Growing up in the mid-to-late-1990s, I experienced the golden age of cable television, when you could pretty much always find some classic movie just casually screening in syndication at 2 PM on a Saturday. I also experienced the golden age of cheap DVDs, which saw classic movies just casually released onto an affordable format at my local Target.
The first DVD I ever purchased was either O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001) or today’s film, Blazing Saddles (1974). My memory is hazy on the point, but they both constitute my first two DVD purchases, and I know I only paid $5—in the early 2000s!—for the films. Those two flicks should give you some insight into the impressionable young mind of a doughy young man chubbily flubbing his way through high school.
Blazing Saddles was one of those absurd Mel Brooks flicks that had just the right amount of wackiness and ribald situations to titillate and delight a total nerd like yours portly. As a lifelong fan of Young Frankenstein (1974) and Spaceballs (1987), I naturally couldn’t resist this send-up of Westerners (and people’s hang-ups about race).
I had the opportunity to see Blazing Saddles on the big screen last night as part of one of those Fathom Events special screenings. The flick has hit its 50th anniversary (as has Young Frankenstein), so it seems like a great time to review this film.
Granted, Blazing Saddles is not a “must-see” on the big screen. It’s the kind of movie that feels better on your comparatively small screen at home while you doze off on a lazy Sunday afternoon, only to wake up at one of the numerous scenes of frantic hilarity. But it’s always a treat to see these classics the way moviegoers would have seen them fifty years ago, and Blazing Saddles was no different.
The plot is pretty straightforward: a corrupt government official dupes the territorial governor of a Western State in 1874 to appoint a condemned black man to serve as the sheriff of a small town, Rock Ridge, on the theory that the people will run the sheriff out of town and the corrupt official’s goons can harass the townspeople into fleeing their town so the corrupt official can buy it up on the cheap and make a huge profit when the railroad comes to town. Shew!
But the plot is not what is important. It’s the comedy! The governor appoints Bart (Cleavon Little) as Rock Ridge’s new sheriff, allowing Bart to escape the hangman’s noose. The people are skeptical at first, but he quickly earns their trust, and befriends Jim, the “Waco Kid,” portrayed by Gene Wilder.
The corrupt official, Hedley Lamarr, tries all sorts of schemes to eliminate Bart, such as employing German seductress Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) to seduce Bart. When that fails, Lamarr sends tons of villains—Nazis, Klansmen, and Methodists—to attack the town.
It all devolves into fourth-walling-breaking insanity as the flick moves to the debut screening of Blazing Saddles itself at Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
As a kid, Blazing Saddles was the first movie I’d ever seen that broke the fourth wall so outrageously (Spaceballs also did it to a lesser extent) that I actually got confused. But the movie isn’t about a consistent narrative; the narrative and setting, like most Mel Brooks films, re just the vehicle for shenanigans to ensue.
Of the great Mel Brooks films, Blazing Saddles is high on my list, but I think I prefer Young Frankenstein and Space Balls. Still, third place among such absurd company is still pretty good.