Five decades ago, a rip-roaring spoof Western came to town, with a six-shooter full of gags, a handful of ultra-catchy songs, and a roster of stellar performances to boot. It rode a blazing saddle, it wore a shining star – and it became one of the greatest cinematic comedies of all time. Yes, Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles has turned 50, holding on to its status as one of the funniest films ever made, with sharp satire to complement its pitch-perfect homage to the Western genre. Now, it looks even better than ever, thanks to a new 4K restoration – available to own on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. Gentlemen, please rest your sphincters.
Blazing Saddles arrived in a period of major creativity for Brooks – it landed in February 1974, followed-up before the year was out by his Universal monster spoof Young Frankenstein. And it connected with audiences for all kinds of reasons – not just the barrage of jokes and Looney Tunes-ish sense of antic mayhem, but its spot-on evocation of the American West, or at least the West as portrayed in classic Hollywood Westerns. Brooks knows genres inside out – it’s his embrace of convention that allows him to shoot at the feet of those clichés, turning them inside out with comic glee. While he would go on to spoof horror classics in Young Frankenstein and space operas in Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles remains one of his finest pastiches – nailing the (seemingly) cosy town of Rock Ridge, the cavalcade cowboys and bandits, the corrupt leaders, and the sleazy saloon.
When it comes to the comedy, Blazing Saddles doesn’t so much extend a laurel (and hardy) handshake as take direct potshots. Sometimes those are in the direction of Western stereotypes – the campfire scene, in which a dinner of beans results in a cacophonous symphony of full-throttle farts, has gone down in infamy. Or there’s the subversion in those musical numbers, particularly the saloon performance from Madeline Kahn’s Lili Von Shtüpp (aka ‘The Teutonic Titwillow’) – not a song to entice the town’s menfolk, but a number about how fed up she is of sleeping with them all, by the name of ‘I’m Tired’. (“Don’t you know, she’s pooped!” chimes in a backing vocal.) And then there’s Hedy Lamarr – sorry, Hedley Lamarr – Harvey Korman’s nefarious district attorney who has a plan to wipe out Rock Ridge in order to make a fortune from impending railway plans. This is a meddling villain with a penchant for bathing with squeaky toys (“Find my Froggy!”).
But Blazing Saddles’ more daring comedy comes in the form of its incisive satire on race – Cleavon Little’s Bart is the film’s whip-smart lead, a Black railroad worker who escapes captivity, evades death, is hired as sheriff to enrage the people of Rock Ridge, and outwits everybody in the process, roping in help from Gene Wilder’s Waco Kid (his name’s Jim, but most people call him… Jim). Brooks doesn’t sugar-coat the town’s racism; nor does Bart pay it any mind. He’s too busy running rings round everybody – “And now for my next impression… Jesse Owens!” – as something of a live-action Bugs Bunny, whether delivering dynamite to the muscular Mongo disguised as a ‘Candygram’, or donning Ku Klux Klan robes to scope out Hedley’s plans (after beating up the Klansmen first, of course). Brooks counted the legendary Richard Pryor among his writers, on a screenplay that won Best Comedy at the Writers Guild Of America Awards, and earned a BAFTA nomination to boot.
What stands out today is the freewheeling nature of Blazing Saddles’ comedy – particularly Brooks’ penchant for anachronism. Early on, Count Basie and his orchestra appear in the middle of the desert; Bart and the railroad workers croon ‘I Get A Kick Out Of You’ (which wouldn’t exist until 1936) when taunted into performing a ‘work song’; the Waco Kid claims to have “killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille”. But it’s in the closing reel that Blazing Saddles shatters the fourth wall with its bonkers finale – the camera zooming out mid-brawl to reveal the studio backlot, before the bust-up spills over into the all-singing, all-dancing musical shooting one hangar over, and then out into the commissary where it turns into a pie fight. What other film can claim to end at a screening of… well, itself?
Five decades on, the genius – and daring – of Blazing Saddles remains undeniable. So pick up the new 4K Ultra-HD release, revel in the madcap comedy, and sing along to ‘I’m Tired’ as loud as you like. Bring your own Raisinets.
