The pop culture critics at L’ Osservatore Romano, the official newspaper of the Vatican, have already shown they have questionable taste in music. Now their choice of movies is likely to to raise a few eyebrows: They’ve added The Blues Brothers to their list of “Catholic Classics.”
On the 30th anniversary of the cult film’s release, the official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, has declared it a “Catholic classic”.
It points out that Jake and Elwood Blues battled police, a psychotic ex-girlfriend, country and western fans and neo-Nazis in order to raise enough money to prevent the closure of the church-run orphanage in which they grew up.The newspaper, once a dour publication devoted to weighty matters of theology and Vatican appointments, has recently embraced popular culture and devotes an entire page to consider the movie’s meaning and legacy.
It praises the film as an “incredibly shrewd” work which is “rich with ideas”, and recalls “the unforgettable John Belushi’s sneer which remains, three decades after the movie’s release, an icon of cinematography”.
The 1980 comedy may get a thumb’s up from the Vatican critics, but parents should be warned that the movie is rated “R” for profanity.
June 21st, 2010 | 10:51 am
We’re on a mission from God.
June 21st, 2010 | 12:18 pm
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The Vatican is right; here’s a small sample of the dialogue from the film which reveals Jake and Ellwood’s religiousity:
Willie ‘Too Big’ Hall: You’ll never get Matt and Mr. Fabulous out of them high-payin’ gigs.
Jake: Oh yeah? Well me and the Lord, we have an understanding.
Reverend Cleophus James: Praise God!
Elwood: And God bless the United States of America!
June 21st, 2010 | 12:20 pm
And of course the immortal:
Elwood: Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don’t fail me now.
June 21st, 2010 | 1:20 pm
In my humble opinion, The Blues Brothers is one of the greatest movies ever made: it has a good Catholic moral and features excellent music as well as amazing chase scenes (one takes place in shopping mall), and long held the record for most destroyed cars, one of which was a station wagon that was actually dropped from a helicopter and had to be approved by the FAA.
The film has carefully-constructed plot with a good moral: the ne’er-do-well protagonists do pretty much everything wrong and reap the fruit of their misdeeds at the end of the film, but somehow the money they obtain for the orphanage is perfectly clean and legitimate. In fact, the nun explicitly rejects any kind of “filthy money” at the beginning of the film. In this way, the moral that ends do not justify means is retained at the same time that the orphanage is saved through a good, albeit flawed, deed.
BTW, aren’t organizations such as the orphanage in the film tax-exempt? That adds an interesting twist to the movie, living as we do in an era in which the tax-exempt status of Catholic institutions is threatened whenever Catholics make their public presence too visible. There are several jokes about anti-Catholicism in throughout the movie.
Finally, it should be mentioned that The Blues Brothers is an ecumenical film.
Alas, though, it is too true that you should be warned about showing it to your children…
June 21st, 2010 | 4:53 pm
THE BLUES BROTHERS is an outstanding movie.
L’Osservatore Romano has become a parade of embarassments.
June 21st, 2010 | 5:30 pm
“tax exempt” — yeah, they should have made it a water bill or something
But it’s honestly earned money. All their adventures centered around getting to and from the places where they earned it.
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