Chicago ? No matter how far director John Landis travels, he cannot help but run into a couple of soul-singing, sunglass-wearing characters from his past – Jake and Elwood Blues.

“I’ve been in Kyoto and Munich and Tel Aviv and Buenos Aires, and you see people dressed as Jake and Elwood,” Landis told The Associated Press. “That’s amazing – they’re like Mickey Mouse. They’ve just become part of the culture.”

It’s been 25 years since the release of “The Blues Brothers,” a manic comedy crammed with music, dancing and action scenes, filmed largely in Chicago, directed by Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as music-loving brothers who find themselves “on a mission from God.”

As Jake and Elwood, the “Saturday Night Live” led police, Illinois Nazis and a furious country act on spectacular chases (“Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration, don’t fail us now”) and reunited their band to raise $5,000 to save their childhood home – the St. Helen of the Blessed Shroud orphanage.

And while the cult classic appeared on screens in the summer of 1980, its influence is still felt – in the various musical ventures in which Aykroyd remains involved, its influential soundtrack, the countless times it airs on television each year, and the boost it gave to Chicago’s then-dormant film industry.

Plus, the movie highlighted musical legends such as John Lee Hooker, Cab Calloway, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

Mario Novelli is pictured outside his barber salon between statues of John Belushi , left, and Dan Akroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues in River Grove, Ill., a Chicago suburb. Belushi and Akroyd were the stars of the 1980 film The

“I think you can see in the movie how passionate, really passionate John and Danny were about the music,” Landis said. “It’s a unique situation where you have two guys who are exploiting their own celebrity of the moment to focus a spotlight on these great acts.”

To mark the film’s 25th anniversary, Universal Studios Home Entertainment on Tuesday is releasing a DVD, including an extended director’s cut and a documentary explaining how the band was assembled. On Monday night, the movie will be shown at more than 80 theaters across the country, with Landis and Aykroyd featured, via satellite, in a live question-and-answer session.

In Chicago, the movie is especially beloved for being one of the first major features shot there. “It’s often considered to be THE Chicago movie,” said Tim Samuelson, the city’s cultural historian.

Samuelson remembers seeing stunt men scaling the columns of the Cook County Building – part of the climatic scene in which Elwood and Jake race to pay the orphanage’s tax bill to a county employee played in a cameo by director Steven Spielberg.

He’s such a fan that he got inside the Loop’s Plymouth Hotel – which served as Elwood’s flophouse – before it was demolished. As a memento, he took the curtain that hung on the window. (“How often does the train go by?” Jake asks. “So often you won’t even notice it,” Elwood replies.)

John Belushi, left, and Dan Akroyd hang out on the set of The