Blazing Saddles [1974 film]

by Mel Brooks (Director, Screenwriter), Andrew Bergman (Screenwriter), Richard Pryor (Screenwriter), Norman Steinberg (Screenwriter), Alan Uger (Screenwriter)

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A hilarious spoof of every western film cliche in which a black man is appointed sheriff of a frontier town.

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11 reviews
50 years later, this movie is still pretty entertaining, sure there's a few parts that have not aged quite that well but the overall product is still solid and I would recommend this to anyone who likes old comedy movies. It's almost like a time capsule when you look at the jokes and cultural references in this film.
An Old West railroad baron arranges the appointment of a black sheriff.

Half the jokes aren't funny, but they just keep coming. It's too shamelessly silly to not be enjoyable.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.8/4
½
Despite some very funny bits like the (in)famous campfire scene, the cameo by Count Basie and Mongo punching the horse, I just can't rate this one higher than 2 1/2 stars. Too much of the movie drags, there isn't much in the way of a plot and there're way too many racial slurs (okay, we get the point, people were prejudiced then...but this is a movie that's supposed to be a comedy). And feel free to zap through Madeline Kahn's painfully bad attempt at being Marlene Dietrich.

Also, the ending didn't really work. Whether Brooks was trying to be Ernie Kovacs or maybe Monty Python here (not sure if 1974 is too early for that), well, sight gags and fart jokes Mel Brooks can do. Not surrealism.
½
My second favourite Brooks movie. The ending is a bit odd though- it is as if Brooks couldn't come up with an ending and had to resort to sheer silliness.
Wouldn't watch again, but better than newer comedies.

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Blazing Saddles [1974 film]
Original title
Blazing Saddles
Original publication date
1974-02-07
People/Characters
Bart (Cleavon Little); Jim (Gene Wilder); Taggart (Slim Pickens); Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman); Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn)
Important events
19th century; 1850s; 1854; 1870s; 1874
Related movies
Blazing Saddles (1974 | IMDb)
Original language
English

Classifications

DDC/MDS
791.43Arts & recreationRecreation, sports, and performing artsPublic performancesMotion pictures, radio, television, podcastingMotion pictures
LCC
PN1995.9 .C55Language and LiteratureLiterature (General)Literature (General)DramaMotion pictures

Statistics

Members
876
Popularity
30,746
Reviews
10
Rating
(4.11)
Languages
7 — Arabic, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish
ISBNs
15
UPCs
11
ASINs
35