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The Blues Brothers (1980)
In director John Landis' rock-filled, anarchic crime-comedy,
with many cameo appearances (Twiggy, Carrie Fisher, Ray Charles,
John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Pee-Wee Herman, Aretha Franklin, Cab
Calloway, Steve Lawrence, Steven Spielberg, and Frank Oz - of the
Muppets, and more!):
- the character pairing of two "blues brothers" -
two white singers with soul, shades, and identical black suits
and hats: Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd)
- their meeting with their former teacher, Sister Mary "The
Penguin" Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman), who sent them on a "mission
from God" to raise $5,000 to save the Catholic orphanage from
foreclosure where they were raised, after reprimanding them ("You
are such a disappointing pair. I prayed so hard for you. It saddens
and hurts me that the two young men whom I raised to believe in the
Ten Commandments have returned to me as two thieves"), striking
them for having
"filthy mouths and bad attitudes" - and warning them not
to come back "until you've redeemed yourselves"
- Elwood's repeated famous line to Jake: ("We're
on a mission from God!") to justify their brotherly activities,
in the Triple Rock Baptist church, in the presence of Reverend Cleophus
James (James Brown), who was preaching: "Do you see the light?...Have
you seen the light?"
- the tremendous number of noisy and wasteful multi-car
crashes and pile-ups on the way to and in the city of Chicago as
they were relentlessly pursued in their Bluesmobile by police, and
the incredible amount of carnage, destroyed buildings and shopping
malls
- the scene of Neo-Nazi leader (Henry Gibson) conducting
a rally of "Illinois Nazis" on a stone bridge: ("White
men! White women! The swastika is calling you! The sacred and ancient
symbol of your race since the beginning of time. The Jew is using
the black as muscle against you. And you are left there, helpless...What
are you gonna do about it, whitey? Just sit there? Of course not!
You are going to join with us, the members of the American Socialist
White People's Party - an organization of decent law-abiding white
folk just like you"), and the sequence in which the Blues Brothers
forced the followers to jump off the bridge when they drove through
after Jake's statement: "I hate Illinois Nazis"
The Neo-Nazi Rally
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- the Blues Brothers' many performances, including
their main rendition of
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" at the Palace Hotel
Ballroom north of Chicago, "Shake a Tail Feather" with
Ray Charles at Ray's Music Exchange Shop, the theme from "Rawhide" to
win over an unruly country bar crowd at Bob's Country Bunker in Kokomo, "Minnie
the Moocher" (reprised by Cab Calloway), and "Think" (a
show-stopping version performed in a diner by Aretha Franklin)
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"Rawhide"
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"Minnie the Moocher"
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"Shake a Tail Feather"
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- the concluding sequence of the two brothers, pursued
by cops, bands, guardsmen, SWAT teams, etc, and ending up paying
the orphanage's property taxes inside the Cook County City Hall
- where they were promptly arrested with dozens of guns pointed
at them
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The Blues Bros.
Sister Stigmata
"We're on a mission from God!"
Carnage in Shopping Mall
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love"
"Jailhouse Rock"
"Think"
In Cook County City Hall
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