Line #37 Headscratchers/TheBluesbrothers


1	* The entire scenario involving Bob's Country Bunker and The Good Ol' Boys: First, either Bob, his wife or one of his employees booked The Good Ol' Boys, so they should have known that Jake & Elwood were not them.
2	** Perhaps they were booked through the Good Ol' Boys' management rather than in person? Alternatively, if it was an employee who did it, then presumably that employee wasn't working that night.
3	** That makes sense. Bob doesn't seem to recognize the Good Ol' Boys when they show up.
4	* Second, The Good Ol' Boys appear to be a fairly successful band (they had their own custom tour bus) but they were booked to play a podunk bar in Nowheresville for a measly $200.00?
5	** They could be a once-big act which have fallen on hard times; the tour bus is just a remnant of The Good Old Days.
6	** Bob's place might be one of those venues where every act in the scene plays at least once no matter how big they get.
7	** They could be on their way to a bigger gig, Nowheresville was pretty close to where they were spending the night, and they decided to do a gig in a podunk bar for fun, nostalgia and beer money.
8	** They could also just be pretentious and have the bus as a way of making themselves seem bigger than in fact they are.
9	** Many bands that tour ''need'' to gig every night to pay for expenses. $200 (which is about $770 in 2023 money) would easily have paid for that day's food and gas. It's not big money, but every little helps.
10	* Third, Bob tells Jake & Elwood that they played some of the best music they'd ever had that night. Why on Earth would Bob try to make them pay another $100.00 for the $300.00 in beer they drank when he must have made way more than that from his customers who stayed and enjoyed the music?
11	** Because Bob's very miserly and loves money more than he loves good music.
12	** Because $100.00 is a lot of money to a small-business owner, and a very big tip.
13	** And for a small business, it can take thousands to make up for losing $100.
14	*** I get the impression Bob is swindling them and the brothers are very aware of it.
15	* Fourth, the Good Ol' Boys show up several hours late, after the bar was closed, without having called ahead to let Bob know. Not only were they late, they had missed their entire gig! Where were they?
16	** And why were they angry at the Blues Brothers? Since they missed the gig, they weren't getting paid anyway so the Blues Brothers didn't steal their money or anything.
17	*** Because they're aggressive assholes.
18	*** And the Blues Brothers ''did'' pretend to be them and steal their gig; late or not, it's the principle of the matter.
19	** They do acknowledge that they were very late, so they probably just got lost or burst a tire or something. That was mighty lucky for the Blues Brothers... again, MissionFromGod.
20	* Fifth, why is Bob angry at the Blues Brothers, who showed up and played, and not the Good Ol' Boys, who didn't arrive until after closing? If Jake & Elwood hadn't shown up, Bob wouldn't have had a band, and he would have looked like an idiot.
21	** Because they stiffed him out of money they owed him and -- in conning themselves into a job -- made a fool out of him.
22	* Sixth, why did Jake bother talking with the Good Ol' Boys at all? They could have left without antagonizing them at all.
23	** Could be that Jake was trying to protect the rest of the band, in the other car. Give them a longer head start, and draw the Good Ol' Boys' ire by giving them the Bluesmobile to fixate on.
24	** Given how he started asking them for "permits" that they allegedly needed in order to play, he may have been trying to trick them into leaving so that Bob wouldn't realize that they were the actual Good Ol' Boys and discover that he was tricked. He might also have been trying to con them into paying a fine due to their lack of "permits" so the Blue Brothers use the money to pay off their bar tab. When the band leader reacted hostilely, Jake probably saw that that plan wouldn't work and decided to just make a break for it instead.
25	* Why do the hicks keep throwing bottles even at songs they like?
26	** Because they're hicks. And also drunk off their ass.
27	** Whatever the reason, permanent chicken wire barrier suggests it's customary at Bob's. And the man selling them beers is smiling behind cashier.
28	* After drinking $300 worth of beer within a few hours, is the band really sober enough to perform (and some of them to drive?)
29	** The phrase "beer tab" could actually just be a generic expression for "beverage tab." The Blues Brothers may have in fact drunk mostly soft drinks that night.
