Andy Wilson

April 13, 2005

Film Critique

Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles begins with a group of Chinese, African American and Irish men

laboring on the railroad. One of the African American laborers is named Bart (Cleavon

Little) and a fellow African American laborer are given the suicidal job of going further

down the track to check for quick sand. Sure enough Bart and his partner find quick sand

when they drive their hand cart into it. At this point Taggart (Slim Pickens), the guy in

charge of constructing the railroad, shows up and instead of saving Bart and his partner

he saves the hand cart. At this point Bart manages to get out of the quick sand and

whacks Taggart in the head with a shovel.

Having whacked Taggart in the head Bart finds himself in jail and waiting to be

hung by the medieval, lisping executioner. But the diabolical Hedley Lamarr (Harvey

Korman) has other plans for Bart. Because of the quick sand that Bart discovered Hedley

has to move his rail line through a town called Rock Ridge but there is one problem,

Rock Ridge has people living in it. So Hedley sends in his goons to scare the people out

of Rock Ridge, but instead of leaving they ask for a new sheriff. Hedley decides that

there is no way the people of Rock Ridge could possibly stand an African American

sheriff so he gets Bart pardon by Gov. William J. LePetomaine and installed as sheriff of

Rock Ridge.
 At firs the people of Rock Ridge do not take to well to Bart. They call him racist

names and refuse to associate with him. Bart is upset by the reaction of the town’s people

and retreats to the sheriff’s office where he meets the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder). At the

same time Hedley and Taggart are planning different ways to get Bart and the people out

of Rock Ridge. They eventually decide to go into Rock Ridge “a whoopin and a

whoppin” and beat everybody out. Hedley then enlists some of the most despicable

people ever, Nazis, banditos, Ku Klux Klan members, Hells Angles and others. But Bart

and the Waco Kid catch wind of this plot and devise a plan to build a fake Rock Ridge

with the help of the citizens and to booby trap it with dynamite. The group of bad guys

then rides into town where they are blown up and attacked by the Bart and the people of

Rock Ridge. The fight that ensues becomes so crazy that it spills off the set where

Blazing Saddles is being filmed and onto other films set gaining more people as the fight

continues. Eventually Bart tracks down Hedley and fatally shoots him in the groin area.

Bart and the Waco Kid then ride off into the sunset and then get into a limo and drive off.

Blazing Saddles Blazing Saddles was released in 1974 and was the second film of

Mel Brooks. The movie stared Cleavon Little, Mel Brooks, Slim Pickens, Harvey

Korman, Gene Wilder, and Madeline Kahn. It is a spoof set in the Old West of 1874

which makes fun of racism and the prejudices of the time. Made in 1974, Blazing

Saddles attacks many of the prejudices and hatreds that had come to the surface of

American society during the civil rights struggles of the 1960’ and 70’s. Blazing Saddles

is both hilarious and it helps to bring down the walls of racism by allowing us, through

laughter, to see beyond skin color and see each other as fellow human beings.
Throughout the movie Mel Brooks plays with racism. All of the white people are big

dumb ignorant racists while any person of ethnicity is smart, friendly and more or less

has it going on. An example of this from the movie would be when Bart, who has just

been called a racial slur by an elderly woman, is comforted by the Waco Kid by telling

him, “What did you expect? Welcome, sonny?' 'Make yourself at home.' 'Marry my

daughter.' You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of

the land. The common clay of the New West. You know - morons.” The Waco Kids

remark helps forward the point that the white members of Rock Ridge are big dumb

racists. Another example of the play on racism is when Bart and the Waco Kid are spying

on Hedley’s bad guys. In order to get closer the Waco Kid yells out to the two KKK

members in the line: “Hey, boys! Look what I've got here.” To entice them to leave the

line (so the duo can steal their white robes and hoods), he holds up Bart as bait from

behind a large rock, as Bart calls out with a mock-dumb (racially-stereotyped) taunt:

“Hey! Where are the white women at?”

Mel Brooks also spoofs many aspects of the traditional western movie. In the

scene after Bart is released from jail, band music plays as and the camera pans upward

over the chest of a man with a sheriff's badge pinned on it, Bart is revealed wearing suede

and leather that looks that a seventies jump suite. Mounted magnificently on his

palomino, he is carrying Gucci saddlebags, ready to take the job of sheriff. As he rides on

his horse and approaches Rock Ridge, the music swells - he passes by the band playing

the music on the dusty plains. There are many examples of spoofing the traditional

western movies. Another would be in the scene when Hedley Lamarr is recruiting his

band of bad guys to attack Rock Ridge. He is handing out bad guy badges and a Mexican
bandito takes the badge he is just given and throws it on the ground mockingly saying,

“badges, we don’t need no stinking badges.”

Blazing Saddles is an excellent spoof of western films. Mel Brooks pulls themes

and ideas from many popular westerns of the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s in order to spoof

them. The most important aspect is how it attacks the idea of racism. Brooks attacks

redneck bigotry of all flavors leaving no racist idea unscathed. Some people may watch

Blazing Saddles and find it extremely offensive but they are missing the sarcasm. No

person of any ethnic background is presented in the film as a typical stereotype, it is the

ignorant whites who are the ones being racist and they are portrayed as dumb and

unprovincial. The point of Blazing Saddles was to make you laugh and realize how silly

racism was at a time when it was a very sensitive subject. Blazing Saddles is a film that

is as relevant today as it was in 1974.