Gordon Universe

The Blues Brothers
1980. John Landis.

The Blues Brothers was the first movie to be based on characters from Saturday Night Live, and is arguably the best. The movie, which is essentially a musical, is a love letter to blues music and musicians, and contains numbers by many legendary musicians, including Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin and James Brown.

The film follows brothers Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) as they, on a mission from God, attempt to put their old band back together to raise money for an orphanage, while being chased by the police, a redneck country/western band, a group of Illinois-based Nazis and a mysterious woman.

The whole thing feels absolutely epic (partly because its so damn long), which is a huge accomplishment from director John Landis, considering the fact that it’s a comedy and the plot is relatively thin, but everything in here is so big, exaggerated and over the top and it all works perfectly. The Blues Brothers isn’t a movie. It’s a monster, a gigantic musical beast.

It also features one of the most entertaining car chase sequences ever filmed. A couple of them, actually.

John Candy, Henry Gibson, Carrie Fisher, Frank Oz and even Steven Spielberg appear in small roles.