Greeting fellow NFB of Maryland friends,
The NFB of Maryland Central Maryland chapter at a recent chapter meeting discussed how the blind could participate in everyday type of entertainment type of activities. The chapter invites you to join them in exploring audio description of the movie Blues Brothers from 1980. The NFB of South Carolina has been hosting movie night several times a month for the last several years. So the Central Maryland chapter decided to join the NFB of South Carolina to see how it is done. If successful maybe start a regular movie night ourselves.
Friday, June 13, 2025
Blues Brothers from 1980 starts at 8:00 PM Eastern
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Meeting ID: 803 254 3777
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Blues Brothers
Jake Blues, a blues vocalist and petty criminal, is paroled from prison after serving three years of a five-year sentence for armed robbery and is picked up by his brother Elwood in his Bluesmobile, a battered former police car. Elwood demonstrates its capabilities by jumping an open drawbridge. The brothers visit the Catholic orphanage where they were raised, and learn from Sister Mary Stigmata that it will be closed unless it pays $5,000 in property taxes. During a sermon by the Reverend Cleophus James at the Triple Rock Baptist Church, Jake has an epiphany: they can reform their band, the Blues Brothers, which disbanded while Jake was in prison, and raise the money to save the orphanage.
That night, state troopers attempt to arrest Elwood for driving with a suspended license due to 116 parking tickets and 56 moving violations. The brothers escape after a car chase through the Dixie Square Mall. The next morning, as the police arrive at the flophouse where Elwood lives, a mysterious woman detonates a bomb that demolishes the building, but leaves Jake and Elwood unharmed, saving them from arrest.
Jake and Elwood begin tracking down members of the band. Five of them are performing as "Murph and the Magic Tones" at a deserted Holiday Inn lounge and quickly agree to rejoin. Another turns them down as he is the maître d' at an expensive restaurant, but the brothers threaten to become regular patrons until he relents. On their way to meet the final two band members, the brothers find the road through Jackson Park blocked by an American Nazi Party demonstration on a bridge; Elwood runs them off the bridge into the East Lagoon. The leader of the Nazi Party swears revenge. The last two band members, who now run a soul food restaurant, rejoin the band against the advice of one's wife. The reunited group obtains instruments and equipment from Ray's Music Exchange in Calumet City, and Ray, "as usual", takes an IOU.
As Jake attempts to book a gig, the mystery woman blows up his phone booth; once again, he is miraculously unhurt. The band stumbles onto a gig at Bob's Country Bunker, a honky-tonk in Kokomo, Indiana. They win over the rowdy crowd, but run up a bar tab higher than their pay, and infuriate the Good Ole Boys, the country band booked for the gig.
Realizing they need a big show to raise the necessary money, the brothers persuade their old agent to book the Palace Hotel Ballroom, north of Chicago. They mount a loudspeaker atop the Bluesmobile and drive around the Chicago area promoting the concert—and alerting the police, the neo-Nazis, and the Good Ole Boys of their whereabouts. The ballroom is packed with blues fans, police officers, and the Good Ole Boys. Jake and Elwood perform two songs, then sneak offstage, as the tax deadline is rapidly approaching. A record company executive offers them a $10,000 cash advance on a recording contract—more than enough to pay off the orphanage's taxes and Ray's IOU—and then tells the brothers how to slip out of the building unnoticed. As they escape via an electrical riser and a service tunnel, they are confronted by the mystery woman: Jake's vengeful ex-fiancée. After her volley of M16 rifle bullets leaves them once again miraculously unharmed, Jake offers a series of ridiculous excuses that she rejects, but when she looks into his eyes she takes interest in him again, allowing the brothers to escape to the Bluesmobile.
Jake and Elwood race back toward Chicago, with dozens of state and local police and the Good Ole Boys in pursuit. They elude them all with a series of improbable maneuvers, including a miraculous gravity-defying escape from the neo-Nazis. At the Richard J. Daley Center, they rush inside the adjacent Chicago City Hall building, followed by hundreds of law enforcement officers, firefighters, and the National Guard. The brothers find the office of the Cook County Assessor and pay the tax bill. Just as their receipt is stamped, they are arrested by the mob of law officers. In prison, the band plays "Jailhouse Rock" for the inmates.
Cast
See also: § Cameos and minor appearances
John Belushi as "Joliet" Jake Blues, a former blues singer, paroled from prison after three years[6]
Dan Aykroyd as Elwood J. Blues, Jake's blood brother, also a former blues singer[6]
James Brown as the Reverend Cleophus James, pastor of the Triple Rock Baptist Church. His musical sermon "The Old Landmark" causes Jake to have an epiphany[6]
Cab Calloway as Curtis, an old friend/father figure of the brothers, who suggests they visit the church, and helps them advertise the show and performs "Minnie the Moocher" for the audience[6]
Ray Charles as Ray, a blind music store owner, who performs "Shake a Tail Feather" to demonstrate the effectiveness of the instruments he sells[6]
Aretha Franklin as Mrs. Murphy, Matt Murphy's wife, who owns a soul food restaurant with him. She performs "Think" to persuade him not to join the band[6]
Steve "The Colonel" Cropper – lead guitar; a member of Murph and the Magic Tones[6]
Donald "Duck" Dunn – bass guitar; a member of Murph and the Magic Tones[6]
Murphy Dunne ("Murph") – keyboards; lead singer of Murph and the Magic Tones[6]
Willie "Too Big" Hall – drums; a member of Murph and the Magic Tones[6]
Tom "Bones" Malone – trombone, saxophone; a member of Murph and the Magic Tones[6]
"Blue Lou" Marini – saxophone; the dishwasher at the soul food restaurant[6]
Matt "Guitar" Murphy – lead guitar; the cook at the soul food restaurant[6]
"Mr. Fabulous" Alan Rubin – trumpet; the maitre d' at the Chez Paul restaurant
Carrie Fisher as the Mystery Woman, Jake's former fiancée, who tries to kill him for leaving her at the altar[6]
John Candy as Burton Mercer, Jake's parole officer assisting the police in their hunt for the Blues Brothers[6]
Henry Gibson as the Head Nazi, the leader of a local American National Socialist White People's Party[6]
Twiggy as girl waiting at the gas station[6]
John Lee Hooker as Street Slim, a man singing "Boom" together with a small band on Maxwell Street[citation needed]
Kathleen Freeman as Sister Mary Stigmata, AKA "The Penguin", the nun who leads the orphanage where the brothers grew up[6]
Steve Lawrence as Maury Sline, the agent who organized and booked many of the Blues Brothers' performances before Jake was sent to jail[7]
Frank Oz as the corrections officer who returns Jake's possessions to him at the beginning of the film[6]
Jeff Morris as Bob, the owner of Bob's Country Bunker[citation needed]
Charles Napier as Tucker McElroy, lead singer and Winnebago driver of the Good Ole Boys[citation needed]
Steven Williams as Trooper Mount, one of the cops who follows Jake and Elwood from the start[6]
John Landis as Trooper La Fong, a cop who chases the Bluesmobile at the mall[6]