As Seen on TV: The Blues Brothers (Dir John Landis, 2h32m, 1980)

Television was once cinema's younger upstart brother; the two mediums have, almost since the birth of television been in constant competition, many of cinema's best (and worst) technical innovations and most fruitful periods driven by the threat presented by the small screen. Sometimes, though, they can be in perfect tandem, films expanding into long-running series, and television series giving rise to cinematic outings as grand finales; the old "six seasons and a movie" formula. Over September, we will consider four of the former, from the start of long-running espionage series, Mission Impossible to abortive remake of fellow spy series, The Avengers to more recent fare, in the form of a cinematic outing for political satire, The Thick of It: in In the Loop. 

Today, though, we consider an 80s classic, straight from the sketches of American cultural institution, Saturday Night Live (SNL), in the form of action comedy, The Blues Brothers. For younger readers unfamiliar with the antics of the titular blues and soul band, fronted by Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd), the band began as an outlet for the duo's fascination-in Aykroyd's case, life-long-with blues music, soon becoming a regular fixture of SNL and making live appearances in character. A movie, of course, seemed the next step. Enter John Landis. 

From the almost ridiculously elaborate backstory of the band-a nearly 400 page narrative manuscript, so eventual director, John Landis cut the script into place over a remarkably quick two weeks, and realised he would have to contend with Belushi's notorius partying and heavy drug taking. The restof the film would involve $3.5 million worth of cars to crash, and result in shutting down the centre of Chicago, including a stunt that would drop a car over a thousand metres into the city's downtown. All this and a bevvy of blues musicians, from Aretha Frankin to Ray Charles, cameoing, which Universal fought against, citing the need to connect with a younger audience. 

They needn't have worried; following his release on good behaviour, Jake is reunited with his brother, and the Bluesmobile, a battered, customised former cop car. Arriving back at their childhood orphanage, ruled over by the fearsome figure of nun, Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman), so the Blues boys run foul of their former guardian, who is dismayed at the lives they are leading, and learn from her that the orphange is to be shut down, as they owe $4,000 in taxes. Encouraged by their other childhood guardian, Curtis (Cab Calloway),and divine inspiration via James Brown's preacher, so the duo set out to put the band back together to raise the cash necessary to keep the orphange open, while pursued by the mysterious and heavily armed figure (played by Carrie Fisher).

From here, The Blues Brothers nimbly balances its consituent elements: first, there is Elwood and Jake's quest across the American North-East in search of their former bandmates, in which both largely steal the show from their (real-life) sidemen. Belushi, in particular, leans into his comedic energies best when playing against the straight men of his bandmates, threatening trumpeter Alan Rubin, now moonlighting as a Maitre'd in an expensive restaurant with their repeated custom after causing a scene, whilst some of the best scenes in the film, particularly the chase through the Dixie Square Mall, feature the duo riffing on the stores they pass at high speed. 

This double act only becomes better once the film enters its frenetic finale, by which time the Brothers are being chased by Illinois Nazis, a vengeful Country and Western band from which the Blues Brothers and their band have stolen a gig, and seemingly endless waves of Chicago police, whose cars seem to have a gravity all of their own, often launching into the air, crashing down hills, ending up upside down or piling into each other, often as our heroes make their getaway. 

Against this, the film stacks its talented real-life blues musicians, in the form of both the Blues Brothers band and the more famous cameos; the film's musical performances, from Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and John Lee Hooker, and those by the Aykroyd and Belushi fronted band, are as important an element as the action to get the Blues Brothers between these musical setpieces, and they drive the narrative of the duo's redemption and "mission from God" to save their childhood orphanage.

The Blues Brothers has, whether despite its peculiar mix of action, blues credentials, and musical sequences, or perhaps because of them, long become a cult classic, beloved from its main setting of Chicago, to the Vatican, who, on the film's 30th anniversary, remarked, via its official newspaper on the film's strong Catholic message. Forty-five years after its release, few film ooze cinematic cool like this paeon to the blues, in its auto-destructive, black-suited tale of redemption

Rating: Must See

The Blues Brothers is available via AppleTV and on DVD from Universal Pictures

Next week, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join Tom Cruise in the first of the modern installments of Mission Impossible.