Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles promotional poster
Directed by	Mel Brooks
Written by	Andrew Bergman (story) Mel Brooks Norman Steinberg Andrew Bergman Richard Pryor Al Uger (screenplay)
Produced by	Michael Hertzberg
Starring	Cleavon Little Gene Wilder Harvey Korman
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Edited by	Danford B. Greene John C. Howard
Music by	Mel Brooks John Morris
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	February 7, 1974
Country	United States
Languages	English (with restricted use of Yiddish and German)
Budget	$2.6 million USD

Blazing Saddles (1974) is a satiric Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, it was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al 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.

Plot summary

The story is set in the American Old West of 1874 (though it is filled with anachronistic references). 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", a "Van Johnson" and an "Olson 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 works to overcome the townsfolk's hostile reception. He defeats (and eventually befriends) Mongo, an immensely strong (but only marginally sentient) henchman sent by Taggart, and bests German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp at her own game, before inspiring the town to lure Lamarr's newly-recruited and incredibly diverse army of thugs (bikers, bedouins, banditos, nazi storm troopers, the KKK, and studio executives in addition to every other kind of Old West movie villian -"varmint") 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 film lot in the Warner Bros. Studios into a neighboring musical set, makes its way to the studio commissary where a pie fight ensues, and finally spills out into the streets.

The film ends with the sheriff and the Waco Kid defeating the bad guy, saving 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.

Cast

File:Mongo only pawn in game of life.jpg

Alex Karras as the strong-but-dunderheaded Mongo in Blazing Saddles

• Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart
• Gene Wilder as Jim, aka "The Waco Kid"
• Mel Brooks as Gov. William J. Le Petomane / Indian Chief
• Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtupp, the Teutonic Titwillow
• Harvey Korman as Hedley Lamarr
• Slim Pickens as Taggart
• Dom DeLuise as Buddy Bizarre
• Liam Dunn as Reverend 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

• Brooks dubbed in 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?!"

Production

Blazing Saddles was Mel Brooks' first movie shot in anamorphic format. To date, this film and History of the World, Part I are the only films Brooks has shot in this format. Brooks repeatedly had conflicts with studio suits over the cast and content. They objected to both the highly provocative script and the writers particularly Richard Pryor who reportedly led all night writing jams (where loud music and drugs played a prominent role in the creative flow) with both the credited writers and a host of free lance script cookers who would wander about the Warner Lot at all hours of the night. To his credit, Brooks repeatedly beat back these protests and stood his ground against efforts to dilute the script. 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. Pryor was eventually hired as one of the film's screenwriters. In a similar vein, 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.

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. When asked in a television interview if anything was so offensive it had to be cut from the movie, however, Mel Brooks confided that one bit between Madeline Kahn and Cleavon Little had to be edited. In the darkened dressing room when Lili asks Bart if it's "twue" what they say about black men and then she says "it's twue, it's twue!", he cut Bart's punchline of "You're sucking my elbow..."

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 claimed that Hedy Lamarr threatened to sue, saying the film's running "Hedley Lamarr" joke infringed her right to publicity. This is lampooned when Hedley corrects Governor Le Petomane's pronunciation of his name, and Le Petomane replies with "What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874, you'll be able to sue her!". Brooks says they settled out of court for a small sum. In the same interview, Brooks related how he managed to convince John Wayne to read the script after meeting him in the Warner Brothers studio commissary. Wayne was impressed with the script, but politely declined a cameo appearance, fearing it was "too dirty" for his family image. He is also said to have told Brooks that he "would be first in line to see the film, though."

Influences

Madeline Kahn's role is a parody of Marlene Dietrich's in the 1939 western film Destry Rides Again, while "I'm Tired" is a parody of Dietrich's "Falling in Love Again (Can't Help It)", a song written by Frederick Hollander. 'Shtup' is close to German 'stopfen' for 'to stuff' and is a Yiddish vulgarism for sexual intercourse.

The bead work on Brooks' Indian headdress in the movie poster says "Kosher for Passover" in Hebrew (kosher l'pesach) (although misspelled; it actually reads "Posher for Kassover" (posher l'kesach). When Brooks is speaking 'Indian', he's actually speaking Yiddish. The use of the language may be a nod to the rumour that various ethnic groups cast as Indians---Jews, southern Italians, Greeks, or Indians (often not of the nation being portrayed)---have used the opportunity for non-English dialogue to insult their employers in Yiddish, Italian, Greek, Crow/Mandan/... and so on.

Right before the "I'm Tired" scene, after Jim tells Bart about Lili Von Shtupp, the tune that is playing in the background is the theme from the fictional play Springtime For Hitler which appears in Mel Brooks' first film The Producers. Another reference to the previous film is when Governor Le Petomane echoes Max Bialystock's line "Hello Boys!"

The name of Harvey Korman's character, Hedley Lamarr, is regularly mispronounced by others as Hedy Lamarr (in reference to the actress). In History of the World, Part I (a later Mel Brooks film), he plays Count De Monet (Mo-nay) another character whose name is often mispronounced as "Count De Money".

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 overall theme and many scenes (including the climactic brawl) are directly inspired by the 1939 Errol Flynn western Dodge City; Andrew Bergman, who created the original story, is a well-known student of 1930s Warner Bros. films and even wrote a book on the subject, "We're In The Money."

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. Perhaps the largest use of such a theme, however, is the final battle, which takes place in the Warner Bros. studios lot and commisary, as well as Grauman's Chinese theatre in Hollywood. As Bart and Jim later go into the theatre to watch the end of the movie, the scene inexplicably switches back to the western setting, though Jim clearly still has his popcorn from the theatre.

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. When the townspeople announce that they will give land to the black and Chinese railroad workers, but continue to persecute the Irish, the workers withhold their support until all minorities are included.

The film is known for pushing the boundaries of "good taste" in cinema. The movie features racial epithets, sexual innuendoes, and many references to bodily functions. One of the film's most famous scenes involves a group of cowboys sitting around a campfire while eating plates of beans and farting loudly. Certain versions of the film obscure the farting sounds with amplified sounds of horses neighing; other versions remove the scene entirely and substitute blackout scenes of Bart using various tricks to defeat Mongo.

Nominations, awards and honors

The film was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1975 (Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song) and two BAFTA awards (Best Newcomer for Cleavon Little and Best Screenplay).

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

In 2006, Blazing Saddles was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American film critic Dave Kehr queried if the historical significance of Blazing Saddles lay in the fact that it was the first film from a major studio to have a fart joke.

Critical reaction

While the film is widely considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released. Vincent Canby wrote:

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?"

TV pilot

A television pilot was produced for CBS based on Andrew Bergman's initial story, titled Black Bart. It featured Louis Gossett Jr. as Bart and Steve Landesberg as the drunk sidekick. Mel Brooks had little if anything to do with the pilot, as writer Andrew Bergman is listed as the sole creator. The pilot did not sell but CBS aired it once on April 4, 1975. It was later included as a bonus feature on the Blazing Saddles 30th Anniversary DVD.

External links

• Blazing Saddles at IMDb
• Template:Filmsite
• Blazing Saddles at Rotten Tomatoes
• Blazing Saddles at Box Office Mojo