"Blazing Saddles" reminds me of a French expression that can be translated as "it was dumb, but no one ever thought of it" as if it would take a certain genius to create an impact from very silly things. No one ever thought of making fun of Hitler, yet it inspired "The Producers", one of the funniest comedies ever, "Blazing Saddles" works on the same principle, only in a smaller proportion: no one ever thought of a Black sheriff (Cleavon Little) in a small Western town, Brooks did.
As usual, Mel Brooks embraces political incorrectness with the enthusiasm of a little child, getting away with so many frank lines like "I like rape", "Where's the white women" and I won't do a drinking game with the number of times the N-word is uttered, hell, it's almost like a punctuation mark. Mel gets away with that because it betrays his profound desire to make us laugh, by any means, not wasting any frame, any minute without a gag, visual or verbal, slapstick, absurd and at some points, so blatantly racist I hesitated to qualify him as desperate for a laugh or irreverent genius. Maybe it takes some irreverent genius to be so desperate for a laugh, or maybe Mel Brooks' comical mechanisms work on a Freudian level in the way they invite our most shameful impulses to laugh at the un-laughable.
I more enjoyed "Blazing Saddles" for the gags that satirized the Old West myth than those involving racial stereotypes, simply because they were much funnier and all the racist jokes combined together would never beat the part where Mongo (Alex Karras) punches the horse, probably one of the most defining moments of American Comedy's history. It's so unexpected, so perfect in the timing, that the joke works with the same level of perfectionism than the wall falling on Buster Keaton in "Steamboat Willie Jr." and these are moments that lack in "Blazing Saddles": moments of comical discipline and precision. I don't mind cheap jokes, but sometimes, they tend to make us forget how the set-up is almost as important as the pay-off.
Where would I classify the infamous campfire farting scene? This one reminded me of some of the best Simpsons jokes, when it starts being mildly funny, then it's annoying, but the scenes drag so long that it becomes funny again and almost hilarious. The timing is perfectly handled in the scene but the same can't be said for all the other jokes. I get it that it's funny if a Black man says he's got a Dutch grandma, or if an Indian chief speaks Yiddish, but it's only funny if the film doesn't contain other racial jokes, hell "Blazing Saddles" is loaded with them. I reckon that the story is about a black Sheriff and in a way, "Blazing Saddles" can be considered as a film dealing with racism and a landmark in political correctness, but all the political incorrectness in the world can't beat the hilarious wagon train moment, I laughed us so much I almost choked up.
I appreciate political incorrectness but I hate the way its card is used as an alibi by the hardcore fans to justify why the movie is so great, as if it was impossible to love "The Producers" and consider "Blazing Saddles" inferior. I loved "Blazing Saddles" for its satirical aspect, for the way it extended all the limits of parody. It uses as some point a gag à la 'Looney Tunes' with the same music, while I believe Mel Brooks owes more to Tex Avery. The Yiddish-speaking scene reminded me of the Oxford English speaking Indian in "Big- Wheel Watha" and the Indians attacks of "Homesteader Droopy" or Goofy's unforgettable "Californy'er Bust" These are my references in humor, and I felt that they inspired the best of "Blazing Saddles". Mongo uttering the famous "Mongo, only pawn in the game of life" is pure comical genius, not to mention the song of Lili Von Schtupp (Madeline Kahn perfect as a Marlene Dietrich or the poor) or Gene Wilder proving his shooting skills.
The rest is just a bit overused but never unfunny. If I wasn't laughing, I was at least smiling. Mel Brooks signed a film that was begging for laughs and for not to be taken seriously, and it couldn't have had a better ending to illustrate the fact that it's a big joke. I used to dislike the ending, but now I feel it's one of the most surrealistic extents of the limits of meta-referential satire. But while "Monty Python & the Holy Grail" did it with a certain level of sophistication, Brooks doesn't embarrass himself with that, he's like a craftsman who builds a beautiful oeuvre d'art and then took a hammer and starts destroying it, and it takes some genius to have the guts to ruin the premise of a film, for jokes. And apparently, it worked since the film was the highest grossing of the year. People laughed and that's that.
I like the film but I sometimes dislike the reasons for which it's loved by its fans. "Blazing Saddles" delivers what we expect from a comedy, but at some point, it just forgets to be a film, with a story, something that some of the best parodies did "Naked Gun!", "Top Secret!", "Airplane!" and how about Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" which is, in my opinion, his best film, precisely because he wasn't overdoing it, each joke has its time, each character a moment to shine, and the film had an atmosphere, a little something that elevated it above the comic genre. "Young Frankenstein" is like a delicious pie served in a beautiful plate, while "Blazing Saddles" is no less delicious, but is thrown at our face.
