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March 28, 2024, 10:30:27 PM

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The Blues Brothers (Extended Cut)

Started by Shaky, January 16, 2021, 06:42:58 AM

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Dusty Substance


The Blues Brothers is the focus of the latest Projection Booth podcast.

I've not yet listened to it but the PB cast is always a great listen which goes deeper into movies than most other shows - This episode is 3h45m - Plus, John Landis is always good value https://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/2021/01/episode-503-blues-brothers-1980.html



Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Dusty Substance on January 21, 2021, 07:46:27 PM
The Blues Brothers is the focus of the latest Projection Booth podcast.

I've not yet listened to it but the PB cast is always a great listen which goes deeper into movies than most other shows - This episode is 3h45m - Plus, John Landis is always good value https://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/2021/01/episode-503-blues-brothers-1980.html

I'll take a listen to that at some point.  It's a great podcast, but its episode lengths - which are often around the 3 hour mark - are daunting.  But the comment about Laila Nabulsi talking about Alex Cox has really piqued my interest.

Paaaaul

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 21, 2021, 09:28:34 PM
I'll take a listen to that at some point.  It's a great podcast, but its episode lengths - which are often around the 3 hour mark - are daunting.  But the comment about Laila Nabulsi talking about Alex Cox has really piqued my interest.
That portion of interview is actually in the much shorter bonus episode.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Dusty Substance on January 21, 2021, 07:46:27 PM
The Blues Brothers is the focus of the latest Projection Booth podcast.

I've not yet listened to it but the PB cast is always a great listen which goes deeper into movies than most other shows - This episode is 3h45m - Plus, John Landis is always good value https://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/2021/01/episode-503-blues-brothers-1980.html

Great stuff, thanks for sharing that.

Around the 40 minute mark they mention an unused scene from an earlier draft of Aykroyd's screenplay. I've searched the web in vain for earlier drafts: has anyone here had more luck?

Shit Good Nose

Quote from: Paaaaul on January 21, 2021, 10:17:57 PM
That portion of interview is actually in the much shorter bonus episode.

Thanks.  Listened.  Unfortunately she doesn't say any more than is already out there.  It also reminds me that Breakfast With Hunter is STILL fucking impossible to get hold of anywhere.


Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 21, 2021, 11:13:20 PM
Around the 40 minute mark they mention an unused scene from an earlier draft of Aykroyd's screenplay. I've searched the web in vain for earlier drafts: has anyone here had more luck?

Somewhere I have a copy of the first properly typed, set out and structured draft of Aykroyd's original which Landis did (so it's not the original-original beat poetry version, but it apparently retained a good chunk of it before it got to a proper shooting script), which I downloaded in the relatively early days of the internet.  I'm fairly sure it's on one of my old plug-in 20gb hard drives - I'll have a look.  Alas I never read it - even in a proper edited down script format it was still something like 250-odd pages - so I couldn't tell you about any missing scenes.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Interesting, thanks SNG. No worries if finding it is a hassle, I don't expect you to magically conjure it up!

250 pages does sound like a slog, though. Hats off to Landis for managing to sculpt a tight, coherent film from Aykroyd's unwieldy tome. As we were discussing earlier in this thread, Aykroyd has an incredible imagination, but I think it's fair to say that he needed more level-headed collaborators to whip his ideas into shape.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 21, 2021, 11:27:48 PM
Thanks.  Listened.  Unfortunately she doesn't say any more than is already out there.  It also reminds me that Breakfast With Hunter is STILL fucking impossible to get hold of anywhere.

Do you mean a physical copy? I have it and Vol 2 on my hard drive if you're having trouble seeing it.

Shaky

Quote from: Dusty Substance on January 21, 2021, 07:46:27 PM
The Blues Brothers is the focus of the latest Projection Booth podcast.

I've not yet listened to it but the PB cast is always a great listen which goes deeper into movies than most other shows - This episode is 3h45m - Plus, John Landis is always good value https://www.projectionboothpodcast.com/2021/01/episode-503-blues-brothers-1980.html

Thanks! Been looking for a decent dissection or doco of the original, and could only really find something from 1998 with the cast in costume for BB 2000. Landis has a lot to say but I just think, "murderer with a cunt of a son" whenever he pops up.

I watched 2000 again for the first time in 20 years and... I didn't hate it. It's just incredibly silly and derivative, which isn't something you could accuse the original of. Lacks the vital, grounding scuzz of the first one too, but some fun to be had.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Yup. It really is impossible to listen to the avuncular funster/zany raconteur John Landis without thinking of the three deaths he was directly responsible for. That's a great podcast, but it's so uncomfortable whenever he talks fondly about all the crazy stunts they did.

