Director: Mel Brooks
Year: 1974
Language: English
Length: 1hour 29minutes (89 Minutes)
Staring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wo;der, Slim Pickens, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, Claude Ennis Starrett Jr., Dom DeLuise
Plot: (Taken from LoveFilm.com because I'm lazy.) A hilarious, madcap spoof of nearly every Hollywood Western convention, BLAZING SADDLES turns racism on its head at every turn. When the sheriff of a small frontier town is killed, convict Bart (Cleavon Little) is appointed the first black sheriff of the all-white Rock Ridge by the evil Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) in a bid to chase the townspeople from their homes. The naive Sheriff Bart soon realizes from the less-than-cheery welcome that the townspeople (who all seem to be named Johnson) aren't prepared for a black sheriff and that he was never meant to succeed at all. Enlisting the sensitive town drunk (Gene Wilder), formerly the Waco Kid, Bart embarks on a plan to help save Rock Ridge. A scathing spoof that deals with racism, sexism, and bodily functions, BLAZING SADDLES offers a contrast between picture and words that is shocking, subversive, and hysterical.
Director Mel Brooks, working from an hilarious script-- written, by among others, Richard Pryor—makes two memorable appearances as both the sleazy governor and a Yiddish-speaking Sioux Indian chief, while Madeline Kahn does a side-splitting Marlene Dietrich imitation as the town floozy/entertainer. Featuring fabulous comic turns by Alex Karras, Slim Pickens, and the aforementioned Little, Brooks, Korman, and Wilder, BLAZING SADDLES is one of the raunchiest, funniest, and most beloved spoofs ever made.
Review: It is yet another marvellous achievement by one of the greatest directors of all time, especially since working with comedic script writing genius that is Richard Pryor. This film starts of perhaps a little slow but then it flies away with hilarity. It is pure genius taking the piss out of film, after film, after film, from The Sundance Kid to Rio Bravo to The great Big Band sound of Count Bassie. Each and every character has their own twist to their personality that shapes their lines and deliverance. I still have no idea how Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little deliver some of their lines with such serious faces. I'm not certain that Mel Brooks does.
The best bit of the film is definitely at the ending that I hate to kill, where they storm the studio and then with The Great Pie fight with a saluting Hitler in the back ground before continuing to run amok! Then they quickly put the cherry on the top of the cake with a quick Sheriff cliche parting.
Quotes: "Gawd... you use yer tongue perdier than a $20 whore."
"Hey, where the white women at?"
"And now for my next impression... Jessie Owens. *Runs*"
"Head them off at the pass... I hate that cliche! *shoots*"
"Oh lord do we have the strength to carry out this might task... or are we just jerking off?"
"Somebodies gotta go back and get a shit loada dimes."
BEST LINE: "Piss on you! I'm working for Mel Brooks!"
"Hey, where the white women at?"
"And now for my next impression... Jessie Owens. *Runs*"
"Head them off at the pass... I hate that cliche! *shoots*"
"Oh lord do we have the strength to carry out this might task... or are we just jerking off?"
"Somebodies gotta go back and get a shit loada dimes."
BEST LINE: "Piss on you! I'm working for Mel Brooks!"
Overall Rating: 5/5
