features interpreters in a state of grace. We’re led to believe they REALLY were on mission for the Lord…