Blazing Saddles

[edit] Americola's celebrity biographies are provided by AmericolaWiki, a celebrity wiki. You can help contribute to Americola and edit this article.

Blazing Saddles
Image:Blazing saddles movie poster.jpg Blazing Saddles promotional poster
Directed by	Mel Brooks
Produced by	Michael Hertzberg
Written by	Andrew Bergman (story) Mel Brooks Norman Steinberg Andrew Bergman Richard Pryor Alan Uger (screenplay)
Starring	Cleavon Little Gene Wilder Harvey Korman
Music by	Mel Brooks John Morris
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Editing by	Danford B. Greene John C. Howard
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	February 7, 1974
Language	English (with occasional use of Yiddish and German)
Budget	$2.6 million USD
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Blazing Saddles (1974) is a comedy directed by Mel Brooks and starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, and released by Warner Brothers. The film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger, and was based on Bergman's story and draft. Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, including Governor Le Petomane and a Yiddish-speaking Indian Chief. Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, and Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman are also featured. Musician Count Basie has a cameo as himself.

The film is a parody of the Western film genre as well as a satire about racism.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Plot summary 3 Themes and motifs 4 Nominations, awards and honors 5 Critical reaction 5.1 Reaction to inclusion in the National Film Registry 6 Mistakes 7 Trivia 8 Footnotes and references 9 Other external links

Cast

• Gene Wilder as Jim "The Waco Kid"
• Cleavon Little as Bart
• Mel Brooks as Gov. William J. Le Petomane / Indian chief
• Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtupp
• Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr
• Slim Pickens as Taggart
• Dom DeLuise as Buddy Bizarre
• Liam Dunn as Rev. Johnson
• George Furth as Van Johnson
• Burton Gilliam as Lyle
• John Hillerman as Howard Johnson
• David Huddleston as Olson Johnson
• Alex Karras as Mongo
• Jack Starrett as Gabby Johnson

Plot summary

The story is set in the American Old West of 1874 (though it is filled with anachronistic references to the 1970s). Construction on a new railroad runs into quicksand; the route has to be changed, which will require it to go through Rock Ridge, a frontier town where everyone has the last name of "Johnson" (including a "Howard Johnson" and a "Van Johnson"). The conniving State Attorney General Hedley Lamarr — not to be confused, as he often is in the film, with actress Hedy Lamarr — wants to buy the land along the new railroad route cheaply by driving the townspeople out. He sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to scare them away, prompting the townsfolk to demand that the Governor appoint a new sheriff. The Attorney General convinces his dim-witted boss to select Bart, an African American railroad worker, as the new sheriff. Because Bart is black, Lamarr believes that this will so offend the townspeople they will either abandon the town or lynch the new sheriff.

With his quick wits and the assistance of an alcoholic gunslinger Jim, also known as "The Waco Kid" ("I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille!"), Bart begins to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He defeats Mongo, an immensely strong subhuman sent by Taggart, then resists the seductions of wily temptress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp, before inspiring the town to lure Lamarr's newly-recruited army of thugs into an ambush.

The resulting fight between the townsfolk and the gunfighters is such that it literally breaks the fourth wall; the fight spills out from the westerns lot in the Warner Bros. Studios and manages to destroy a musical set before culminating in a cream pie fight in the studio commissary.

The film ends with the sheriff and the Waco Kid defeating the bad guy, rescuing the town, catching the end of the movie, persuading people of all colors and creeds to live in harmony and, finally, riding (in a limousine) off into the sunset.

Themes and motifs

In addition to spoofing the western genre, Blazing Saddles works to satirize the way that Hollywood has portrayed the history of the American West. The film presents a western story but reverses several clichés to suggest an inherent falsehood in the western genre. For example, the seemingly innocent townsfolk in this case are far from innocent when a black man attempts to join them. Though they appeared helpless to resist the white outlaws, when confronted by a black man the entire town is suddenly armed. The villainous railroad tycoons in this movie are actually corrupt members of the American government who exploit ethnic minorities and victimize their own citizens for the sake of profit. By injecting the "real story" of the west into a clichéd western, the movie suggests a falsehood in the mythic Wild West, a portrayal most widely propagated through cinema.

The movie makes use of many anachronisms and breaks the fourth wall repeatedly to remind viewers that they are watching a movie. For example, when newly-appointed Sheriff Bart is seen beginning his journey to Rock Ridge, he is shown wearing Gucci cowboy gear. He is also accompanied by a jazz soundtrack which is assumed to be non-diegetic scoring for the benefit of the viewing audience. However, the camera pans left to show Bart riding by Count Basie's well-known Big Band jazz group, which is playing their hit "April in Paris" in the middle of the desert.

The movie also portrays a shared heritage of American immigrants and minorities. Chinese as well as black railroad workers are portrayed as equally oppressed. In the scene in which the Indian Chief speaks with Bart's family in Yiddish, three cultures are meshed together in harmony despite their obvious differences. Even as the townspeople are obliged to unite in order to fight their oppressors, Olsen Johnson announces, "All right! We'll give some land to the niggers, and the chinks. But we don't want the Irish!"

