Rating of
3.5/4
"Blazing Saddles" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 05/21/12
In an attempt to displace the citizens of Rock Ridge in order to grab their land and sell it for huge profit to the rail road, a devious politician sends them a sheriff so "offensive" to their sensibilities that they cannot avoid being driven away.
Despite having previous success with the sometimes hilarious The Producers, Blazing Saddles is the movie Mel Brooks built his - largely undeserved - reputation upon. The film is a perfect blending of genre parody and social satire, even showing some of the surreal post-modernism made popular by the Monty Python team which hit the global mainstream a couple of years earlier. Cleavon Little is absolutely brilliant as Bart, and the reaction of the assembled red necks to his presence make for most of the funniest lines; something for which I suspect Richard Pryor - who was credited as co-writer - was largely responsible. He forges a fantastic partnership with a Gene Wilder at his prime and the entire cast are all spot on, down to the smallest bit part. I know the entire script of this film off by heart and it's still hilarious every time I see it. The "plot" gets a little aimless towards the end, preferring outright silliness to the wit of the rest of the film but it's so full of laugh out loud funny lines and moments of pure genius that it hardly matters.
No doubt inspiration for the slew of scatter shot parodies by Abrams/Zucker and their ilk that were to come some years later, Blazing Saddles still stands head and shoulders above the crowd as the best cinematic spoof ever made.