30	** There's ten people in the band, only two who need to drive, and they're playing, like, two songs over the whole evening. They could probably run up a pretty generous tab; $300 could just be RuleOfFunny. Plus, let's face it, Bob's exactly the kind of jerk who probably inflates his prices and / or waters down the beers, he could just be trying to stiff them.
31	* If Elwood's license was suspended, why couldn't Jake just drive? I mean, I'm sure he could. Then they wouldn't have run into all that trouble.
32	** He's been in jail for a few years and only been out for a day or so. His license was presumably expired or revoked and he hadn't gotten a new one yet.
33	*** Also, Elwood is a good enough driver to make an old cop car do stunts out of a ''Film/JamesBond'' movie. Jake probably lets Elwood drive because he's much better at it, license or no.
34	*** Well then, why couldn't Jake just get another license?
35	*** Because they only have 11 days to work with and all of those are devoted to getting the band back together.
36	*** Jake signs the receipt for his belongings with an X. It is dubious that any driving license could be ever given to a barely literate person.
37	** I don't think Jake knew that Elwood's license had been suspended until the scene where they led the police on a chase through the mall. And after that, I very much doubt that it mattered, from the point of view of the police, which one of them was driving.
38	* After John Lee Hooker gives his street performance he gets into a fight with an audience person. Can anybody explain the significance of this? Because it feels like a ShoutOut to a real life event or dispute rather than something for the film, but I'm not familiar enough with J.L. Hooker's work enough to get it.
39	** I think it's just a joke - the extended edition shows that the argument is about whether or not he is actually John Lee Hooker (and therefore wrote "Boom Boom").
40	** The full performance of Boom Boom on the extended version of the film reveals that the person John Lee Hooker is arguing with is actually the piano player in his own band, who is played by famous blues pianist Pinetop Perkins. This only makes the argument scene more strange. But it also probably indicates that this 'argument' is a joke and part of the band's performance.
41	* I get all the other times, but how the heck does Mystery Woman find the guys at the Howard Johnson's when she attacks them with the flame thrower?
42	** She has been waiting for so long to get revenge on Jake that she would follow them to hell and back. Or maybe it's just female intuition.
43	** She's [[Franchise/StarWars Princess Leia]]. She used the Force.
44	* Why did the rest of the band members get arrested at the end with Jake and Elwood?
45	** Perhaps they weren't? They were wearing prison uniforms, but maybe they just wore them as costumes.
46	** According to the tie-in book, they were all arrested on other charges - don't forget that several of them helped Elwood steal the big loudspeaker they strap to the top of the Bluesmobile, and it's possible they're all considered accomplices to the fraud at Bob's Country Bunker, and for assisting the brothers' escape from the police lines at the Palace Hotel Ballroom.
47	*** Wait, wasn't the loudspeaker "the microphone" for which Elwood traded the previous "Bluesmobile?"
48	*** It was a literal microphone. The loudspeaker was different, see below.
49	*** At least the extended cut clearly shows Elwood and a couple of band members walk across the playground below the loudspeaker straight towards the concrete pole on which the loudspeaker is mounted. Still doesn't explain how they got that thing down from the pole without a crane.
50	*** Ironically, a good quality microphone (like the little thing you hold in your hand when you sing) can easily cost more than a used motor vehicle... [[note]] Although many harmonica players favour cheaper mics, there are microphones that cost thousands of dollars and more. Those would often be found in recording studios. [[/note]]
51	** Honestly, they seem like a group of guys who could find their way into jail on their own...
52	*** Certainly implied when Jake and Elwood arrive at the soul food restaurant to pick up Matt "Guitar" Murphy and Blue Lou, and end up comparing notes with Matt about the quality of the food in various local prisons.
53	** The fact that in the sequel, they all seem to have gotten out of prison long before Elwood indicates that they were convicted on lesser charges and therefore received shorter sentences.
