Blazing Saddles
1974 Directed by Mel Brooks
Synopsis
Never give a saga an even break!
The Ultimate Western Spoof. A town where everyone seems to be named Johnson is in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, Hedley Lemar, 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 in the west.
Cast
Popular reviews
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Easily one of the busiest and most gag-filled comedies of all time. What starts out as a western spoof turns into a genre-bending assault of comedic imagination. Mel Brooks has never been one to shy away from making fun of touchy subjects and that is definitely the case here as he tackles racism. While it isn't as biting in its satiric qualities or as ingenious in its concept as The Producers (1968), this is Brooks at his most purely rebellious. Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder and Harvey Korman are at their comedic prime.
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Sheriff murdered, crops burned, stores looted, people stampeded, and cattle raped. The time has come to act, and act fast. I'm leaving.
-Reverend JohnsonTo say the spoof film is a lost art form is an understatement. Films like Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein are considered two of the best comedies of all time. Now when a spoof film comes out it's not even considered the funniest film playing at the theater that weekend.
It's arguably Mel Brooks second best film, but it's so close that it'll depend on who you ask. Every single piece of dialogue in the film is either a joke, or a set up for one told with perfect comic timing by a great cast. It's…
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There is not one single scene in this film that isn't acted, directed, timed and scripted perfectly. By far my favourite film by Brooks and one of the best comedies ever made. Gene Wilder's surreal feel for comedy works fantastically well in this great, absurd and hilarious western parody. Whenever I get one of the bland, generic Hollywood-esque comedies thrown at me I always get the uncontrollable urge to rewatch this one again. I often do and it is still funny as hell.
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Even after multiple viewings, I still can only barely comprehend the absolute genius and brilliance of this film, second only to Dr. Strangelove as the greatest comedy I've ever seen. Mel Brooks and his team of screenwriters (including Richard Pryor) cram joke after joke into this epic comic masterwork - so many jokes that I'm still discovering new, subtle comic wonder with each viewing.
With this film, Brooks tears apart racism, and does it in a way few other directors at the time dared to try. Most of today's films treat racism with disquieting seriousness and over-the-top melodrama - not Brooks. For a mainstream 70s film, the number of uses of the n-word are startlingly high, and the way both…
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One of the greatest acheivements in comedy history and still as funny today as it ever was
The greatest comedy farting of all time that when you first saw it and were below the age of 15 is the funniest scene of all time (i still love it) but as you get older theres more to appreciate. the taking down of mongo, gene wilder's performance and possibly the most crazy and brilliant breaking down of the 4th wall ever put in a comedy.
mel brooks at his finest and still one of the all time greats
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A horse gets punched in the face. If that does'nt make you want to see this film I don't know what will.
If it's not a funny experience for you (IMPOSSIBLE!!!) it'll definetely be an experience you'll never see come out of todays Hollywood.
A one of a kind classic comedy!
Recent reviews
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Mel Brooks is in his own category, his humor is completely different to anything else, and that's where this movie shines, it has some great moments and also some cheesy ones. Holding himself hostage is so ridiculous yet so funny. A lot of the humor wouldn't work on this PC world we live in now, but it's really fun.
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I've seen this a few times throughout the years but last night I saw it on the big screen for the first time and thankfully with a decent-sized crowd. It was nice to laugh along with the audience at all the hilarious moments. This of course is still funny almost 40 years later and boy does it make the "spoof" movies of recent years look especially terrible and laughless.
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A good piece of absurdist comedy that definitely holds up throughout the years.
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Not my favorite Brooks film, because while it's remarkable what he's able to get away with, even today, he's not really at his funniest when getting away with stuff. Unlike HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART 1 (which is just non-stop spoof) and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (which works on every imaginable level), the centerpiece material in SADDLES (i.e., Brooks' attempt to push the racial envelope as far as he can) ranges from mildly amusing to kind of flat, and it's the unrelated throwaway stuff that really sings -- "Someone's gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes," "Mongo's just a pawn in the game of life," the Johnsons, etc. Awesomely lunatic, but not in the pantheon, IMO.
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Deliriously funny, shamelessly anachronistic and endlessly rewatchable. Possibly Brooks' finest work, only rivalled by 'Young Frankenstein'.
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Directed by Mel Brooks
Grade: A
I had forgotten how off the wall bonkers "The Producers" was but "Blazing Saddles" kicks it up a notch. Warner Brothers never released an R-rated live action Looney Tunes Cartoon, but I think this is pretty close to what that would look like.
Yes, Mel Brooks is parodying Western films and tropes here, but really this is a comedy grab bag where anything can happen at any moment. There are five writers credited on the screenplay and this is the rare time where it feels that way AND it's a good thing. This is a movie of jokes, meant to be wild, politically incorrect and provocative. There are very few filmmakers who could get…
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I have to admit that I don't really know what happened in the last 5 or 10 minutes.
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http://cinemalacrum.blogspot.com/2013/05/hey-where-white-women-at-blazing.html
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Insanely funny. This film probably couldn't get made today without a huge political backlash, but that makes it even funnier.