Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles promotional poster
Directed by	Mel Brooks
Written by	Andrew Bergman (story) Mel Brooks Norman Steinberg Andrew Bergman Richard Pryor Alan Uger (screenplay)
Produced by	Michael Hertzberg
Starring	Cleavon Little Gene Wilder Harvey Korman
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Edited by	Danford B. Greene John C. Howard
Music by	Mel Brooks John Morris
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	February 7, 1974
Languages	English (with restricted use of Yiddish and German)
Budget	$2.6 million USD

File:Mongo only pawn in game of life.jpg

Alex Karras as Mongo in Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles (1974) is a comedy directed by Mel Brooks and starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, and released by Warner Brothers. The film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, including Governor Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian Chief. Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, and Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman are also featured. Musician Count Basie has a cameo as himself.

The film is a parody of the Western film genre as well as a satire about racism.

Cast

• Gene Wilder as Jim "The Waco Kid"
• Cleavon Little as Bart
• Mel Brooks as Gov. William J. Le Petomane / Indian chief
• Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtupp
• Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr
• Slim Pickens as Taggart
• Dom DeLuise as Buddy Bizarre
• Liam Dunn as Rev. Johnson
• George Furth as Van Johnson
• Burton Gilliam as Lyle
• John Hillerman as Howard Johnson
• David Huddleston as Olson Johnson
• Alex Karras as Mongo
• Jack Starrett as Gabby Johnson

Plot summary

Template:Spoiler The story is set in the American Old West of 1874 (though it is filled with anachronistic references). Construction on a new railroad runs into quicksand; the route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone has the last name of "Johnson" (including a "Howard Johnson" and a "Van Johnson"). The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr — not to be confused, as he often is in the film, with actress Hedy Lamarr — wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving the townspeople out. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that the Governor appoint a new sheriff. The Attorney General convinces his dim-witted boss to select Bart, an African American railroad worker, as the new sheriff. Because Bart is black, Lamarr believes that this will so offend the townspeople they will either abandon the town or lynch the new sheriff.

With his quick wits and the assistance of an alcoholic gunslinger Jim, also known as "The Waco Kid" ("I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille!"), Bart works to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He defeats Mongo, an immensely strong (but only marginally sentient) henchman sent by Taggart, and bests German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp at her own game, before inspiring the town to lure Lamarr's newly-recruited army of thugs into an ambush.

The resulting fight between the townsfolk and the gunfighters is such that it literally breaks the fourth wall; the fight spills out from the film lot in the Warner Bros. Studios into a neighboring musical set, makes its way to the studio commissary where a pie fight ensues, and finally spills out into the streets.

The film ends with the sheriff and the Waco Kid defeating the bad guy, saving the town, catching the end of the movie, persuading people of all colors and creeds to live in harmony and, finally, riding (in a limousine) off into the sunset.

Themes and motifs

In addition to spoofing the western genre, Blazing Saddles works to satirize the way that Hollywood has portrayed the history of the American West. The film presents a western story but reverses several clichés to suggest an inherent falsehood in the western genre. For example, the seemingly innocent townsfolk in this case are far from innocent when a black man attempts to join them. Though they appeared helpless to resist the white outlaws, when confronted by a black man the entire town is suddenly armed. The villainous railroad tycoons in this movie are actually corrupt members of the American government who exploit ethnic minorities and victimize their own citizens for the sake of profit. By injecting the "real story" of the west into a clichéd western, the movie suggests a falsehood in the mythic Wild West, a portrayal most widely propagated through cinema.

The movie makes use of many anachronisms and breaks the fourth wall repeatedly to remind viewers that they are watching a movie. For example, when newly-appointed Sheriff Bart is seen beginning his journey to Rock Ridge, he is shown wearing Gucci cowboy gear. He is also accompanied by a jazz soundtrack which is assumed to be non-diegetic scoring for the benefit of the viewing audience. However, the camera pans left to show Bart riding by Count Basie's well-known Big Band jazz group, which is playing their hit "April in Paris" in the middle of the desert.

The movie also portrays a shared heritage of American immigrants and minorities. Chinese as well as black railroad workers are portrayed as equally oppressed. In the scene in which the Indian Chief speaks with Bart's family in Yiddish, three cultures are meshed together in harmony despite their obvious differences. Even as the townspeople are obliged to unite in order to fight their oppressors, Olsen Johnson announces, "All right! We'll give some land to the niggers, and the chinks. But we don't want the Irish!"

The film is known for pushing the boundaries of good taste and decency in cinema. The movie features racial epithets, vulgarity, and frank portrayals of sexuality and bodily functions. One of the film's most famous scenes involves a group of cowboys sitting around a campfire while eating plates of beans and farting loudly. Certain versions of the film obscure the farting sounds with amplified sounds of horses neighing; other versions remove the scene entirely and substitute blackout scenes of Bart using various tricks to defeat Mongo. Template:Endspoiler

Nominations, awards and honors

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA awards.

The film won the Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" — writers Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Uger.

In 2006, Blazing Saddles was among 25 films named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress.

