Blazing Saddles
Category
Comedy
Director
Mel Brooks
Cast
- Cleavon Little
- Gene Wilder
- Harvey Korman
Release Date
7 February 1974
Synopsis
These days, Hollywood has been churning out these kinds of comedies where you have crass scenes with characters emitting various body sounds to their delight. If you aren't sick of that, then maybe you've seen one too many messy pie-throwing scenes. Maybe you've heard every racist remark about every possible race, and you've witnessed the sleaziest sex-crazed characters on screen ogling women in cleavage-busting get-ups. These days, those antics are highly unoriginal, but before you dismiss them as failed gags, you should know that once upon a time, those tricks were clever and one of a kind. And the granddaddy of all these jokes is Mel Brooks and his irreverent, unapologetic, and politically offensive Western comedy classic Blazing Saddles.
It was the year 1874, and we're thrown back in time when men wore cowboy hats and boots with spurs, saloons existed, sheriffs upheld the law, and ye olde railroad was being built. We're in the Old West in the town of Rock Ridge (or Johnsonville, really) and the bad guys want to tear down the town so that the train can go through it. Sly State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) devises a plan to rid of the town's inhabitants by bullying the folks from Rock Ridge, forcing the Governor to select a new sheriff. Mel Brooks plays the daft official and is easily convinced by Lamarr to pick Bart (Cleavon Little), an African-American working on the railroad (all the livelong day!) as town sheriff. Lamarr knows that the racist townsfolk will simply defy him or leave town, but Bart, with the help of sharpshooter friend Jim (Gene Wilder) or The Waco Kid get the town on their side. Bart is consistently tested by the scheming Lamarr, but he isn't tricked even by the alluring Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn), and The Waco Kid easily defeats Lamarr's henchmen. With Lamarr on the losing end, he sends in the big guys, but the folks of Rock Ridge definitely have a plan of action that ends in a, err, pretty weird way.
Mel Brooks' comedy creation was refreshingly defiant when it was released in 1974. It may seem like a silly bag of gags, but behind all the nonsense is really a no holds barred attempt at satire. A comedy that's ahead of its time, Blazing Saddles is vulgar but honest and funny yet meaningful. It may not be Brooks' best, but it did start the type of comedy film that would be seen well into to the 21st century.