This movie was fantastic. Absolutely beautiful in just about every single way. I don’t know how the jokes or comedic timing or the stars could be any better. Rather than just summarizing the movie, I think there are a few points to make when considering applications to the world we live in today, as opposed to 1980.
At the end of the movie, the Blues Brothers are being chased by the police, a gang of Nazi’s and a country band. A radio operator says over the police channel “Use of unnecessary violence in apprehension of the Blues Brothers…has been approved”. What proceeds to unfold is the most over-the-top police chase I’ve ever seen on film, including helicopters, a tank, rappelling SWAT teams, 20-30 squad cars, etc. They proceed to hunt the Blue’s Brothers all over Chicago, finally cornering them at the courthouse.
These entire scene strongly reminded me about the issues going on today with the increasing militarization of domestic police forces. The comical overreaction of police violence to two runaway blues musicians is reminiscent of more recent overreactions of police violence in the last few years, both in Ferguson and elsewhere. The key part of the officers quote is *unnecessary* violence. One gets the impression that the officers are overjoyed to have a chance to test out some cool new toys: justice does not seem to be the motive. And I believe that this accurately reflects an attitude that we should have today: the more “cool” equipment and powerful weapons that we allow domestic police departments to have, the more inclined they will be to use them. This is exacerbated by the fact that the Blues Brothers aren’t even the most dangerous people in the movie: both the country band and the Nazi’s shoot at the brothers at points during the film, while the worst that the brothers do is (admittedly a lot of) property damage. Again, there is a parallel to the current day when it sometimes seems like the priorities of police departments aren’t to address the real sources of danger, but to stereotype and go after people that are assumed dangerous (particularly unarmed, black men) instead of actually dangerous people (Nazi’s).
This film sounds very interesting from your description. I had never heard about it, but now I am definitely going to add it to my list of movies to watch over break!
I really like how you are relating the film to the problems we face today. I think it is an interesting contrast to our current situation. We always assume we are head of other counties in terms of human rights and the standard of living but actually, we are regressing to a place where a movie about the past can still describe our society and its downfalls. These downfalls especially mirror issues we believe we have resolved and made it so everyone is equal, when actually there are still growing pockets of those who still believe in the incorrect beliefs of the past.
This is one of my favourite movies, and I was pleasantly surprised while watching this last night to notice this same detail. I hadn’t caught it before, but I think that the film is deliberately placing elements of black culture in opposition to the police, as you mentioned. It’s worth nothing that not only Nazis but “The Good Ol’ Boys”, representing a normative white country culture, are ultimately on the same side as a ridiculously overpowered police force in stopping this celebration of Jazz music.
I really, really did not like this movie until maybe the last 20 minutes. I understand that the final police chase was supposed to be over the top, but I didn’t work for me, as satire or as entertainment. Once you’ve seen one pileup of police cars, I don’t really think you need to see another … or five more. But, around the time the dispatcher says that “use of unnecessary force” has been approved”, the satire started to work for me, and I really enjoyed the conclusion of the movie. I agree with you that it makes an excellent point about the militarization of police forces that is, unfortunately, quite relevant today.