Rating: B-
Dir: Mel Brooks.
Star: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn.
This is the quintessential “They couldn’t make this any more” film, but Brooks’s opinion on the matter seems to have changed over time. In 2017, the BBC asked whether his films could be made today. He answered, “Maybe a few. But never Blazing Saddles, because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy.” Earlier this year though, the Hollywood Reporter posed the same question. “Sure… There were so many different things in Blazing Saddles that were in questionable taste, but who cares?” Well, a lot of people, apparently. I watched this the day after a major fuss over the use of That Word at the BAFTAs. We’ve also seen teachers fired for reading That Word aloud from books.
Context and meaning are, apparently, no longer a defense, and nuance is dead. Though you might be surprised how little That Word is actually used here: only thirteen times, compared to 114 times in Django Unchained. The problem is, it overshadows the rest of the film, which is a broad parody of the Western genre. Bart (Little) is sent to Rock Ridge as the new sheriff. He has been set up to fail by the territory’s crooked AG Hedley Lamarr (Korman), who wants to force the residents out as part of a land-grab. But with the help of alcoholic gunslinger the Waco Kid (Wilder) and his own wits, Bart is able to overcome the townfolks’ racial prejudice and defeat Lamarr’s schemes.
This swings wildly from remarkably smart, to almost impressively stupid. The campfire fart-fest might be the most well-known scene, but I kinda stopped finding flatulence funny at around age thirteen. So that is the comedy equivalent of flogging a dead horse. Far better are things like the glorious musical number of Lili Von Shtupp (Kahn), called “I’m Tired”. Like a lot of other comedy writers, e.g. the South Park guys, it seems like Brooks is a frustrated musical creator. Kahn got an Oscar nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category – ironic, given Korman says at one point he is “risking an almost certain Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.” Few films break the fourth wall as often, or as effectively.
Most memorably might be the finale, where a mass brawl breaks out around the Warner studio backlot, interrupting a musical number being filmed on another set. I do wonder how this might all have played, had Brooks got his original choice of Richard Pryor, rather than Little. [Wilder also took over after shooting started, replacing Gig Young, who was too drunk to perform adequately] It would probably have been rather more abrasive and confrontational: Little instead has a hopeful innocence about him, and a belief in mankind’s innate goodness that’s quite endearing. Indeed, the whole movie is inherently optimistic, showing that the entrenched racism of the Rock Ridge inhabitants is learned rather than innate, and can be overcome – admittedly with almost facile ease in this case.