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Blazing Saddles (1974) More at IMDbPro »

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299 reviews in total

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
They don't make films like this any more..., 25 December 2005

Author: bluethunder35 (bluethunder35@hotmail.com) from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Whenever Blazing Saddles is on T.V. I always try to catch it. Blazing Saddles, like Revenge Of The Nerds, is a movie that simply can't be made today unless the producers are willing to deal with the complaints from various ethnic groups about the way they portray their people. It has become tiresome to see every ethnic or focus group complain about the stereotypes shown when in fact they are based on truths and that if they made a film based on their ethnic group i.e. My Big, Fat Greek Wedding we'd see the people portrayed the same way others would see them. Back in the 70's, people laughed at themselves and their mannerisms. Blazing Saddles did more to unite the races with laughter and Mel Brooks deserves a lot of credit for this.

Blazing Saddles also takes a lot of heat for its "cop-out ending" but people need to realize that this is a spoof of the western; nobody should take it seriously as if it was High Noon. Some people whine and say that they could have created a suitable ending to the film but to be honest, the one provided seems feasible to me. Besides, the characters in this film are wacko. You had to know that something crazy would happen in the end.

The film still stands at the top of the great comedies. The performances from Harvey Korman, Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Slim Pickens, and Alex Karras, among others, still are top-notch. Also, like Evil Dead, what movie has so many memorable lines and quotes? Whether it is Mel Brooks' Gov. William J. LePetomaine mocking Harvey Korman's Hedley Lamarr by calling him Hedy Lamarr (and stating that "She isn't born yet, you could sue her.") to the classic "Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!" to Madeline Kahn's Lili Von Shtupp saying for the second time that "I want to slip into something more comfortable" or Gene Wilder's Waco Kid delivering his hilarious stories, it never loses it zing.

Still, the story is entertaining and intriguing and the characters make this movie work. Whether we will see people return to the laid-back 70's beliefs in public is debatable but we will always have these films that shows us that we could laugh at ourselves over our ethnicity. Maybe someone like Al Sharpton will look at these classic films and realize that the way it used to be wasn't so bad...ah, probably not. He would no longer have anything to offer news-wise.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Not only blazingly funny, but socially relevant, too., 25 June 2004

Author: James H. H. Lampert from Orange County, CA

In Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks managed to run the gamut from slapstick to refined wit (with sexual and scatological humor falling somewhere in the middle), all the while parodying everything from westerns to Looney Tunes, and ruthlessly satirizing greed, corruption, and racism. It's also quite possibly the only context in which "The N-Word" is used to strike a blow against racism.

Even the character names are gags: for example, "Lilli Von Shtupp" is named after a Yiddish sexual term, and "Governor LePetomaine" was named after a French performer whose act was based on flatulence. And of course, there's the whole town full of rather-inbred people named Johnson, and Harvey Korman's character, whose name is a reference to Hedy Lamarr.

Many have labeled the humor racist. Those who do, simply don't get it. The whole point was to show the inherent idiocy of racism: in short, to satirize it.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Worth watching for the "conference-scene" alone!, 11 January 1999
Author: bebbe from Sweden

This is worth watching for the "conference-scene" alone! Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman host a crisis meeting in Gov. LePetomanes office and it´s unbelievably silly. My favourite comedy scene ever. No Mel Brooks-film is funny straight through so you have to judge them by scenes, and this is the best.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
The best, 14 December 1998

Author: cole-4 from Sweden

It´s the best movie ever made. Brilliant acting of many actors Very good script and got all the jokes from all possible western movies. Little and Wilder can´t be better

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Mel Brooks' best!, 5 December 1998

Author: Rob Man from California

Blazing Saddles is a classic film that is still uproariously funny more than 20 years later. It's a classic from the time when Mel Brooks was making his best movies. Later that year Mel Brooks released Young Frankenstein, which was also one of his best.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A hilarious view on the idiocy of racism in the old west, 4 November 1998
Author: Clayton Harryman (srgenius) from Houston, TX

Blazing Saddles, by far Brooks' best work, shows how silly racism can be. Chock full of disparaging remarks about those of other ethnic backgrounds, this movie makes a 'dazzling urbanite' black man sheriff of a small fictitious town in the old west. He was greeted with slurs and guns, but his quick wits saved his life. Old-fashioned friendliness doesn't work, but stopping Mongo wins the townspeople's trust. "Pretty soon they'll talk to you in broad daylight," offers Jim. Eventually, Sheriff Bart leads the townspeople to a victory over the evil Hedley ("that's HedLey!") Lamarr.