The film is known for pushing the boundaries of decency in cinema. The movie features racial epithets, vulgarity, and frank portrayals of sexuality and other bodily functions. One of the film's most famous scenes involves a group of cowboys sitting around a fire eating plates of beans. Throughout the scene, the soundtrack plays loud evidence of the most notorious side effect of eating beans. However, this is generally not heard when the film is shown on commercial television; network television and broadcast syndication versions of the film amplified the sound of horses neighing as to obscure this. Other versions of the film remove the scene and make up for the time with blackout scenes of Bart using various tricks to defeat Mongo. The alternate version of the bean eating scene and the blackout joke scenes are found on the 30th anniversary DVD version of the film.

Nominations, awards and honors

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and two BAFTA awards.

The film won the Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen" — writers Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Uger.^[1]

In 2006, Blazing Saddles was among 25 films named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress.^[2]

Critical reaction

While the film is generally considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released. Vincent Canby wrote^[3]:

Throughout Blazing Saddles I kept being reminded of Sleeper, both films being the work of men who had their first real successes as gag writers. Both worked for Sid Caesar, and both still appreciate the need for getting a joke to the audience fast and then moving on. However, Sleeper builds momentum through the continuing character played by Mr. Allen himself, and gives the impression of having been pared down to comic essentials.

Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out.

Mr. Allen's comedy, though very much a product of our Age of Analysis, recalls the wonder and discipline of people like Keaton and Laurel and Hardy. Mr. Brooks's sights are lower. His brashness is rare, but his use of anachronism and anarchy recalls not the great film comedies of the past, but the middling ones like the Hope-Crosby "Road" pictures. With his talent he should do much better than that.

Roger Ebert called the film a "crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karras is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw?"^[4]

Reaction to inclusion in the National Film Registry

Blazing Saddles was among 25 films named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress in 2006. Films chosen for inclusion in this registry are rated on several criteria, including historical significance. The American film critic Dave Kehr queried if the historical importance of Blazing Saddles lay in the fact that it was the first film from a major studio to have a fart joke.^[5]

Mistakes

• In the beginning when Bart and Charlie are using a handcart to check for quicksand, the cable pulling the handcart towards the camera is clearly visible.

• Don Megowan is listed in the credits as "Gum Chewer," but the gum chewer was actually played by John Alderson. Megowan plays the man who is kneed in the groin by Lily.

Trivia

• This was Mel Brooks's first movie shot in anamorphic widescreen. To date, this film and History of the World, Part I are the only films Brooks has shot in this format.

• Brooks wanted Richard Pryor to play the sheriff's role, but the studio objected. Warner executives expressed concern about Pryor's reliability because of his heavy drug use at the time and the belief that he was crazy.^[6] Pryor was eventually hired as one of the film's screenwriters.

• Gene Wilder was the second choice to play the character of the Waco Kid. He was quickly brought in to replace Gig Young after the first day of filming because Young was suffering from delirium tremens on the set due to his alcoholism.^[7][8]

• After screening the movie, the head of Warner Brothers Pictures complained about the use of the word "nigger", the campfire scene and the punching of a horse, and told Brooks to remove all these elements from the film. As Brooks' contract gave him control of the final cut, the complaints were disregarded and all three elements were retained in the film.^[6]

• Mel Brooks wanted the movie's title song to reflect the western genre, and advertised in the trade papers that he wanted a "Frankie Laine-type" sound. Several days later, singer Frankie Laine himself visited Brooks' office offering his services. Brooks had not told Laine that the movie was planned as a comedy, and was embarrassed by how much heart Laine put into singing the song.

• In an interview included in the DVD release of Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks claims that Hedy Lamarr threatened to sue, saying the film's running "Hedley Lamarr" joke infringed her right to publicity. In one scene, one character even warns another that Hedy would sue. Brooks says they settled out of court for a small sum.

• Brooks used his own voice for one of the singers backing Madeline Kahn's performance of "I'm Tired", speaking lines such as "Give her a break!", "Let her alone!" and, "Don't you know she's pooped?!"

• "I'm Tired" is a parody of Marlene Dietrich's "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)", a song written by Frederick Hollander.

• The bead work on Brooks' Indian headdress in the movie poster says "Kosher for Passover" in Hebrew (although misspelled; it actually reads "Posher for Kassover") . When Brooks is speaking 'Indian', he's actually speaking Yiddish. 'Shtup' is close to German 'stopfen' for 'to stuff' and is a Yiddish vulgarism for sexual intercourse.

• It was the first major US studio film ever to feature an audible 'passing of wind' or 'farting' sound, in the bean eating scene.
• Right before the "I'm Tired" scene, after Jim tells Bart about Lili Von Shtupp, a short guitar tune of Springtime For Hitler plays.

• Half-Life 2 parodies Hedley Lamarr with a pet headcrab named Lamarr, and in one scene, the Lamarr's owners states "There's only one Hedley!"

Footnotes and references

Other external links

Template:Wikiquote

• Blazing Saddles at Filmsite.org
• Blazing Saddles at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blazing Saddles at Box Office Mojo

Films Directed by Mel Brooks

The Producers | The Twelve Chairs | Young Frankenstein | Blazing Saddles | Silent Movie | High Anxiety History of the World, Part I | Spaceballs | Life Stinks | Robin Hood: Men in Tights | Dracula: Dead and Loving It

da:Sheriffen skyder på det hele

de: Der wilde wilde Westen fr:Le shérif est en prison it:Mezzogiorno e mezzo di fuoco he:אוכפים לוהטים ja:ブレージングサドル ru:Горячие сёдла (фильм) sv:Det våras för sheriffen

Wikipedia information about Blazing Saddles This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Blazing Saddles". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.