OK film fans, I had some running around to do tonight so I got home kind of late. After doing a little dance to celebrate the demise of Syracuse in the March Madness tournament (the evil arch-nemesis of my beloved G-town) I made a little dinner and sat down to relax. Of course before I knew it I looked up and it was almost 10:30. Since being exhausted and not having a lot of time left in the night precludes getting to watch a new film I guess we'll just go with an old favorite of mine.
Blazing Saddles was the first of two films, the second being Young Frankenstein, released in 1974 by comedy master Mel Brooks. If you don't know who Mel Brooks is or are unfamiliar with his comedic genius I truly feel sorry for you. I hope the coma you've been in hasn't left you with any permanent damage. Meanwhile the rest of us have been fortunate enough to bask in the humor of his films for quite some time now.
Blazing Saddles is the decidedly raunchier of the two films and used humor to do something that had never been done in Hollywood prior to its release; create a film that directly made fun of racism. Mel Brooks is the master of low brow comedy (with the occasional high brow aside) which, in his own words, "rises below vulgarity." Essentially a comedy western the plot is merely a pretense for setting up the comedy scenes created by Brooks and co-writer Richard Pryor. Pryor was originally set to star in the film but the Hollywood head honchos didn't like the idea of their film starring a controversial comedian and opted for the rising actor Cleavon Little.
The basic story line centers on shady Attorney General/land developer Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), who needs to run a railroad through the town of Rock Ridge and run the current residents out of town so he can take over. Hoping to anger the residents and prevent opposition to his plans he arranges for the town's new sheriff to be a slave named Bart, a.k.a. Black Bart (Little), who was scheduled to be hung (yes, Brooks goes there). Upon his arrival as sheriff Bart befriends Jim, a drunkard who was the former fastest draw in the West known as The Waco Kid.
Despite their initial anger he manages to win them over with his defeat of Mongo (Alex Karras), a hired tough man sent to expedite the town's revolt. With Hedley's beast defeated he next tries to defeat Bart with a beauty named Lili Von Shtupp (the amazing Madeline Kahn). When this fails he sends in a gang of criminals to blah, blah, blah. Seriously, I'm amazed I made it this far. It's a Mel freakin' Brooks comedy making fun of racism, Westerns and has a notoriously extended fart scene, do I really have to expound on the virtue of the plot? Just see the damn film, it's hilarious and responsible for a ridiculous number of one liners (for example: here, here, here and here) that set the standard and have survived the test of time. If you need some awesomely vulgar low brow comedy, and who doesn't, this is your film.
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