BEFORE: Dan Aykroyd carries over from "I Am Chris Farley", along with the whole original line-up of "SNL". Pouring one out tonight for John Belushi, one of the original "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". Sorry, it's not his birthday, I can only do so much, I can't move people's birthdays around. This one's been in my possession for a while now, I couldn't work it into the Doc Block last year and maybe also the year before that - so I kept it on the list, next to "Destiny Turns on the Radio", because of the Jim Belushi connection. Once I knew I could link to it this summer, though, that freed me up to watch "Destiny" and also the horrible film "Once Upon a Crime". So, umm, yay me?
THE PLOT: Using audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi's death, this documentary examines the too-short life of a once-in-a-generation talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audiences.
AFTER: Well, if you're looking for two people who were on almost the exact same life path, really, it's Chris Farley and John Belushi, right? Both played football in high school, both then found their way into live theater in college, got bit by the same improv bug at Second City in Chicago, from there to "Saturday Night Live", had drug and alcohol problems, got fired and then found mainstream success with two hit movies before they crashed in a very similar way at the same age, 33.
Documentaries should be for learning, and I really did learn a lot here. That film "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead" detailed how the National Lampoon branched out into radio shows and then movies, and when they hired actors for those things, John Belushi was right there, fresh out of Second City and looking for more. The cast of the Lampoon's Radio Hour looked strikingly similar to the first line-up on "SNL", with Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, and Brian Doyle-Murray (who joined SNL a few seasons later). Harold Ramis was also there, and then Christopher Guest, and I didn't realize Guest's career went that far back.
National Lampoon then branched out into live shows with a concert show called "Lemmings" that was basically a parody of the Woodstock festival, and that's where Belushi developed his famous Joe Cocker impression that he'd later bring to SNL. Lorne Michaels essentially stole the entire cast away from National Lampoon to do a little late night skit show on NBC. Saturday? Who watches TV on Saturday night? That's when everybody goes out to the dance clubs or bars, nobody's going to watch that show. Don't worry, those guys will all be back knocking on the National Lampoon's door as soon as it fails...
Bam, instant success, though Belushi could only get on screen if he put on a silly giant bee costume. (Was that ever funny?). But he stuck it out, and then after Chevy Chase left to make movies, J.B. became the alpha male on SNL. But soon friction developed between Belushi and Lorne Michaels over the rigorous shooting schedule that conflicted with the late night party scene of 1970's NYC. I mean, come on, John Belushi was making a ton of money from the show and he was expected to work what, three or four days a WEEK for that? A couple hours of rehearsal and then 90 minutes of LIVE television, and then to do that again and again for 8 months out of the year? And there's that conflict again, where Saturday night was really when he wanted to go out to the dance clubs and bars, I mean, really, who goes there on SUNDAY, the whole vibe is different.
Plus he had to maintain two partnerships, one with his long-time live-in girlfriend Judy, and one with Dan Aykroyd? Just way too much pressure. Actually it seemed like John Belushi was handling success pretty well, after hiring a security guard to watch him and keep him away from drugs, he and Aykroyd and their partners seem to have enjoyed a very peaceful summer on Martha's Vineyard after leaving the show. But the star of "Animal House" and "The Blues Brothers" apparently wasn't prepared for his movies to flop, and so the double-hit of "1941" and then "Neighbors" might be what killed him, in a roundabout way. Not every film you appear in can be a hit, that's just impossible to maintain, but the bad reviews on "Neighbors" made him spin out of control and relapse.
It's too bad, because we'll never know how good of an actor Belushi might have been if he took his own skills a little more seriously. We've got maybe one film, "Continental Divide", where he wasn't just goofing around. But he didn't consider himself an actor, just a comic who could do characters. And one with aspirations to be a blues singer, hence the Blues Brothers, a chance to prove himself musically and hang out with some of the greatest blues musicians in history. I never gave that film a chance until many years later, and now I'll keep it on in the background late at night every time I see that it's airing.
