brando647
I'm ashamed to say I only just saw BLAZING SADDLES for the first time last year. Until then, the only Mel Brooks I'd seen had been SPACEBALLS and ROBIN HOOD: MEN IN TIGHTS (and even that one I hadn't watched since high school). I'd heard all the praise and I always knew I should have made time for it, but I was always so adverse to westerns that even the promise of Brooks' antics couldn't get me to give the movie a chance. Now I've got a new tolerance for the western genre and the Mel Brooks boxed set in my collection, so I've finally watched it. And, of course, I loved it. Of course I did. I was stupid to have put off watching it for as long as I did, and now I see that all the love heaped on the film is well earned. I don't know what I was expecting. The only scene I'd ever been familiar with prior was the infamous campfire scene so I'd always kind of assumed the movie was just 90 minutes of unrelenting toilet humor. I mean, sure, it's got that too but it's so much more. BLAZING SADDLES is part spoof, part social commentary with a heavy dose of Looney Tunes thrown in for good measure. It's the sort of movie that'll comment on how minorities were handled in the nineteenth century frontier and punctuate it with a full-blown pie fight. With YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, it's one of Brooks' best films.Long before Quentin Tarantino made us shift uncomfortably in our seats with his films' casual use of racial epithets, Brooks called attention to our country's squeaky-clean depiction of the frontier in movies with BLAZING SADDLES. His movie opens right up with an opening scene featuring African-American and Asian slaves building a railroad through the American west under the watchful eye of their white masters. We're hit right out of the gate with the first "N-bomb" and it's a little shocking at first, especially when the white cowpokes start mocking them with calls for Negro spirituals. The discomforting situation is immediately defused when it's made apparent Brooks intends that the racists themselves are going to be the fools and laughingstocks. We're shown that, yes, the movie is going to have some racial content but we're not to be concerned because those hurling the insults are either evil (Taggart and his posse) or ignorant (the townsfolk of Rock Ridge). And it all culminates in people of all colors and creeds coming together under the leadership of their new (black) sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little) to dispatch the evil horde of "rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, a**-kickers, s***-kickers and Methodists" who've come to run them out of their peaceful town. See, Brooks has ingrained his film with a positive, progressive commentary and seasoned it with fart jokes.Well, one fart joke anyway. The rest is Brooks' usual brand of cartoonish gags and zaniness. He's assembled a knockout comedy cast including Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, and of course Little as our hero Bart. There are more memorable moments (Bart's arrival in Rock Ridge), lines of dialogue (Bart to KKK thugs: "Where the white women at?"), and character quirks (Kahn's Lili Von Shtupp) in this movie than most other comedies I've seen. There isn't a whole lot to say in regards to a movie like BLAZING SADDLES without going into a fan rant about how much I enjoyed this gag or that. Brooks films are pretty simple in that, if you've enjoyed his other films, you're bound to enjoy this one because it's one of his best. I might even consider it his top piece of work but YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN has lodged itself in my mind deeper and deeper with every time I've watched it. I guess I would say BLAZING SADDLES is Brooks' funniest film whereas YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN is his best-constructed film. It's also from an era where movies, especially comedies, didn't overstay their welcomes; it's a quick ninety-minute runtime. You're in and out and laughing your head off in no time at all. Plus, as with most of Brooks' work, the more you watch it, the more funny stuff you're bound to notice in the background that you might've missed in the last viewing because you were still laughing at some other bit.
Michael_Elliott
Blazing Saddles (1974)*** 1/2 (out of 4) A greedy and crooked businessman (Harvey Korman) decides to try and destroy a small town by sending a new sheriff into it. This sheriff (Cleavon Little) must happens to be a black man, which isn't going to sit well with the townspeople but with the help of The Cisco Kid (Gene Wilder) he might be able to turn them.Mel Brooks' BLAZING SADDLES is one of the most loved comedies of the 1970's but it's easy to forget how ahead of its time the thing actually was. It's funny to think of how controversial the film once was but it's also a fresh reminder that at one time you could tell politically incorrect jokes and not have to apologize for it. I mean, can you imagine a movie like this coming out today? There are all sorts of nice laughs throughout the movie, which is basically Brooks' love story to the Westerns that he grew up watching. Once again the strongest aspect of the film are the performances from a terrific cast. This includes Wilder who is perfect as the gunfighter and Korman is also excellent in his campy role as the villain. Madeline Kahn and Brooks himself deliver as you'd expect them too. Little is good in his role but at the same time you can't help but wonder what would have happened had Richard Pryor gotten the role. The greatest thing here is the performance of Slim Pickens who brings that wonderful charm to this role, although of course this one here adds a racist and comic touch.I'm not going to sit here and say the film is flawless because it certainly isn't. With that said, it's easy to see why this was a landmark film and why it continues to gain new fans each passing year. With this type of humor being pretty much outlawed today the film has an even bigger importance.
stvrn fknm
I was mentioning this movie a while back to a co-worker, and she said, "Oh, that movie is terrible, it's so racist..." She didn't get it. There is a lot of politically incorrect language, a lot of use of the "N" word. But you have to pay attention to the context. All the racial slurs are done in such a way that the object of ridicule is the racist whites, not African Americans. In that sense, it's just brilliant. In one scene, when the black sheriff greets an old white woman on the street, she responds with "Outta my way, n****r! Later, after he has proved his worthiness as sheriff, she brings him a pie she baked for him as a token of appreciation "for saving our town from that horrible "Mongo..." Then, before departing, she says, "Oh, and, sorry about the "outta my way n****er..." Some 40+ years later, whenever I hear that line, I find myself rolling on the floor laughing... Pure genius!