That's all, folks!
As usual, Mel Brooks embraces political incorrectness with the enthusiasm of a little child, getting away with so many frank lines like "I like rape", "Where's the white women" and I won't do a drinking game with the number of times the N-word is uttered, hell, it's almost like a punctuation mark. Mel gets away with that because it betrays his profound desire to make us laugh, by any means, not wasting any frame, any minute without a gag, visual or verbal, slapstick, absurd and at some points, so blatantly racist I hesitated to qualify him as desperate for a laugh or irreverent genius. Maybe it takes some irreverent genius to be so desperate for a laugh, or maybe Mel Brooks' comical mechanisms work on a Freudian level in the way they invite our most shameful impulses to laugh at the un-laughable.
I more enjoyed "Blazing Saddles" for the gags that satirized the Old West myth than those involving racial stereotypes, simply because they were much funnier and all the racist jokes combined together would never beat the part where Mongo (Alex Karras) punches the horse, probably one of the most defining moments of American Comedy's history. It's so unexpected, so perfect in the timing, that the joke works with the same level of perfectionism than the wall falling on Buster Keaton in "Steamboat Willie Jr." and these are moments that lack in "Blazing Saddles": moments of comical discipline and precision. I don't mind cheap jokes, but sometimes, they tend to make us forget how the set-up is almost as important as the pay-off.
Where would I classify the infamous campfire farting scene? This one reminded me of some of the best Simpsons jokes, when it starts being mildly funny, then it's annoying, but the scenes drag so long that it becomes funny again and almost hilarious. The timing is perfectly handled in the scene but the same can't be said for all the other jokes. I get it that it's funny if a Black man says he's got a Dutch grandma, or if an Indian chief speaks Yiddish, but it's only funny if the film doesn't contain other racial jokes, hell "Blazing Saddles" is loaded with them. I reckon that the story is about a black Sheriff and in a way, "Blazing Saddles" can be considered as a film dealing with racism and a landmark in political correctness, but all the political incorrectness in the world can't beat the hilarious wagon train moment, I laughed us so much I almost choked up.
I appreciate political incorrectness but I hate the way its card is used as an alibi by the hardcore fans to justify why the movie is so great, as if it was impossible to love "The Producers" and consider "Blazing Saddles" inferior. I loved "Blazing Saddles" for its satirical aspect, for the way it extended all the limits of parody. It uses as some point a gag à la 'Looney Tunes' with the same music, while I believe Mel Brooks owes more to Tex Avery. The Yiddish-speaking scene reminded me of the Oxford English speaking Indian in "Big- Wheel Watha" and the Indians attacks of "Homesteader Droopy" or Goofy's unforgettable "Californy'er Bust" These are my references in humor, and I felt that they inspired the best of "Blazing Saddles". Mongo uttering the famous "Mongo, only pawn in the game of life" is pure comical genius, not to mention the song of Lili Von Schtupp (Madeline Kahn perfect as a Marlene Dietrich or the poor) or Gene Wilder proving his shooting skills.
The rest is just a bit overused but never unfunny. If I wasn't laughing, I was at least smiling. Mel Brooks signed a film that was begging for laughs and for not to be taken seriously, and it couldn't have had a better ending to illustrate the fact that it's a big joke. I used to dislike the ending, but now I feel it's one of the most surrealistic extents of the limits of meta-referential satire. But while "Monty Python & the Holy Grail" did it with a certain level of sophistication, Brooks doesn't embarrass himself with that, he's like a craftsman who builds a beautiful oeuvre d'art and then took a hammer and starts destroying it, and it takes some genius to have the guts to ruin the premise of a film, for jokes. And apparently, it worked since the film was the highest grossing of the year. People laughed and that's that.
I like the film but I sometimes dislike the reasons for which it's loved by its fans. "Blazing Saddles" delivers what we expect from a comedy, but at some point, it just forgets to be a film, with a story, something that some of the best parodies did "Naked Gun!", "Top Secret!", "Airplane!" and how about Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein" which is, in my opinion, his best film, precisely because he wasn't overdoing it, each joke has its time, each character a moment to shine, and the film had an atmosphere, a little something that elevated it above the comic genre. "Young Frankenstein" is like a delicious pie served in a beautiful plate, while "Blazing Saddles" is no less delicious, but is thrown at our face.
That's all, folks!