Blazing Saddles (1974) - Legendary Western-Satire Comedy Directed by Mel Brooks, Produced by Michael Hertzberg

[JPW]

Interesting piece on the 40th Anniversary of Blazing Saddles.

On my personal list of one of the 10 best movies ever made (it's an idiosyncratic list).

[DaveO]

Blazing Saddles is among my all time favorite comedies, and possibly among my favorite movies also.  That is an interesting article;  so serious about such a silly uproarious comedy.  Interesting, though, that Brooks said he couldn't make that movie in current times because of political correctness perspectives.

My favorite line from a Brooks movie is "Its good to be the king" from History of the world part II.  That line is applicable in so many different environments.  Yet when I looked at this video its apparent that Brooks had one application of the phrase in mind:

 

[DonRocks]

My favorite (and the most amazing) dialog of "Blazing Saddles," up to the 20-minute mark:

Mel Brooks plays Governor William J. Le Petomane (*).
Harvey Korman plays Hedley LaMarr.

Le Petomane: "Thank you, Hedy, thank you."
LaMarr:             "It's not Hedy, it's Hedley. Hedley LaMarr."
Le Petomane: "What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You'll be able to sue *her*!

And it turns out that this joke about a non-existent lawsuit foreshadowed Hedy Lamarr actually suing Mel Brooks!

(*) I defy even the most priggish person on Earth not to laugh at the thought of him playing "La Marsellaise" on an ocarina.

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Joe, if you see this, I'd be interested in knowing why you love this film so much. I hadn't seen it in 43 years (!), and honestly, I didn't think it was as funny as I did when I was 13 (although I did really enjoy it - Mel Brooks really knows how to extract slapstick laughs; the 56-year-old Don wonders if he sacrificed anti-black racism for allowance of just about all other racism, but I'm probably missing something because it's late (1 AM) and I'm tired). I would love your thoughts.

[Al Dente]

On 9/2/2017 at 6:01 PM, DonRocks said:

the 56-year-old Don wonders if he sacrificed anti-black racism for allowance of just about all other racism, but I'm probably missing something because it's late (1 AM) and I'm tired). I would love your thoughts.

Harumpfff!

I always thought he was satirizing any kind of racism. The white characters (except Jim) were always portrayed as ignorant (the townspeople, Taggart) or conniving (Hedley). It's crude by today's standards, but I think it still holds up as pointed satire. Case in point (offensive language):

Blazing Saddles, IMHO, is arguably the best comedic film of all time. Or is it Young Frankenstein? Ok, it's a tie.

[DonRocks]

On 9/7/2017 at 10:30 AM, Al Dente said:

Harumpfff!

I always thought he was satirizing any kind of racism. The white characters (except Jim) were always portrayed as ignorant (the townspeople, Taggart) or conniving (Hedley). It's crude by today's standards, but I think it still holds up as pointed satire. Case in point (offensive language):

Blazing Saddles, IMHO, is arguably the best comedic film of all time. Or is it Young Frankenstein? Ok, it's a tie.

I realized after watching it last week that I don't *think* I've seen the entire movie since it was released in 1974! (Perhaps the same with "Young Frankenstein.")

You're right that he was satirizing any kind of racism, but he did it in different ways for different races, which is why I had that perception. In particular, I think his (deliberate) misogyny was executed in a very different fashion than his anti-black satire, and his gay satire (for example, Boris, the hangman) did not age very well - it's just not that funny anymore, maybe because the gay revolution is still going in full force. As a side issue - and people aren't going to like me saying this - I think Madeleine Kahn was miscast for the part. Also (people aren't going to like this either), I thought the entire ending was so over-the-top and inconsistent with the rest of the film as to be not all that funny - starting at the point when he broke the fourth wall. Absurd, yes; funny, not so much (at least not to me).

I had forgotten just *how* un-politically correct "Blazing Saddles" is - it was shocking to see! And I tend to speak out vocally against political correctness.

Don't get me wrong here - I really like the movie, and I think it's a classic comedy, but it *is* puerile and targeted at a collegiate audience (then again, so is "Animal House," and I think I saw that movie in the theater about seven times). I'm also *delighted* that Mel Brooks had the stones to essentially hold up his middle finger to all the politically correct people in the world.

You're a Big Lebowski fan, right? I think that's a better, more sophisticated comedy that's almost the equal of Blazing Saddles on the "cheap laughs" front.

[DaveO]

On 9/7/2017 at 10:30 AM, Al Dente said:

Harumpfff!

I always thought he was satirizing any kind of racism. The white characters (except Jim) were always portrayed as ignorant (the townspeople, Taggart) or conniving (Hedley). It's crude by today's standards, but I think it still holds up as pointed satire. Case in point (offensive language):

Blazing Saddles, IMHO, is arguably the best comedic film of all time. Or is it Young Frankenstein? Ok, it's a tie.

At some point In the last 2 years I re watched this film in its entirety.  I would guess that virtually everything I thought was hilarious then struck me similarly in the same way--40 years later and 40 years older than when I saw it in my early 20's.  It hits my funny bone and I guess my funny bone hasn't changed much in that time period.  I simply don't buy into critiques on its form of humor.  I tend to think one either likes this type of humor and this film or not.  Clearly its broad and at times juvenile humor.  I still find that appealing.  Its not unlike preferring the humor of Letterman vs Leno when the two talk show hosts ran against one another for decades:  simply different types of humor. 

My question is one of "...is this dated".  I tend to ask that of films from different generations and periods, any kind of film, not just comedy.

Most recently I re viewed two little pieces:  One was my favorite line/scene in the film:  Certainly its a reflection of my Jewishness and that of Mel Brooks, and in my case being someone who knew a little more than a smattering of Yiddish via my parents and grandparents.  Its not the funniest scene in the movie, but it struck me with awe in terms of layers of absurdity on top of absurdity on top of more absurdity.  Its the scene where Indians attack a wagon train and at the end Mel Brooks playing the Indian chief allows Cleavon Little's lone wagon with his parents and he as a little child to proceed on without interference:

Interestingly on the line that Don references above...

On 9/2/2017 at 6:01 PM, DonRocks said:

My favorite (and the most amazing) dialog of "Blazing Saddles," up to the 20-minute mark:

Mel Brooks plays Governor William J. Le Petomane (*).
Harvey Korman plays Hedley LaMarr.

Le Petomane: "Thank you, Hedy, thank you."
LaMarr:             "It's not Hedy, it's Hedley. Hedley LaMarr."
Le Petomane: "What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You'll be able to sue *her*!

And it turns out that this joke about a non-existent lawsuit foreshadowed Hedy Lamarr actually suing Mel Brooks!

(*) I defy even the most priggish person on Earth not to laugh at the thought of him playing "La Marsellaise" on an ocarina.

the scene in its entirety gives a sense of current events.  When Korman requires the staff to respond accordingly to the Governor's comments with "harrumphs" the scene foreshadows something we recently saw in this administration when they filmed the very first cabinet meeting and each cabinet member and senior staff member was requested to make comments:  Every comment (but one) was an "ode to President Trump" with several being way over the top:  Anyway the entire scene with Korman, Brooks, and others:

If you haven't seen the film here are 50 funny bits:

And hard to believe, but Mel Brooks actually cut a scene he thought went too far as he describes to Conan O'Brien: