Fellman's Movie Reviews

Red = Spoilers 

Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical comedy directed by Mel Brooks who co-wrote the screenplay with Richard Pryor, Andrew Bergman, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger. The film is widely considered one of the great classics of comedy, and in 2006 was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of which Mel Brooks currently has 3 separate movies.  

What’s it about? The movie starts on a railroad in 1864. The boss, Taggert, gets word there might be quicksand up ahead where they’re working and sends two workers to go check it out. They run into some quicksand and Taggert and his assistant Lyle come back and drag the handcart that Bart and Charlie were riding on out of the quicksand and leaves Bart and Charlie stuck. After Bart pulls himself out, he hits Taggert on the head with a shovel. Back in Hedley Lamar’s office, Taggert tells Lamar that the railroad needs to go through the town of Rock Ridge. Lamar realizing this will make the land very valuable, decides to send Taggert and all his men to drive the people out of Rock Ridge so that he can snatch the land up. The people refuse to leave and wire the Governor for a new sheriff. Hedley comes up with a plan to have the Governer appoint a black sheriff so the people will get rid of him themselves. When Bart gets to town and approaches the podium to make his welcome speech, he notices that many people are holding guns. So, Bart pulls his gun on himself and takes himself hostage. Playing both the part of the kidnapper and victim as he makes his way into the sheriff’s office. The next day, the drunk in one of the cells wakes up and reveals himself to be “The Waco Kid”, a legendary gunslinger with the fastest hands in the world. Then, Bart defeats “Mongo”, an immensely strong, but also dim-witted villain sent from Taggert’s camp to kill Bart. After Bart subdues Mongo, Hedley hires Lily Von Shtupp to try and seduce Bart. She ends up failing and falling in love with him, ruining Hedley’s plans. Hedley sends word to the sheriff’s office that Mongo is to be released. And when he is, Bart and Jim question him about why Hedley wants Rock Ridge so badly. Mongo tells them it has to do with where “the choo choo goes”. So, Bart and Jim go back to visit Bart’s old friend Charlie back at the railroad and find out that the railroad is going through Rock Ridge and that Hedley wants the town because it’s going to be worth a lot of money. Taggart, furious that his plans have failed, decides to hire an army of villains to take over the town. When the townsfolk see this, they pack up and are ready to leave when Bart comes in and asks them for 24 to come up with a plan. He goes back and gets all the railroad workers and brings them to the townspeople to tell them his plan. They’re going to construct a complete copy of Rock Ridge to fool Hedley and then blow them up when they’re inside the fake town. The white townsfolk don’t think they can do it until Bart brings out all the railroad workers who agreed to help in return for a small plot of land they can call their own. The white townsfolk agree, and everyone works together to construct the fake Rock Ridge. In the morning, they realize there are no people in the fake town, so Bart, Jim and Mongo create a toll booth to slow down the approaching army while the townsfolk create replicas of themselves. Once the army of villains is in the town, Jim detonates the dynamite and explodes the bad guys, sending Rock Ridge townsfolk to attack. This begins the final battle of the movie which takes place over several scenes and locations, breaking the fourth wall, taking you into the movie studio commissary and neighboring studio where they are filming a completely different film. Lamar, realizing he’s lost, hails a taxi and says, “drive me off this picture”. The taxi takes him to Mann’s Chinese Theater, which is showing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. Inside, he sees Bart riding up to the front of the theatre on horseback. He goes out front and has a duel with Bart where he ultimately ends up losing. In the end, Bart and Jim ride off into the sunset in a limousine, with their horses being taken off by a stagehand.  

What’s good? Some of the best dialogue I’ve ever heard comes from this movie. Some of the most quotable lines and some of the best jokes come from this movie. Not to mention, the ending is one of the most original endings in cinema history. It breaks the fourth wall, only to go back and finish the movie inside the movie again. It’s brilliant in so many ways.  

What’s bad? There’s not really anything that’s bad about it. It’s a shame it was made in 1974 and the camera quality is what it is. That’s just what cameras looked like back then. That’s just what film was.  

The acting? The acting is fantastic. It won three academy awards. Listening to Hedley’s ranting while Taggert reaches for his notepad is some of the funniest bits. And how many times does Hedley correct someone with “that’s Hedley”? 

The effects? As far as effects go, they’re pretty good for 1974. Maybe some fast-motion and editing are about the gist of it, but nonetheless, they’re still pretty good.  

Never get away with it today. With today’s PC culture and the way that everyone is so sensitive to everyone else’s feelings and emotions, you could never get away with making a movie like Blazing Saddles in today’s modern world. The rating system wouldn’t allow it.  

Nigger isn’t an acceptable joke today. Racial comedy isn’t acceptable these days. It’s not even acceptable for black comics to make nigger jokes anymore. A movie like Blazing Saddles would tear people’s worlds apart. 

How did he not notice Taggert was hurt? How did he not notice Taggert was hurt when his head was wrapped in a giant white bandage? It was quite obvious. Why else would his head be wrapped up like that? 

Every store is owned by a Johnson. Every store is owned by somebody named Johnson. And everybody in town is named Johnson.  

He pulls the gun on himself. Bart pulls the gun on himself while everyone is pointing guns at him, and they all fall for it. And Olsen Johnson goes “Hold it men… He’s not bluffing…” 

What are those cows doing? Where’d those cows come from in the church? And how did they get in there? 

I don’t know what Lily’s accent is about. I don’t know what Lily’s accent is about, but I’ve never got the joke. If it’s supposed to be a German accent or not. Or if it’s from something else. Or if this is where it originates? 

Was Lyle just going to murder Bart? Was Lyle literally just going to murder Bart in cold blood? I guess that’s the old west for you. It was a dangerous place to be.  

Mel Brooks plays three different people in the movie. Mel Brooks is not only the Governor, but he’s the Indian Chief, and he’s also one of the aviator applicants standing in line waiting to sign up for Hedley’s gang.  

Why would they go through the toll booth? Why wouldn’t they just go around the Toll booth? I guess that’s suspension of disbelief. Without it, there wouldn’t be a movie… 

The ending is so original. One of the best endings to a movie ever written. They come off the movie they’re making and onto the rest of the studio, breaking the fourth wall, and go all over town of where they’re filming the movie. That’s brilliant on so many levels. And in the end, they end up going back into the movie to finish off the film with the characters instead of ending with the broken fourth wall sequence like you would expect them to. 

There’s cows everywhere. There’s even more cows in Chinese Mann’s Theater. There’s cows everywhere… 

They give up the horses and drive off. The heroes ride off into the sunset, but they don’t ride off on horses, they ride off in a limo, because that’s the kind of film this is… 

So, yeah. Go and see Blazing Saddles. Anybody who doesn’t go and see Blazing Saddles is simply cheating themselves. It’s their loss, really. You just don’t know what you’re missing. And as always, keep on watching, with a smile on your face…