Shaky

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 22, 2021, 09:30:16 AM
Yup. It really is impossible to listen to the avuncular funster/zany raconteur John Landis without thinking of the three deaths he was directly responsible for. That's a great podcast, but it's so uncomfortable whenever he talks fondly about all the crazy stunts they did.

Yeah, his whole demeanor is off-putting. People grow and maybe he felt genuinely sorry, but I've never seen a man who gives less of that impression. At the time he blamed other people, made the case go away with some cash, and now he pops up playing the elder statesman while motor-mouthing like an excited child. Good on Spielberg for telling him to fuck off immediately after the incident.

I'm convinced he's constantly reliving the accident in his head and this brings him joy.

frajer

Quote from: Shaky on January 22, 2021, 11:59:59 AM
Yeah, his whole demeanor is off-putting. People grow and maybe he felt genuinely sorry, but I've never seen a man who gives less of that impression. At the time he blamed other people, made the case go away with some cash, and now he pops up playing the elder statesman while motor-mouthing like an excited child. Good on Spielberg for telling him to fuck off immediately after the incident.

I got the superb Arrow Blu-ray of An American Werewolf in London and couldn't sit through the retrospective interview with Landis.

It does come across that he's completely forgiven himself for the incident, if he ever felt any guilt. Not saying he should be crying in every interview, but maybe tone down the sheer contentment you clearly feel with your life when you're responsible for the deaths of innocent people (and no matter what he says, he bloody well is) and dodged any and all punishment.

In the same vein, the amount of actors and creative types who are proud to cite their friendship with Landis always feels a bit off. From memory Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and the League of Gentlemen have done this a few times. He's made undeniably ace films, but is he the sort of name you should be dropping as an example of "a good pal"?

Didn't know Spielberg had told him to fuck off. Nice one, Steve.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Hats off to Spielberg.

QuoteFilmmaker Steven Spielberg co-produced the film with Landis, but he broke off their friendship following the accident. Spielberg said that the crash "made me grow up a little more" and left everyone who worked on the movie "sick to the centre of our souls". He added: "No movie is worth dying for. I think people are standing up much more now than ever before to producers and directors who ask too much. If something isn't safe, it's the right and responsibility of every actor or crew member to yell, 'Cut!'"

QDRPHNC

It was only last year I read an interview with Landis where the accident was brought up and his biggest complaint was that it killed his career. Which I'm not even sure is true.

Also, he comes off as a massive prick in this interview with Eddie Murphy.

QuoteWhen asked by Playboy why he gave the directorial job to Landis instead of directing Coming to America himself, Murphy said, "I wanted to help out...Landis. I figured I'd give this guy a shot because his career was [expletive]. But he wound up [expletive] me." But, Murphy continued, Landis became a horror on set to Murphy. "As it turned out, John always resented that I hadn't gone to his Twilight Zone trial. I never knew that; I thought we were cool. But he'd been harboring it for a year. Every now and then, he would make little remarks, like, 'You didn't help me out; you don't realize how close I was to going to jail.' I never paid any mind."

"I don't want to say who was guilty or who was innocent," Murphy continued regarding Landis' trial. "But if you're directing a movie and two kids get their heads chopped off at [expletive] twelve o'clock at night when there ain't supposed to be kids working, and you said, 'Action!' then you have some sort of responsibility. So my principles wouldn't let me go down there and sit in court. That's just the way I am."


Shit Good Nose

I absolutely love several of Landis' films and I find him interesting in interviews, BUT I've always thought (even before I knew the full Twilight Zone story, including the aftermath) that there's something not quite right about him.  There's that really odd scene in Into The Night where Landis and his henchmen force their way into Paul Mazursky's beach house and do a slapstick comedy ransacking - it's quite a broad scene - and once they've finished they casually drag Mazursky's girlfriend down to the beach and drown her in shallow water.  I think he's borderline psychotic and if he didn't have film making as an outlet, I honestly believe he'd probably be a serial killer. 

But I will continue to enjoy his films (those that I like, anyway) and watch and listen to interviews with him.

Coming To America 4K UHD just announced, so I'm looking forward to that.

Shaky

He was in Psycho IV as well, so you might be onto something.

Replies From View

Of all the films to die for, the fact it was The Twilight Zone movie brings added desolation to the tragedy.


Landis should have been forced to eat husks for the rest of his life.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Cunt should be in jail. Psychopathic, remorseless Gerry Adams looking fucker. Thanks for that entertaining film about the loveable, kooky grave robbing murdering cunts Burke and Hare too, btw. Still, I'm sure Ronnie Corbett was glad of the work, it probably helped him get the Farmhouse Foods gig.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Replies From View on January 23, 2021, 08:09:02 AM
Of all the films to die for, the fact it was The Twilight Zone movie brings added desolation to the tragedy.

Ooohhhh, don't be dissing Twilight Zone: The Movie.  Spielberg segment aside, it's fucking fantastic.

