Just watched the chase scene (several actually) from the Blues Brothers movie. Near the end where they are being pursued through the streets of Chicago. Nothing fancy here just old four door sedans traveling at high rates of speed and getting wrecked at a monumental rate. I get a kick out of it every time I see it though!
Got this little snippet from Wikipedia so you know it's 100% correct.
The film used 13 different cars bought at auction from the California Highway Patrol to depict the Bluesmobile, a retired 1974 Mount Prospect, Illinois Dodge Monaco patrol car. The vehicles were outfitted by the studio to do particular driving chores; some customized for speed and others for jumps, depending on the scene. For the large car chases, filmmakers purchased 60 police cars at $400 each, and most were destroyed at the completion of the filming. More than 40 stunt drivers were hired and the crew kept a 24-hour body shop to repair cars.
The part of the chase with the camera focused through the windsheild has always fascinated me. Dans hands really seem to be working the wheel properly- did he just know what he should be doing, or were they really running the car live at the kind of speeds implied? Looks live to me.
I think we threw a rod...Is that serious?
Isn't that chase scene still to date the biggest chase scene? As in most cars wrecked and most people involved?
Feedyurhed wrote:
More than 40 stunt drivers were hired and the crew kept a 24-hour body shop to repair cars.
I assume that's just for the job of driving The Blues Mobile. The stunt driver list seems do go on for hours in the credits (but maybe "stunt men" is what everyone is credited as).
EDIT: It appears that there were 40 stunt drivers and many many more stunt men.
Twin_Cam wrote:
I think we threw a rod...Is that serious?
Isn't that chase scene still to date the biggest chase scene? As in most cars wrecked and most people involved?
Have you ever seen the original Gone in 60 Seconds, or the Junkman? H.B. Halicki ruined a boatload of cars.
Twin_Cam wrote:
I think we threw a rod...Is that serious?
Isn't that chase scene still to date the biggest chase scene? As in most cars wrecked and most people involved?
I don't know but I can't think of any other movies that wreck so many cars so quickly.
I was reading an article on the top ten chase scenes landing The Blues Brothers at number nine. I then remembered that I don't read baseless articles and how dumb many of their writers are and quickly closed the window on my browser.
Whew. Close call for my sanity.
Yes, they really were doing 120 on Lower Wacker Drive.
I did notice one little snippet in the movie. At the beginning, when they head towards the draw bridge, look at the front wheel when they show the P.O.V form the passenger side window. The front tires lock up as the stunt driver stops before the bridge.
The part when they almost hit the bicyclists makes me pucker every time. I love every part of that damn movie.
mike
Reader
12/4/11 8:17 p.m.
More love for the Blues Brothers here. Now I must go watch it again...
I read somewhere that filming was virtually non existent in Chicago until The Blues Brothers was filmed. That's pretty cool.
Anyways The Blues Brothers is in my top 5 movies. Best chase scene, best hero car, great sound track.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:
I read somewhere that filming was virtually non existent in Chicago until The Blues Brothers was filmed. That's pretty cool.
Anyways The Blues Brothers is in my top 5 movies. Best chase scene, best hero car, great sound track.
A few more tidbits:
The filming in downtown Chicago was conducted on Sundays during the summer of 1979, and much of the downtown was cordoned off from the public. Costs for filming the largest scene in the city's history, totaled $3.5 million. Permission was given after Belushi and Aykroyd offered to donate $50,000 to charity after filming. Although the Bluesmobile was allowed to be driven through the Daley Center lobby, special breakaway panes were temporarily substituted for the normal glass in the building. The speeding car caused $7,650 in damages to 35 granite pavers and a bronze air grille in the building.] Interior shots of the elevator, staircase, and assessor's office were all re-created in a filmset for filming.
the mall is still standing, and supposedly hasnt changed much inside from filming (was already closed in 79)
its about 5-6 miles from my house, in a rougher area..a mile or two around it is pretty wild.
It all started back when the Untouchables was filming in Chicago. The plot had something to do with a dirty Chicago cop. Daley didn't like it, thus forbade filming in the city for years. It wasn't until Jane Byrne was elected that filming began to come back to Chicago. Akaroyd admitted later that there is no way you'd get away with what they did in 79 today..
redzcstandardhatch wrote:
the mall is still standing, and supposedly hasnt changed much inside from filming (was already closed in 79)
its about 5-6 miles from my house, in a rougher area..a mile or two around it is pretty wild.
Check this out.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrY2nTIa1-o&feature=fvwrel
redzcstandardhatch wrote:
the mall is still standing, and supposedly hasnt changed much inside from filming (was already closed in 79)
its about 5-6 miles from my house, in a rougher area..a mile or two around it is pretty wild.
Growing up in the area, I've seen it come down more and more over the years. Major parts of it have been torn down in the last 10 years. Expect it to be torn down completely in the next couple years.
Where it sits in Harvey, has been plagued with crime since the early 70's, hence why it was closed by 1978. The area hasn't changed much. Suprisingly I read somewhere that the mall opened in 1969. It was barely open for 10 years.
It's crazy that an abandoned mall is more popular now than it was when it was open.
GRM and CMS friend Burt Levy was one of the "stunt" drivers in the movie. The film makers contacted the local SCCA chapters to recruit folks that had an idea of how to drive. The major stunts were done by the professional stuntmen, but a bunch of the "extra" cars were driven by regular SCCA guys.
Burt is the author of "The Last Open Road" series of books.
