Blazing Saddles (1974)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Mel Brooks

Writers:

Mel Brooks (screenplay) &
Norman Steinberg (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 February 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Western

Tagline:

Never give a saga an even break!

Plot:

To ruin a western town, a corrupt political boss appoints a black sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.

Plot Keywords:

Sheriff | Governor | Western Spoof | Spoof | Railroad

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Cleavon Little	...	Bart
Gene Wilder	...	Jim
Slim Pickens	...	Taggart
Harvey Korman	...	Hedley Lamarr
Madeline Kahn	...	Lili Von Shtupp
Mel Brooks	...	Governor William J. Lepetomane / Indian Chief
Burton Gilliam	...	Lyle
Alex Karras	...	Mongo
David Huddleston	...	Olson Johnson
Liam Dunn	...	Rev. Johnson
John Hillerman	...	Howard Johnson
George Furth	...	Van Johnson
Jack Starrett	...	Gabby Johnson (as Claude Ennis Starrett Jr.)
Carol Arthur	...	Harriett Johnson
Richard Collier	...	Dr. Sam Johnson

Also Known As:

Black Bart (USA) (working title)
Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles or Never Give a Saga an Even Break (USA) (poster title)
Tex X (USA) (original script title)
The Purple Sage (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Yiddish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (2004) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Finland:K-12 | Portugal:M/12 | UK:12A (re-rating: 2008) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Norway:16 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Crossbow Productions

Trivia:

Over 70 stuntmen worked on this film, many of them doubling as extras.

Goofs:

Continuity: Right before, and during, the singing of "Camptown Ladies", the cowboy behind Lyle and to his left (our right) is wearing a white jacket that goes from being buttoned to un-buttoned to buttoned several times.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Lyle: Come on, boys! The way you're lollygaggin' around here with them picks and them shovels, you'd think it was a hundert an' twenty degree. Can't be more than a hundert an' fourteen.

Movie Connections:

Version of Black Bart (1975) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Merrily We Roll Along

"Excuse me while I whip this out." Dead-pan funny

Blazing Saddles is one of the funniest movies to not only to come from Mel Brooks, but from cinema itself. Film stars Cleavon Little as a regular black laborer, but then a villain (Heldey Lamarr is perfectly played by Harvey Korman) wants to move a community out of the town Rockridge. So, he brings Cleavon in to make the people leave (the people in town are racist including the line: "The sherrif is a nig! "What'd he say?" "He said the sherrif's a near). Funny story, funny jokes (the farting sequence is ahead of it's time for 1974) and 2 breakthroughs- Madedline Kahn in a Oscar nominated performance as Von Shtupp and shines through. The other is Richard Pryor, who co-writes the script with Brooks and Andrew Bergman. Hilarious, forever. A+