The Blues Brothers

Fifteen Minute Film Fanatics

Jake and Elwood sing “Everybody Needs Someone to Love” and everybody loves The Blues Brothers: “You … me … them … everybody!” Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about John Landis’s 1980 film that has become movie comfort-food for people raised on the original SNL and others who have come to the film without any knowledge of John Belushi or Dan Ackroyd’s careers. So many comedy sketches fall flat when stretched into the length of a film, but Landis and Ackroyd avoided this when writing The Blues Brothers. How did they do it? What makes this film so rewatchable and affirming, like Singin’ in the Rain? What did Landis get right about the way to make a musical with people who were bigger celebrities than the leads of the movie? Get your four fried chickens, your dry white toast, and a Coke–and then give it a listen!

Interested in a book-length examination of The Blues Brothers? Check out Daniel de Visé’s The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic.

Follow us on X or Letterboxd. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.

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