“Soul Men: The Making of The Blues Brothers” by Ned Zeman, Vanity Fair
Photo: Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the Blues Brothers, Annie Leibovitz, 1979 (VanityFair.com)
Fascinating story in this month’s Vanity Fair about the making of The Blues Brothers — a movie that barely got made and seemed guaranteed to lose truckloads of money.
Everything revolves around Belushi, the most electric and popular comic actor of his time. It would be inaccurate to blame all the movie’s problems on Belushi. He isn’t responsible for the late-developing script or the unwieldy action sequences. It would be even more inaccurate to say Belushi isn’t responsible. He has become a blessed wreck, thanks mostly to his spiraling (and ultimately lethal) addiction to cocaine.
On days when coke gets the best of Belushi, production stalls. And when production stalls, money burns.
Jake Christie 