Blazing Saddles, Spring 2005

Andy Wilson April 13, 2005 Film Critique Mel Brooks Blazing Saddles

Blazing Saddles begins with a group of Chinese, African American and Irish men laboring on the railroad. One of the African American laborers is named Bart (Cleavon Little) and a fellow African American laborer are given the suicidal job of going further down the track to check for quick sand. Sure enough Bart and his partner find quick sand when they drive their hand cart into it. At this point Taggart (Slim Pickens), the guy in charge of constructing the railroad, shows up and instead of saving Bart and his partner he saves the hand cart. At this point Bart manages to get out of the quick sand and whacks Taggart in the head with a shovel. Having whacked Taggart in the head Bart finds himself in jail and waiting to be hung by the medieval, lisping executioner. But the diabolical Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) has other plans for Bart. Because of the quick sand that Bart discovered Hedley has to move his rail line through a town called Rock Ridge but there is one problem, Rock Ridge has people living in it. So Hedley sends in his goons to scare the people out of Rock Ridge, but instead of leaving they ask for a new sheriff. Hedley decides that there is no way the people of Rock Ridge could possibly stand an African American sheriff so he gets Bart pardon by Gov. William J. LePetomaine and installed as sheriff of Rock Ridge.

At firs the people of Rock Ridge do not take to well to Bart. They call him racist names and refuse to associate with him. Bart is upset by the reaction of the town’s people and retreats to the sheriff’s office where he meets the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder). At the same time Hedley and Taggart are planning different ways to get Bart and the people out of Rock Ridge. They eventually decide to go into Rock Ridge “a whoopin and a whoppin” and beat everybody out. Hedley then enlists some of the most despicable people ever, Nazis, banditos, Ku Klux Klan members, Hells Angles and others. But Bart and the Waco Kid catch wind of this plot and devise a plan to build a fake Rock Ridge with the help of the citizens and to booby trap it with dynamite. The group of bad guys then rides into town where they are blown up and attacked by the Bart and the people of Rock Ridge. The fight that ensues becomes so crazy that it spills off the set where Blazing Saddles is being filmed and onto other films set gaining more people as the fight continues. Eventually Bart tracks down Hedley and fatally shoots him in the groin area. Bart and the Waco Kid then ride off into the sunset and then get into a limo and drive off. Blazing Saddles Blazing Saddles was released in 1974 and was the second film of Mel Brooks. The movie stared Cleavon Little, Mel Brooks, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Gene Wilder, and Madeline Kahn. It is a spoof set in the Old West of 1874 which makes fun of racism and the prejudices of the time. Made in 1974, Blazing Saddles attacks many of the prejudices and hatreds that had come to the surface of American society during the civil rights struggles of the 1960’ and 70’s. Blazing Saddles is both hilarious and it helps to bring down the walls of racism by allowing us, through laughter, to see beyond skin color and see each other as fellow human beings.

Throughout the movie Mel Brooks plays with racism. All of the white people are big dumb ignorant racists while any person of ethnicity is smart, friendly and more or less has it going on. An example of this from the movie would be when Bart, who has just been called a racial slur by an elderly woman, is comforted by the Waco Kid by telling him, “What did you expect? Welcome, sonny?' 'Make yourself at home.' 'Marry my daughter.' You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know - morons.” The Waco Kids remark helps forward the point that the white members of Rock Ridge are big dumb racists. Another example of the play on racism is when Bart and the Waco Kid are spying on Hedley’s bad guys. In order to get closer the Waco Kid yells out to the two KKK members in the line: “Hey, boys! Look what I've got here.” To entice them to leave the line (so the duo can steal their white robes and hoods), he holds up Bart as bait from behind a large rock, as Bart calls out with a mock-dumb (racially-stereotyped) taunt: “Hey! Where are the white women at?” Mel Brooks also spoofs many aspects of the traditional western movie. In the scene after Bart is released from jail, band music plays as and the camera pans upward over the chest of a man with a sheriff's badge pinned on it, Bart is revealed wearing suede and leather that looks that a seventies jump suite. Mounted magnificently on his palomino, he is carrying Gucci saddlebags, ready to take the job of sheriff. As he rides on his horse and approaches Rock Ridge, the music swells - he passes by the band playing the music on the dusty plains. There are many examples of spoofing the traditional western movies. Another would be in the scene when Hedley Lamarr is recruiting his band of bad guys to attack Rock Ridge. He is handing out bad guy badges and a Mexican

bandito takes the badge he is just given and throws it on the ground mockingly saying, “badges, we don’t need no stinking badges.” Blazing Saddles is an excellent spoof of western films. Mel Brooks pulls themes and ideas from many popular westerns of the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s in order to spoof them. The most important aspect is how it attacks the idea of racism. Brooks attacks redneck bigotry of all flavors leaving no racist idea unscathed. Some people may watch Blazing Saddles and find it extremely offensive but they are missing the sarcasm. No person of any ethnic background is presented in the film as a typical stereotype, it is the ignorant whites who are the ones being racist and they are portrayed as dumb and unprovincial. The point of Blazing Saddles was to make you laugh and realize how silly racism was at a time when it was a very sensitive subject. Blazing Saddles is a film that is as relevant today as it was in 1974.