We're On A Mission From God

The Blues Brothers
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
There are times that a night at the Mahoning unexpectedly becomes one of my favorite nights of the season.  Last night was one of those times.

Show banner designed by Andrew Kern

The Blues Brothers premiered in theaters less than two weeks before I "premiered" on the planet.  I haven't really looked too far into it, but this might be the first movie that I've gotten to see at the Mahoning that was still in its original theatrical run when I was born.

There was a vinyl record themed vendor market on the lot in the hours before the sun went down, and it was a massive improvement in comparison to the punk rock flea market that they had two weeks ago.  Instead of filling up the lawn with forty different vendors and disturbing the folks who come here to relax with friends and watch movies, they had just a few different vendors, and they were all in or around the concession building.  With the exception of VHS Fest, this is how every vendor market should be.  I bought something from one of the tables that is among my favorite purchases I've ever made on the lot, but that's something I'll talk about in a separate post.

 

We were joined in the front row by our friends Mike, Kate, Carrie, Gene, and Ben, and some of Ben's friends that were visiting the Mahoning for the first time.  Ben busted out the Beyblade arena and we had some fun playing with that, after which time we played his Adventure Time card game.  I am only vaguely aware of either of these properties.  In fact, pretty much everything I know about either of them is something I learned from Ben on the lot, but we had a hell of a lot of fun relaxing and playing games on the lawn under the screen before showtime.

The forecast was calling for thunderstorms that would last for most of the day, but we got lucky.  The rain held off for the entire pre-show, so we got to sit outside and hang out with our friends right up until the start of the films.  It started raining just a couple of minutes before showtime, but sitting in the car once in a while for a movie is not a bad thing, particularly when it's a single feature.

In place of trailers, Rob screened their copy of the 1968 Woody Woodpecker short One Horse Town.  We've seen this at the Mahoning a few times over the years, and I laugh every time as hard as I did the first time I saw it.  There's no better way to tee up a classic comedy flick than with a classic cartoon.

So, I started off by saying that this was unexpectedly one of my favorite nights of the season.  A big part of that was that is was a particularly nice night hanging out with our friends and playing games before showtime, but the movie was also a pleasant surprise.

I've only seen The Blues Brothers one time in my life.  It's another one of those movies that I brought home when I worked at Blowout Video when I was a teenager.  I had heard for a long time in the years prior to my seeing it, but it didn't really land with me the first time that I saw it.  I'm not sure if I wasn't old enough to fully appreciate the humor, or if I was distracted and not really paying attention when I saw it, or the fact that comedies in general sometimes take a little while to get their hooks into me.  It's probably a combination of the three, but the latter is something that has been on my mind recently.  Some of my favorite comedy films and tv series are things that I didn't love right away, but that I grew to love after a few repeat viewings.  I can't explain why that is, but there are too many examples that I can think of for it to be a coincidence.

I came out to the lot tonight knowing that I didn't have any especially fond memories or nostalgic feelings for The Blues Brothers from my one and only viewing of it in the late 90's.  At the same time, I recognized that this is widely regarded as a comedy classic, so maybe coming back to it as a 44 year old man, and seeing it on the big screen with no distractions, will let me see it from a different perspective.  I'm very glad to say that it did, because regardless of the reason why this movie didn't connect with me as a teenager, it absolutely connected with me as a middle-aged dude.  I spent the entire film laughing and smiling.  This movie deserves all of the accolades that it gets, and then some.