CULT CINEMA
The Blues Brothers 15
USA | 1980 133 minutes
DIRECTED BY
John Landis
STARRINGJohn Belushi | Dan Aykroyd | Cab Calloway
28 January 2026 WEDNESDAY 19:30
AUDITORIUM
Tickets £9.00|£5.00 (under 26)
The Blues Brothers started out as a music and comedy sketch popping up at regular intervals on the American TV show Saturday Night Live in the 1970s. It was immensely popular, and the idea of making a film emerged. John Landis had previously directed John Belushi in National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) and was slated to make the new film.
After some delays in getting a screenplay together, a budget was set at US$17.5m by Universal Studios, which had won the rights in a bidding war with Paramount. Filming began in summer 1979, and the film is set mostly in Chicago. Things went swimmingly for a short time, but then delays accumulated and costs spiralled out of control. In the end the film broke its budget by US$10m. It’s not hard to see why …
The Bluesmobile is not just one car, but 13, each adapted to perform in different types of stunt. Scores of police cars were purchased (admittedly at a very reasonable US$400 each) and were summarily destroyed in various chase scenes. On release, the film held the world record for the number of cars destroyed during the making of a film. The final scenes used over 500 extras, including 200 National Guardsmen and 100 police officers, not to mention the horses, helicopters, fire-engines and Sherman tanks. Phew!
The film’s US release was relatively low-key. Some cinema chains did not want to screen it, or would only show it in predominantly Black areas. It hit only half the cinemas that would have been normal at the time for a big-budget movie. But it took a lot of money in those cinemas and has since gone on to build a worldwide box-office of more than US$115m.
Not only is its cult status assured, the film has now been selected for preservation at the US National Film Registry, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
So, it’s fun; it’s funny; it has an extraordinary soundtrack and an astounding cast to support Belushi and Aykroyd in their key roles - including Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Chaka Khan, Ray Charles, Carrie Fisher, and Twiggy.
Do come and see it back on the big screen at The Eclectic Cinema!