54	* The Cook County Assessor's clerk returns to the office holding a sandwich, which he presumably obtained from a deli somewhere nearby. Either the police (and SWAT, and CFD, and Army, and National Guard) were far behind the brothers, or he somehow missed all the confusion outside and in the building's lobby? It's got to take them the same amount of time to climb the stairs: the office appears to be on a high floor. Never mind the brothers also barricading the door to the stairwell as well as the ground-floor doors, which raises the question of how he got in as well. (Maybe there was a break room somewhere on the floor (in which case, why didn't he eat the sandwich there?), but I'm just going on what I see).
55	** Perhaps he was simply taking a quick break to enjoy a sandwich he'd brought with him. When you're the only staff member in an office or building, it can be necessary to close up and put up a sign. It is possible that he heard the commotion outside the building, wandered out to ask someone what was going on, and saw two mud-spattered men waiting outside. The rest is history.
56	** Also, this is just RuleOfFunny. The fact that the Cook County Assessor's office is an oasis of calm in a building being stormed by tooled-up cops, National Guardsmen and firefighters all bellowing their heads off, is ridiculous and absurd, and the contrast thus becomes amusing. To the extent that you're supposed to wonder how and where he got the sandwich, the fact that this schlub has somehow missed the bedlam and insanity going on to the extent that he's managed to take a lunch break, get a sandwich from somewhere, and come back without any of it penetrating his bubble of obliviousness is the joke.
57	* Why did Elwood bring Jake to his room, start cooking his dinner and then say "I gotta hit the sack" while his toast is still cooking?
58	** Elwood is not the most together guy in the world, especially at planning ahead, he probably felt okay when he started cooking before deciding that he felt too tired instead.
59	** He probably didn't mean that he was going to go to bed literally that second. Since he comments how tired he is after putting the toast on, the implication is almost certainly that he's planning on going to bed ''after'' eating his supper. He just says it out loud because he thinks Jake is still awake and is having a conversation with him, having not realised that Jake has fallen asleep until he looks over. In all likelihood, he was about to begin a conversation about precisely who would get the single bed in his apartment until discovering that Jake had rendered that discussion moot.
60	* The Rhodes from Ray's Music Exchange costs $2000 already. Why does Jake have the agent give only $1400 to Ray, seeing as the Blues Brothers already owe him a substantial amount of money?
61	** Maybe he wanted to give to the band what they had expected to get before Curtis told them where the money from the gig would actually go. Unfortunately, that didn't leave much for Ray.
62	* So, did Jake miss his own wedding because he was arrested? If so, why doesn't he tell his fiancée so instead of making something increasingly unbelievable up?
63	** Then again, when he was arrested, he carried two condoms, one of which was used, whereas his fiancée was still a virgin.
64	** We don't know the exact circumstances, but it's highly probable, if not almost certain, that Jake jilted the Mystery Woman for reasons unconnected to his arrest.
65	* How did the policeman who talks to the Blues Brothers in the Illinois Nazi scene not recognize either of the brothers or their car, considering the cops were looking for them and there likely was an APB out for their arrest?
66	** Stuff like that was less connected in the eighties.
67	** Also, the description of the Blues Brothers essentially boils down to "a tall white guy and a short white guy wearing suits". How many men in the greater Chicago area alone would that description cover? Heck, how many men in that traffic jam alone might that cover?
68	* Why do the cops never think of other means to stop the Bluesmobile aside from chasing after them and setting up roadblocks with just cars? What about spike strips, shooting out out the tires, completely blocking off the road with big rigs or calling in a chopper and arming a SWAT marksman with a rifle powerful enough to shoot a bullet all the way through the engine or upgrading to more powerful handguns? I don't know of any cars that could keep going with a two-inch hole all the way through the engine or a cracked engine block courtesy of a .357 magnum.
69	** RuleOfFunny and RuleOfCool apply to so much in this movie. They're the Blues Brothers, just accept it.
70	* While Jake's ex-fiancee has a motive for wanting to kill him, why does she want to kill Elwood as well, who didn't even know her? And it's not like he just got caught in the crossfire, she specifically says "So for my father, for my mother, my grandmother and for the common good! ... I must now kill you, and your brother."

Context Headscratchers / TheBluesbrothers