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Blazing Saddles
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Easily my favorite of Mel Brooks’ movies, with
Young Frankenstein a close second. I have seen The Producers and found
it to be hilarious, but nothing beats Blazing Saddles. Like Raiders of the Last Ark,
there’s no scene I don’t enjoy of this movie. Richard Pryor helped him write this
wonderful shake up of almost every Western cliché in existence, except perhaps the
shootout in town, but all is forgiven for that. Racism is the main theme here, the fallout from the
appointment of a Black sheriff to a Western town being right upfront. Racism is not just slapped
on the wrist, but slugged full in the face more effectively than any deep and dramatic
Poitier flick, which is the beauty of comedy. You can make just about any statement
with comedy and be applauded for it, since ya made us laugh doing it. My biggest regret
is that Cleavon Little didn’t follow this with a magnificent film career, because he’s the
best part of the movie. Black people are the brains of this movie, and Bart runs rings around the
Caucasians whose respect he has no choice but to gain. Only Gene Wilder as the Waco Kid
comes close to his intellect. Brooks’ usual gang of idiots pull off the acting chores,
such as Harvey Korman, Madelyn Kahn, Dom DeLuise, Wilder, and Brooks himself as the
lecherous Governor and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief who lets Bart’s family “kep
a walk” from an Indian attack. The fourth wall is blasted clean off its foundations several
times over here, especially in the finest ending sequence I’ve ever seen.
The townspeople of Rock Ridge fight to save their town, a brawl which literally
spills over into the Warner Brothers backlot and crashes into other film parodies.
Cowboys now brawl with foppish chorus line boys, tour guides and other actors on
break in the commissary. As usual Brooks throws about every joke there is to be thrown, including
pies for “the great pie fight,” and most of them work. I could have blown off the commentary
above just to list my favorite lines from this movie, but will leave it with just two:
Harvey Korman, plotting aloud about how to offend
the people of Rock Ridge with their own sheriff, wonders while facing the camera,
“Where would I find such a man? Why am I asking you?” “You” meaning we the audience.
And it’s about time someone noticed we were there. Waco Kid to Bart, who’s putting on
his guns to take out Mongo (Alex Karras): “Oh, no, no, don’t do that.
Don’t shoot him. If you shoot him, you’ll just make him mad.”
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