Obviously what the documentarians had to work with here wasn't much, because there's not too much footage of Belushi discussing his career, maybe one or two talk shows, and so they had to rely on letters that he wrote to his wife, some from when he was in rehab, where he promises to be a better person and do better at things - we can imply here that he was probably unfaithful, but really, so was every rock star since the beginning of time, and Belushi was a rock star, just for comedy. That doesn't make sleeping around or doing drugs right, or even a good idea, but it's part of that rock star lifestyle for about 99% of the people who get to live it. At least Belushi got to achieve some of his wildest dreams, to own a club, to front a band, to star in major motion pictures.
They also used animation here for some of the things they didn't have footage of, and also they hired Bill Hader to imitate his voice, for some of the things he wrote but never recorded. It's fine, because those are the things that give us more insight into the other facets of John Belushi, the part that was a dreamer, a poet, a person trying to do life better. I kind of just thought he was a funny guy, which he was, but also I know now there was more to him than that. So the use of animation kind of helped to not just portray him as a cartoonish figure, if that makes sense.
Also starring the voices of Michael Apted, Dan Aykroyd (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Jane Curtin (ditto), Lorne Michaels (ditto), Jim Belushi (last seen in "Once Upon a Crime"), Judith Belushi-Pisano, Candice Bergen (last seen in "Book Club: The Next Chapter), Chevy Chase (last seen in "George Carlin's American Dream"), Gus Dimas, Carrie Fisher (last seen in "Scream 3"), Joe Flaherty (last seen in "Love, Gilda"), Mitch Glazer, Bill Hader (last seen in "Maggie's Plan"), Tony Hendra (last seen in "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead"), Tino Insana, Sue Keller, John Landis, Penny Marshall (last seen in "Mr. Saturday Night"), Bruce McGill (last seen in "Ride Along 2"), Don Novello, Harold Ramis (last seen in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife"), Ivan Reitman (last seen in "The Bill Murray Stories"), Tom Schiller, Alan Zweibel (last seen in "Here Today"), Richard D. Zanuck
with archive footage of John Belushi (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Garrett Morris (ditto), Bill Murray (ditto), Laraine Newman (ditto), Gilda Radner (ditto), John Avildsen (last seen in "Sly"), Kevin Bacon (last seen in "Murder in the First"), Blair Brown (last seen in "The Sentinel"), James Brown (last seen in "Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool"), Ray Charles (last seen in "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"), Steve Martin (ditto), Joe Cocker (last seen in "Woodstock: Three Days that Defined a Generation"), Steve Cropper, David Crosby (last seen in "Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President"), James Daughton, Tom Davis, Donald Dunn, Bob Dylan (last seen in "Nothing Compares"), Gerald Ford (last seen in "Irresistible"), Aretha Franklin (last seen in "Respect"), Stephen Furst (last seen in "The Dream Team"), Allen Garfield (last seen in "Sr."), Christopher Guest (last seen in "Mr. Warmth - the Don Rickles Project"), Tom Hulce (last seen in "Fearless"), Eric Idle (also last seen in "Sr."), Kate Jackson, Mick Jagger (last seen in "Buddy Guy: The Blues Chase the Blues Away"), Keith Richards (ditto), Ronnie Wood (ditto), Robert Klein (last seen in "Ira & Abby"), Lou Marini, Tim Matheson (last seen in "She's All That"), Matt Murphy, Brian Doyle-Murray, Willie Nelson (last seen in "Sheryl"), Michael O'Donoghue, Dolly Parton (last seen in "Air"), Richard Pryor (last seen in "Empire of Light"), Peter Riegert (also last seen in "Sly"), Gene Shalit (last seen in "Val"), Gene Siskel (last seen in "Everything Is Copy"), Tom Snyder (last seen in "Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind"), Steven Spielberg (last seen in "De Palma"), John Vernon, James Widdoes
RATING: 6 out of 10 cheeseburger, cheeseburgers
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