Replies From View

Quote from: St_Eddie on January 23, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
Ooohhhh, don't be dissing Twilight Zone: The Movie.  Spielberg segment aside, it's fucking fantastic.

"They deserved to die" - St_Eddie, today

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: St_Eddie on January 23, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
Ooohhhh, don't be dissing Twilight Zone: The Movie.  Spielberg segment aside, it's fucking fantastic.

The scene at the start with Dan Aykroyd. Bloody hell, that scared the bejezus out of me when I first saw it (28 years old etc).

Shit Good Nose

I'd never describe it as fucking fantastic, but it's definitely mostly okay.  Although, I agree Spielberg's segment is abysmal and belongs more in Amazing Stories.

madhair60

More like the Twi-shite Groan Poovie. No, though, I've never seen it

McChesney Duntz

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 23, 2021, 05:59:03 PM
The scene at the start with Dan Aykroyd. Bloody hell, that scared the bejezus out of me when I first saw it (28 years old etc).

That was Landis too, to be fair (and I give Albert Brooks most of the credit for how funny it is before the shock ending). The Vic Morrow scene (the only one not based on an existing TZ episode) is pretty bad, and probably would've been even with the intended ending (kiboshed by well y'know). Not worth dying for, that's for sure. The second half, though - pure fried gold.

St_Eddie

Quote from: Replies From View on January 23, 2021, 05:33:49 PM
"They deserved to die" - St_Eddie, today

Bit rum, mate.  I didn't say that, did I?  I'm capable of separating the art from the artist.  Bitter Moon is one of my favourite films of all time.  Roman Polanski? Cunt. Bitter Moon? Awesome.  Same goes for John Landis and Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Dusty Substance

Quote from: St_Eddie on January 23, 2021, 04:53:58 PM
Ooohhhh, don't be dissing Twilight Zone: The Movie.  Spielberg segment aside, it's fucking fantastic.

Absolutely this ^^^^

I never understood the dislike of TZ:TM.

Shit Good Nose

#55
Quote from: Dusty Substance on January 25, 2021, 03:19:43 PM
I never understood the dislike of TZ:TM.

Ignoring the obvious (and there are, understandably, a LOT of people who won't even consider watching it because of that), it's mainly because the weaker elements of the film (namely Spielberg's dreadful segment and Landis' patchy effort with his main segment) really detract from the stronger.  Obviously when you're watching the series' stand-alone episodes it's a lot easier to dismiss any shit ones, but when you have them in a portmanteau/anthology film it's more difficult.  But, having said that, it didn't do too badly with the critics first time round, and its stock has risen massively in relatively recent years - currently 6.5 on IMDB (I remember the days when it was low 5).  Joe Dante's and George Miller's segments are VERY strong, and in the case of Miller's much better than the original episode.  And Landis' wrap-around segments are pretty iconic now.

Rizla

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on January 23, 2021, 09:39:25 AM
Cunt should be in jail. Psychopathic, remorseless Gerry Adams looking fucker.
He literally added insult to injury by crashing Morrow's funeral, off his tits on booze and coke, telling the mourners that Vic would have been glad to have given his life for such a fantastic movie.

Reminds me I keep meaning to check out Combat, the WW2 drama Morrow starred in throughout the 60s, I hear it's not bad.

notjosh

Quote from: Shit Good Nose on January 25, 2021, 03:27:51 PMJoe Dante's and George Miller's segments are VERY strong, and in the case of Miller's much better than the original episode.

Not a fan of Miller's segment at all. None of the off-kilter quiet dread of the original. It's much spookier when the face at the window is just an unsettling non-human voyeur and not a cackling slimy goblin thing. And Lithgow's no Shatner.

Dante's segment I think is superb, with typically brilliant special effects. Arguably it's guilty of the same change in tone I just accused Miller's segment of, but it's done with such flair and manic glee that it pulls it off and feels like its own thing.

Thought the bit where two illegally-employed children and a veteran actor were killed by a reckless helicopter stunt was fine, but very much on-the-nose when compared to the much more subtle production errors of the original series. It's not a patch on:

Quote from: S1 E21 - Mirror Image triviaWhen he introduces himself to Millicent inside the train station, Paul is wearing a dripping wet raincoat. It stays wet in the close-ups, but in the next several inter-cut two-shots, it's completely dry.

Petey Pate

This book is pretty good for anyone interested in the grim details of The Twilight Zone Movie accident and trial. Landis certainly should have been imprisoned for something.


TheMonk

That quote from Eddie Murphy is bizarre.
"my principles wouldn't let me go down there and sit in court. That's just the way I am." Yet his principles would allow him to direct his next film.

If you have a strong stomach the accident footage is on YouTube. Search "Twilight Zone accident". It's unbelievable he worked again.