Belushi

A very good retelling of John's story from his childhood through his untimely death.

John in his own words, spoken and written plus the thoughts of his friends and peers. Videos, still photos and animation for the audio recordings of him.

Well worth a watch if you were a fan.

(RECOMMENDED) There is more tragedy than joy in J. R. Cutler's sad yet entertaining documentary about comedian John Belushi. The movie effectively shows his life story in fragments, although it seems unnecessarily more hyperactive than the man himself, if that is possible. Audio tapes, photos, and many interviews with famous friends and loved ones are interspersed with his personal letters, stylized animation, and home videos. The highs are there as well as the low of his short life in this well-researched film. (He died at the age of 33.) Classic bits from his films and SNL skits are evidence of his unique talent and make his loss even more poignant as the documentary strangely builds to a powerful indictment about the perils of instant fame, fortune, and excessive drug abuse. Ultimately, Belushi is a loving testament to a comic icon whose legend lasted longer than his brief but memorable career. (GRADE: B)

Just about everybody who is going to watch this Documentary on John Belushi will already be fully aware of how sadly the comedian's story ends. To his credit, Director RJ Cutler doesn't dwell on the details of his last few hours, but, it still casts a pall over the entire Doc. It begins with one of Belushi's career highs - on stage with Dan Aykroyd at a Blue Brothers concert. Belushi was riding the fame brought to him by Second City, National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live and ANIMAL HOUSE. Still, at this peak moment we hear voices from his friends about how they worried about how he would "handle" his fame.

Those voices are largely drawn from an incredible treasure trove of recordings by Tanner Colby conducted in the wake of Belushi's death in 1982 at age 33. Director Cutler has so shaped his movie around those tapes that, in a way, it's a visualization of those audiotapes. Colby could almost be considered a co-Director here, along with Belushi's widow Judith Belushi Pisano (the pair did collaborate on a 2005 book). Cutler has done a fine job of organizing the material from Colby and Pisano, and the Doc is illustrated with a generous sampling of photos and clips from Belushi's career on stage, radio, TV and film. Where no visual record is available, Cutler uses some simple animation.

Still, it's the tapes that carry the day. A wide assortment of friends, family and co-stars speak openly and honestly about Belushi's talents, flaws and substance abuse demons. SNL Producer Lorne Michaels is brutal in laying out the early days of the comedian's downfall. Carrie Fisher's stories of their mutual addictions is even more poignant now in light of her own recent passing. Friend after friend recounts how everybody feared the worst, but, really, in the end, only Pisano truly seemed to have any sway over his out of control behavior. In this telling, it's almost a miracle that Belushi lived as long as he did. For that, I suppose we should be thankful - a few more performances by the man.

This documentary is an original way of interviewing colleagues, friends and family about James Belushi, an uncontrollable force in acting, who exploded onto the American tv screens in the seventies and exploded he did.

The good: the way this documentary is told is insightful and illustrative, mixing lots of phone conversations with friends of Belushi with lots of rare footage.

More good: Belushi deserves to have such a documentary dedicated to him, because he was (however short lived) an unique actor.

Any bad? Not any documentary beats watching James Belushi acting in movies and in old tv shows. Simply search Imdb for the few, but great, contributions Belushi made to the American cinema. Yes, it was pulp, but it was the best pulp one could dream of...

The Blues Brothers is my favourite musical of all time and if I sat down and thought about it , it would probably make my all time top ten movie list and that great film was my introduction to John Belushi.

This is a documentary that uses previously unheard audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi's death, It examines the too-short life of a unique talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audiences.

What I like about this film is that it's isn't a bunch of talking heads , reminiscing about John Belushi and blowing smoke up his arse . These are tapes recorded not long after his death from the people who really knew him.

They are played over hundreds of pictures and Video clips and letters that he wrote to his wife . There is some brilliant animation that tells some of Belushi's story and it works really well.

It's a tragic film in many ways because he never received any professional help for his addictions and that's rare . Even the most famous addicts tried some sort of rehab but not John .

I wasn't lucky enough to see the early part of his career. Mainly because i was too young and secondly, Saturday Night Live has never been shown on British TV . This film gives a great glimpse into the man and how a fantastic talent was ruined by drugs .

This is probably my favourite documentary film of 2020.