Blazing Saddles is my favorite movie of all time. From start to about 20 minutes before the end, I love it. I can live without the Hollywood fight scene, however. That's gotta be the stupidest thing ever included in a movie.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Better than "Young Frankenstein". Now that's saying something!, 2 November 1998

Author: YoSam from New Jersey

Mel Brooks truly at his best. This western spoof, set in the tough racist town of Rock Ridge is simply hilarious. A Black intelligent sheriff is dropped into a town of white inter-related bufoons and the adventure begins. Brooks exposes sterotypes as simple folly. The casting was perfect. Gene Wilder & Cleavon Little are perfect together. The movie is Slapstick, Childish, Ridiculous and FUNNY. Full of memorable lines and scenes. The classic scene (for me), has to be the Fireside Flatulance after the Bean dinner. Sure it's stupid. But it makes you laugh! I have seen a TV version once which had 3 extra scenes in it. I have never seen it since. Rent it, it's a sure winner. Don't sit so high in the saddle to let a classic pass you by!

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Hilarious Old West lunacy, 9 July 2007

Author: MartianCreature from Redondo Beach, CA

One of the greatest comedies ever made. Mel Brooks was a demented genius at these genre satires, and this send up of every Western cliché ever thought of, blended with his typically insane slant on modern social aberrations is a true comic masterpiece.

Somehow, Brooks's unique style gets away with roasting otherwise volatile issues, and with laugh out loud results. Soundbites from this movie are classic, and quoted even today. This is the kind of cult classic which a group of people can run from time to time, everyone reciting their favorite dialogue along with the characters. And there's a hilarious line or sight gag almost every moment. The campfire scene is one of the best-timed jokes ever put on film. The hiring of the assassins is another standout. The concert in the desert. The toll crossing. The false-front town with cardboard cutout "townsfolk." The list goes on.

The cast in this movie were nothing short of brilliant. Cleavon Little, as the sheriff, was not known for comedy, but demonstrates exceptional comic smarts. Others are also terrific: Gene Wilder, Madeline Khan, Harvey Korman, Andy Devine to name just a few. The film never lets down, maintaining high levels of chaos and silliness throughout.

This Old West lunacy can be viewed again and again, and remains fun each time. Along with Young Frankenstein, one of Brooks's two crowning achievements.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Blazing Sadles is a classic Mel Brooks film., 3 July 2007

Author: dobbin-4 from Australia

Blazing Sadles is an hilarious Comedy made in 1974 about a guy that is appointed a sheriff and when the people of he town at first trilled to learn that a new sheriffs coming they learn of one little catch- hes black. Mel Brooks makes a tiny cameo in this film as the president and made me laugh around 4 times in the 6 minutes screen time he has in the film. The movie is good because of Mel Brooks I reckon because he took a hard thing to spoof and made it one of his most favourite and highly rated movies of all time along with stuff like Young Frankensten and The Producers. Another good thing about this movie is the characters I mean not just is the script funny but the characters make it even funnier in my view. Overall I think movie is a classic movie that I hope is always loved and bought.

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2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
I Never Get Tired of This Movie!!!, 16 June 2007
Author: possumopossum from United States

One of the funniest movies I have ever seen and it gets better with age. It's gotten even funnier since I started watching Westerns. It's not politically correct, but who cares? It's all in good fun, and if folks can't take a joke...

This is Mel Brooks at his best. Better than YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, HIGH ANXIETY, or SILENT MOVIE, although they are great in their own right. It's really funny when they start to lose control at the end and carry their fights to some of the sets at Warner Brothers studios. I damn near howled the first time I saw this. There are also subtle shades of humor that are easily missed with just one viewing, so I would suggest several viewings of this movie to the uninitiated.

What the hell? I feel generous today. I'll give this one a perfect 10. (Head them off at the pass? I hate that damn cliché'!!!)

Warning: Don't light a match during the campfire scene.

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