The Blues Brothers: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic is heading our way

White Rabbit is publishing THE BLUES BROTHERS: An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic by Daniel de Visé on 28 March 2024 (Hardback, £25), a story of friendship and film, race and revival, rhythm and blues, centered around the actors and comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi and the making of their iconic 1980 film.

THE BLUES BROTHERS tells the story of the making of the eponymous cult film, released just over 40 years ago, and still one of the funniest and most life-affirming comedies to hit the big screen, but it is much more than that. It is a dual biography of Dan Aykroyd, who went on to become one of the biggest film stars of the late twentieth century and John Belushi, who died tragically soon after the movie from substance abuse. It is the story of how ‘alternative’ comedy was born in America, through National Lampoons and Saturday Night Live, and the emergence of a generation of actor-comedians like Carrie Fisher, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Steve Martin and many more who became ubiquitous international stars.

At the heart of the book is the relationship between Aykroyd and Belushi: best friends, ungovernable troublemakers, the archetypal mavericks subverting the studio system from within, very much ‘versions’ in real life of the anarchic characters they most-often played on screen. Some of the stories about Belushi are hair-raising. His appetites were insane, and his boundaries invisible and non-existent; tragically of course this is what was to kill him. Belushi is still to this day, widely regarded to be one of the absolute greatest American comedians of all time. There is a tragic undertow to the high japes, the musical epiphanies, the car crash chaos and the partying here which is, of course, Belushi’s demise.

You can pre-order the book here.

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The Blues Brothers hit theatres on June 20, 1980. Their scripted mission was to save a local Chicago orphanage; but Aykroyd, who conceived and wrote much of the film, had a greater mission: to honour the then-seemingly forgotten tradition of rhythm and blues, some of whose greatest artists – Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles – made the film as unforgettable as its wild car chases. Much delayed and vastly over budget, beset by mercurial and oft drugged-out stars, The Blues Brothers opened to outraged reviews. However, in the 44 years since it has been acknowledged a classic: inducted into the National Film Registry for its cultural significance, even declared a ‘Catholic classic’ by the Church itself, and re-aired thousands of times on television to huge worldwide audiences. It is, undeniably, one of the most significant films of the 20th century.

The saga behind The Blues Brothers, as Daniel de Visé reveals, is epic, encompassing the colourful childhoods of Belushi and Aykroyd; the comedic revolution sparked by Harvard’s Lampoon and Chicago’s Second City; the birth and anecdote-rich, drug-filled early years of Saturday Night Live, where the Blues Brothers were born as an act amidst turmoil and rivalry; and, of course, the indelible behind-the-scenes narrative of how the film was made, scene by memorable scene. Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy.

Daniel de Visé is Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist. He has worked at The Washington Post, the Miami Herald and three other newspapers in a 23-year career. He lives in Maryland with his wife and children.