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Post subject: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 11:21 am
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Last night I watched THE BLUES BROTHERS. I have watched it on film at the theater during original release, broadcast TV seeming monthly on WGN, Laserdisc (remember that format?), Beta, VHS, DVD and now Blu-Ray and kept track of viewings. I have now watched it 101 TIMES completely all the way through by my count, but there have been various edits of it. I found the newly released extended director's cut DVD and Blu-Ray to be worth seeking out as it is amazing watching Elwood quit his job at the chemical plant to go on the mission and explains where the glue and flamethrower fuel spray cans came from. The director's cut is better than the theatrical release! Always fun to try to count the wrecked police cars! Have yet to succeed at that completely. I've been told they had 70 cars to wreck.

If you watch the numbers on top of the police cruisers you'll see they wrecked car #73 twice in the same scene as they showed it going over the same ledge twice at different times! There are oodles of errors in this film. The bulk of production expense was not on a continuity director. There are about 50 continuity errors and several shots that would benefit from a CGI "touch-up" today. It's kinda fun to look for them and the more you watch it the more of them you find. If you've noticed any errors in the film like I have, post them here!


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:17 pm
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Thanks for the infos, I'll try to find it. 8)


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 12:54 pm
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@brotherdave+1

Thanks Brother :D It 's really a long time since I do not watch the movie... now I try to find the DC and try to find any mistakes! :D :D

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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:00 pm
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Great movie. Can't count how many times I've watched it, but it's been quite a few. One of those few you can watch over and over again.

I hate to say it, but even Blues Brothers 2000 isn't too bad. Though it did take it being shown on cable before I finally got around to watching it...


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 4:12 pm
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Wonder what their budget was with all of that indoor mall driving/crashing/breaking glass/etc..

Great flick though :D Funny seeing Bones Malone on Letterman Show now after seeing that flick!

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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:20 pm
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Best movie, ever! Introduced me to many artists and songs that would eventually become mainstays of my life. And so much fun. Now I've gotta find that director's cut.
SB
:D


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 11:53 pm
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Hi brotherdave I don't know of any mistakes but part of the car chase was shot in a town called Park Ridge where I grew up and you can see the flat iron building with Peiphos pharmacy on the corner. In the late 50's my friends and I would go there on Saturday mornings to read comic books and drink 10c coca-cola's from the old coke machine there. It was quite exciting when they shot those scenes although I was an old guy by then,lol.

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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 2:28 am
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Eric Clapton was among the cast.

Image


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 6:51 am
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I liked Ray's version of "Shake a Tail Feather" - I actually have the original version by the Five DuTones. Mitch Ryder did a decent version too.


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:52 am
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chromeface wrote:
Eric Clapton was among the cast.

Image



Hmm which guitars are those. Looks like some wide dot spacing and black truss rod plugs.


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 11:44 am
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chromeface wrote:
Eric Clapton was among the cast.

Image


That was in "Blues Brothers 2000" which was another film made much later after John Belushi's death. I'd like to stay with the original "Blues Brothers" if we can.


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 1:23 pm
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Here's an error that is very easy to spot and today would be cleaned up with CGI. In the chase scene when they are being chased by the Neo-Nazi's through the construction zone and Elwood stands on the brakes just in time to keep the Bluesmobile from going completely over the end of the uncompleted roadway to the sheer drop, the front wheels do go just over the edge. However you can plainly see metal rails welded onto the front end of the car that allows the front end of the car to come backwards and pull up completely over the end of the roadway.

Here's another. When the Bluesmobile finally stops in the Daley Plaza and the Brothers jump out to go pay the tax on the orphanage, one of the windows is rolled partway down. After the edit to the wider shot a split second before the car self-destructs all the windows are magically rolled up.

One more. During the "Rawhide" sequence at Bob's Country Bunker, you can clearly see Jake already has the whip in a wide shot made from the audience perspective of the stage, yet a moment later in a close-up he is shown grabbing the whip from off the wall.

And yes they spent a LOT on this film, however the bulk of the money spent went to crew members and not for cars or effects. There's hardly any post-production effects at all, mainly because there was no money left for it in post. 70 used Illinois Highway Patrol cars were bought at $700 each for the film. That's all the cars that were wrecked or damaged except the various Bluesmobiles. Some of the cars were wrecked in one scene, repaired and wrecked again with a 24x7 body shop on location. 13 California Highway Patrol 1974 Dodge Monacos were purchased to play the Bluesmobile and got the Mount Prospect ID kit to make it look like that is where they came from plus modifications to do certain stunts. One of these Monacos is at Universal Orlando and rides various teams of "Blues Brothers" to multiple daily shows with the gigantic speaker tied onto the top with ropes. The BUDGET was set in pre-production but for some reason kept from director John Landis. The budget was 17.5 million dollars. By the time he was told what the budget actually was he thought he had already spent at least that much. Location shooting in Chicagoland was supposed to wrap in August, but took till October. It went 10 million over budget, at least partly due to Belushi's substance abuse issues which made him unreliable. It also was way too long at the previews and had Universal execs lining up their resumes and mending fences so they could jump ship and land elsewhere. Immediately after the exhibitor's preview (these are the people that actually BOOK films into theaters) it became painfully apparent to Universal that there would be exhibition problems as well as the most important film exhibitors would not book it into any of their theaters in "white" neighborhoods because of all the black people in the film. That is the plain truth and there is no other way to say it. As a result of this bigotry, even in California in 1980, it opens in only around 600 theaters nationwide instead of the usual 1600 to 1700 for a major film of the day.

So after spending 27.5 million Universal execs braced for a tragedy. Belushi and Ackroyd's previous outing called "1941" in spite of being directed by Steven Spielberg was widely considered to have "under-performed" at the box office. They were not just nervous, they were manic. Critics widely trashed "The Blues Brothers" in advance of the opening. However the film studio execs gave up on and many predicted would be the biggest flop in film history...and the film bigoted exhibitors refused to screen in their "white" theaters... opened in June of 1980 to make 115 million dollars in original release. It became Universal's biggest musical comedy success to this day.


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 2:46 pm
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You have a good eye for catching that stuff, brotherdave.

I seem to only remember the musicians and the music :

She Caught The Katy
Peter Gunn Theme
Gimme Some Lovin'
Shake a Tail Feather
Everybody Needs Somebody
Old Landmark
Think
Rawhide theme
Minnie The Moocher
Sweet Home Chicago
Jailhouse Rock

Steve Cropper
Duck Dunn
Aretha Franklin
Ray Charles
James Brown
Cab Calloway
John Belushi
Dan Aykroyd
Matt Guitar Murphy
Willie Hall
Tom Bones Malone
Lou (Blue Lou) Marini


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:23 pm
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Miami Mike wrote:
I seem to only remember the musicians and the music

You got most of 'em but you done left out John Lee Hooker. I love that version of "Boom Boom" on the South End of Chicago streets!


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Post subject: Re: Blues Brothers 101
Posted: Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:13 pm
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The movie is one of my favorites. I've had it on 3 or 4 different media(VHS etc) and have watched it maybe 25 times (not sure). I was in a road band in 1980 and we did 3 or 4 songs in our sets. The movie just has a great feel to it. I imagine when I see the directors cut I'll get it. I also have a 1/18 scale Bluesmobile diecast with the big air raid spkr on top. I was born and lived near Chicago when I was a kid so the movie reminds me of way back when. Chicago is quite a place but it's stinkin' cold in the Winter.


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