Critical reaction

While the film is widely considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released. Vincent Canby wrote:

Throughout Blazing Saddles I kept being reminded of Sleeper, both films being the work of men who had their first real successes as gag writers. Both worked for Sid Caesar, and both still appreciate the need for getting a joke to the audience fast and then moving on. However, Sleeper builds momentum through the continuing character played by Mr. Allen himself, and gives the impression of having been pared down to comic essentials.

Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out.

Mr. Allen's comedy, though very much a product of our Age of Analysis, recalls the wonder and discipline of people like Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Mr. Brooks's sights are lower. His brashness is rare, but his use of anachronism and anarchy recalls not the great film comedies of the past, but the middling ones like the Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures. With his talent he should do much better than that.

Roger Ebert called the film a "crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?"

Reaction to inclusion in the National Film Registry

Blazing Saddles was among 25 films named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress in 2006. Films chosen for inclusion in this registry are rated on several criteria, including historical significance. The American film critic Dave Kehr queried if the historical importance of Blazing Saddles lay in the fact that it was the first film from a major studio to have a fart joke.

TV Pilot

A television pilot was produced for CBS based on the film, titled Black Bart.[1] It featured Louis Gossett Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as the drunk sidekick. Mel Brooks had little if nothing to do with the pilot, as writer Andrew Bergman is listed as the sole creator. The pilot did not sell but CBS aired it once on April 4, 1975. It was later inclued as a bonus feature on the Blazing Saddles 30th Anniversary DVD.

Mistakes

• In the beginning when Bart and Charlie are using a handcart to check for quicksand, the cable pulling the handcart towards the camera is clearly visible.

• Don Megowan is listed in the credits as "Gum Chewer," but the gum chewer was actually played by John Alderson. Megowan plays the man who is kneed in the groin by Lily.

• In the scene in which Mel Brooks as the Indian Chief speaks Yiddish, he makes a grammatical mistake when he chants "Loz im geyn" (Let him go) instead of "Loz zey geyn" (Let them go), or better yet, since he is talking to two others, the plural imperative "Lozt zey geyn".

Trivia

• This was Mel Brooks's first movie shot in anamorphic. To date, this film and History of the World, Part I are the only films Brooks has shot in this format.

• Brooks wanted Richard Pryor to play the sheriff's role, but the studio objected. Warner executives expressed concern about Pryor's reliability because of his heavy drug use at the time and the belief that he was crazy. Pryor was eventually hired as one of the film's screenwriters.

• Gene Wilder was the second choice to play the character of the Waco Kid. He was quickly brought in to replace Gig Young after the first day of filming because Young was suffering from delirium tremens on the set due to his alcoholism.

• After screening the movie, the head of Warner Brothers Pictures complained about the use of the word "nigger", the campfire scene and the punching of a horse, and told Brooks to remove all these elements from the film. As Brooks' contract gave him control of the final cut, the complaints were disregarded and all three elements were retained in the film.

• Mel Brooks wanted the movie's title song to reflect the western genre, and advertised in the trade papers that he wanted a "Frankie Laine-type" sound. Several days later, singer Frankie Laine himself visited Brooks' office offering his services. Brooks had not told Laine that the movie was planned as a comedy, and was embarrassed by how much heart Laine put into singing the song.

• In an interview included in the DVD release of Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks claims that Hedy Lamarr threatened to sue, saying the film's running "Hedley Lamarr" joke infringed her right to publicity. In one scene, one character even warns another that Hedy would sue. Brooks says they settled out of court for a small sum.

• In the same interview, brooks relates how he managed to convince John Wayne to read the script after meeting him in the Warner Brothers studio commissary. Wayne was impressed with the script, but politely declined a cameo appearance, fearing it was "too dirty" for his family image.

• Brooks used his own voice for one of the singers backing Madeline Kahn's performance of "I'm Tired", speaking lines such as "Give her a break!", "Let her alone!" and, "Don't you know she's pooped?!"

• "I'm Tired" is a parody of Marlene Dietrich's "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)", a song written by Frederick Hollander.

• The bead work on Brooks' Indian headdress in the movie poster says "Kosher for Passover" in Hebrew (although misspelled; it actually reads "Posher for Kassover") . When Brooks is speaking 'Indian', he's actually speaking Yiddish. 'Shtup' is close to German 'stopfen' for 'to stuff' and is a Yiddish vulgarism for sexual intercourse.

• The Indians speaking Yiddish is a nod to the rumour that various ethnic groups cast as Indians---Jews, southern Italians, Greeks, or Indians (often not of the nation being portrayed)---have used the opportunity for non-English dialogue to insult their employers in Yiddish, Italian, Greek, Crow/Mandan/... and so on.

• Right before the "I'm Tired" scene, after Jim tells Bart about Lili Von Shtupp, a short guitar tune of Springtime For Hitler plays.

• When Mel Brooks's character exclaims "Hello Boys!", it is a reference to The Producers when Max Bialystock says the same thing after opening the safe.

• When asked in a television interview if anything was so offensive it had to be cut from the movie, Mel Brooks confided that one bit between Madeline Kahn and Cleavon Little had to be edited. In the darkened dressing room when Lili asks Bart if it's "twue" what they say about black men and then she says "it's twue, it's twue!", he cut Bart's punchline of "You're sucking my arm..."

Other external links

• Blazing Saddles at IMDb
• Template:Filmsite
• Blazing Saddles at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blazing Saddles at Box Office Mojo