[Roll Your Own Life] The Movies That Made Me (Part 9)

THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980)

I was doing this list chronologically as these movies had an impact on me, and despite this being a film released five years before the latest entry on the list, this is about the right time for the movie to have made an impact on me. After Ghostbusters, especially when it was released on VHS, I hunted down all the movies that featured the SNL actors who appeared in it, and branched out into others of the same ilk. I loved all the early Steve Martin movies (especially The Man With Two Brains) and those early Chevy Chase movies. Dan Aykroyd was a legend in my eyes, and I looked for any movie he was in - but one really didn't appeal to me. The Blues Brothers.

I don't know why - probably because it looked like it was a musical and I really hate musicals. There are a couple of exceptions (Rocky Horror, Once More With Feeling, Dr Horrible) but most of the time the moment someone bursts into song I turn off. But, I needed to see this one. I loved Dan Aykroyd, and John Belushi was awesome in Animal House and 1941. Hell, it even had Carrie Fisher in it who was in my favourite movie ever, so I relented and rented it from the video store.

Oh boy was I ever wrong. The Blues Brothers is one of my faves. It's funny, has a hell of a heart behind it, and loads of little details that just stick with you - "He broke my watch!" 

Their quest to raise enough money to save the orphanage where they grew up results in an epic concert con-job and one of the most destructive and longest car chases ever put on screen. Going by Wikipedia, 103 cars were trashed making the movie, only surpassed by the truly awful Blues Brothers 2000, and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra.

They manage to piss off everyone from the police to the "Good Ol' Boys" and a bunch of Nazis, resulting in some crazy stunts that still blow my mind today.

Sure, it's a musical, but it's a great musical. The songs are classics, and I was stunned to see that The Blues Brothers had actual albums you could buy in the shops! I immediately purchased Made in America, and Briefcase Full of Blues, and scoured my dad's record collection for other Atlantic records classics like Sam & Dave, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and more. A record collection that would set me up nicely for when I became obsessed with Moonlighting and David Addison's music tastes in the coming years.

I was in the Sixth Form at school, and the moment we were no longer required to wear school uniform I wore nothing but black - like Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi... that was, until I saw the Blues Brothers.

After that, for many months, the black jacket came out again, the white shirt and black tie... And the raybans. Of course this was before I had to wear glasses. Five years too late I was walking around in the outfit (minus the hat)... Maybe I was trend setting ready for when Reservoir Dogs would come out.

Heck, I think I wore that for the interview for my first job (just not the sunglasses!)

No wonder no one would go out with me.

[Roll Your Own Life] The TV That Shaped Me (Part 2)

Moonlighting (1985 - 1989)

The second of my "10 TV shows that had an impact on me" is probably one that may surprise you. Expecting a whole load of SF/Fantasy series and along comes Moonlighting. As I mentioned last post, I watched a whole lot of TV. Just about anything I could absorb. While I was avidly watching series like "V", Doctor Who (especially the 5th Doctor), MacGyver, Street Hawk, Miami Vice, and the like, there was one series I thought I'd check out because I liked quirky detective series and the adverts made it look like it was going to be something special.

Turns out it was.

Moonlighting was really the first TV series I became super-obsessed with. I bought the soundtrack, taped the episodes on VHS, hunted out the songs in the massive catalogue of tunes David Addison referred to from my dad's collection of Atlantic soul classics, got the stonewash trenchcoat because Addison had one. Hell, there was just something about it. It was fast paced, quick dialogue, funny, dramatic, with a great couple of leads. Bruce Willis was what I wanted to be when I grew up (ironically, I now have a haircut like he has now) and Cybill Shepherd was cool, witty, and attractive (and usually filmed in soft focus for added effect), and took absolutely no BS.

But, on top of the funny crime solving drama that has become commonplace these days on TV (with things like Bones, Castle, Lucifer, etc.) it was radical TV. It broke the rules, it broke convention, and it broke the fourth wall. Before Deadpool or even Lovejoy had even considered turning to the camera and talking to the audience, Moonlighting did it often. It even started episodes with "cold opens" with David & Maddie (strangely, in character, not as Willis / Shepherd) sitting on the office desk talking to the audience about the upcoming episode.


Then it really broke convention with strange episodes. Two that always stand out is "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice" with its extended (and gorgeously shot) black and white sequences, and intros that feature the last screen appearance of the legendary Orson Welles (telling you that your television wasn't faulty, it's supposed to be in black and white).

And "Atomic Shakespeare" where the cast do their version of the Taming of the Shrew. I always remember Addison (as Petruchio) entering the scene on a white horse, wearing RayBans (both he, and the horse) - and the horse has a BMW symbol on its side (as Addison always drove a BMW).

It was nuts, gorgeous to look at, and frequently you'd pan back and see the camera crew - and it was all intentional. It was just revolutionary at the time, and I loved every minute of it. Of course, once the sexual tension between David and Maddie was resolved in the middle of Season 3, and Cybill Shepherd's time on screen was reduced as she was off having children, and Bruce Willis' career was taking off after Die Hard... the focus of the series slipped more and more towards Agnes DiPesto and Herbert Viola, until it was finally cancelled in its fifth year.

Of course, even then it couldn't end without a fourth-wall breaking episode of David and Maddie running through the studios as the Blue Moon Detective Agency set was being dismantled, trying to stop the series' end.

Loved it. Awesome TV.