After decades of hearing about it I finally got to see Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy western, Blazing Saddles. Maybe I would have laughed more if I'd seen it when I was 15. As is, while there are some genuinely funny sight gags in it, I found Brooks often carried the absurd too far to the point it was no longer funny but just damned stupid. Those instances (and there are a lot of them) come across as being desperate and trying way too hard for a laugh. There aren't too many comedy westerns, but for me the best to this day remains the 1966 Cat Ballou. Now THAT never fails to crack me up!
Blazing Saddles is one of my "classic" movies. Possibly top 10 for me, definitely top 20. Yeah, some of the gags are a little OTT, but I've never minded that kind of thing. They would seem more desperate nowadays because everyone is doing it. In 1974, not so much. That's Hedley Lamaar! A good combination of actors/actresses he used in like, 3 or 4 movies (?), to great effect. It's like having a good ensemble cast in a TV show and running with it.
I will say I like the part when the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder) shoots the guns out of the hands of all the outlaws and looks like he never moved.
Yep, some of the one-liners were genuinely funny. Admittedly some of the funny lines do walk a fine line of taste. Some of the lines I heard I wonder if they'd even get away with saying today. Silm Pickens saying, "We'll rape the shit of of 'em." is awfully dark and edgy. I actually didn't laugh at that one. It was ballsy, but I didn't really find that funny.
I still remember the first time I saw this movie on tv, and that version edited out the sound of the cowboys fartin' 'round the campfire. Just a bunch of cowboys, gettin' up a bit or raisin' a leg, one after the other, with no clue what's goin' on 'til the boss came out & commented that they had too many beans. Still a damn funny movie, though. And Burton Gilliam and I sang 'Camptown Ladies' together at a scifi con a few years back! He's awesome! http://youtu.be/k0jDUV4fu_0
Every time I watch the movie there's another line that makes me lol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5Mr5eCF2U
When it was new it was funny, for so many reasons that are not PC now. Haven't seen it lately, but may have to try it again.
It did seem an awful lot of folks in that town were named Johnson. I've seen Madelaine Kahn funny, but here...not so much. I thought Young Frankenstein and High Anxiety were funnier.
'The fool's gonna.... the sheriff's gonna do it!' Mel Brooks does often carry on bits or add very absurdest bits to all his films. The funny usually so far out ways the unfunny stuff that I can easily over look it.
Funniest Freakin' Film Ever!! I can never tire of this film. I love the over the top and the sublime humor. The way it pokes fun at racism, stereotypes, Hollywood, gays and the western genre in general. Harvey Korman was fantastic! His speech about risking an "almost certain supporting actor nomination" is classic! Madeline Khan was amazing! Gene Wilder was great! Mel Brooks was spot on, too!! "...work, work, work...hello boys ya miss me??" and "UGh!!! They darker 'dan us!!" "Here ya' go boys...in lieu of payment!!" This movie had tons of catchphrases, sight gags and (for the era) real dirty humor. If you want to compare this movie to a Brooks film where he so blandly telegraphed his jokes try Spaceballs or Dracula Dead and Loving It! Then you'll really see where Brooks' genius shines in Blazing Saddles. From the theme song to the closing credits this film is a fantastic gem! Did you notice that Richard Pryor was one of the writers? That in and of itself was pretty darned cool! (allegedly Brooks wrote most of the black jokes and ran them by Pryor...I wonder if that's really true?) I wonder if you missed out on some of the dated jokes: Heddy (Hedley) Lamaar, the Bugs Bunny Bit, Madeline Khan's accent, Wide Wide World of Sports, Howard Johnson's Orange roof on his outhouse, etc. Maybe these fell flat for you because you didn't get the reference. There were many others. Y'know, now that I think of it, I don't think you could make that movie today because of all the current day PC attitudes. Ahhh I pine for the days when people weren't so uptight! Anywho...I hate to hear about someone not enjoying that film...it's so very funny and just too cool!! Ah well...."Driver....get me off this picture!"
Blazing Saddles is okay, but Young Frankenstein is a better movie for my money. but for the true geniius of Mel Brooks, one must no look no furher than the original version of The Producers.
Mel Brooks as the Yiddish-speaking Indian is priceless. “Schvartzes! Nein, nein. Zeist est meshuggah!” I assume anyone with an IQ above room-temperature range has at least a vague idea of who Hedy Lamarr and Marlene Dietrich were. Madeline Kahn’s Lily von Shtupp is one of the funniest things she ever did. “It’s twue -- it’s twue!” And farts will always be funny.
One of the funniest and most quotable movies of all time. Definitely in Brooks' top 3 along side Young Frankestein and History of the World Part 1. "Bitter baby, bitter. You're makin a German spectacle of yourself" "someone's gonna have to go back and get a shitload of dimes" "I must have killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille"
Blazing Saddles is one of the funniest damn movies ever made. "I wash born here, an I wash raished here, and dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin' bushwackin', hornswagglin' cracker croaker is gonna rouin me bishen cutter!"
'I am particulary glad that these lovely children are here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed the courage little seen in this day and age. '
Thank you for that, Gov Johnson. Now here is Deckerd Johnson to tell everyone that this is one of the funniest movies ever made.