Year: 1974
Director: Mel Brooks
Country: US
Language: English
"What in the wide, world of sports is going on here?" - Taggart
Once upon a time in the Old West, a black sheriff came to town and all the citizens (who were all related to each other) were in an uproar. Satire is one of the most useful forms of comedy when deciding to make a mockery out of old customs and beloved genres/people. In 1940 Charles Chaplin made The Great Dictator, a well known satire that wasn't afraid to laugh at the tyranny of fascism and make our fears grow dimmer each minute. The majority of Mel Brooks' movies do the same thing, que "the Spanish inquisition" song. Blazing Saddles is a remarkable comedy that makes light out of all the serious Westerns being made around that time.
Blazing Saddles is set in a Western town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar (Harvey Korman), a politically connected nasty person, sends in his henchmen to make the town unlivable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor. Hedley convinces him to send the town the first Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) in the west.
Blazing Saddles is the ultimate Western Spoof, but filled to the brim with words like "nigger" it would face great controversy. Actually most of the controversy arose from the farting scenes as Saddles is the first time farting has ever been recorded on film. Brooks came up with the idea after watching numerous old westerns where cowboys only consume black coffee and plates of beans, thus concluding that such a food combination would inevitably lead to farting. It was a moment of brilliance, but the Warner Brothers executives considered it very offensive subject matter. Brooks agreed that it should be removed from the final cut, but had no intention of doing so since his contract gave him final decision.
Mel Brook's film is perhaps the best work he has ever done, though some might argue for Young Frankenstein. Blazing Saddles makes fun of institutional racism, showing that the racist white men are actually the butt of the jokes and that black men are quite competent and courageous. One could claim that this is a civil rights picture and that Cleavon Little is somewhat of a comedic Sidney Poitier (In the Heat of the Night). However, the film never comes off as preachy. You'll be laughing your head off at the absurdity that ensues throughout Brook's picture, especially near the end.
In conclusion, the fact that Blazing Saddles was even made shows that Brook's has tremendous courage, especially when he chose to ignore the Warner Brothers' executives' pleas to completely change the film. It is a perfect mix of Civil Rights and Western Satire. Definitely not one of your typical "white guilt" movies. Praise it! 5/5
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