Review of Blazing Saddles (1974) by Robert H — 14 Feb 2016

With the exception of SPACEBALLS, I am, as of yet, not well-versed in all things Mel Brooks. I have been aware of his cultural influence through soundbites and clips of his films, but BLAZING SADDLES represents my first serious foray into the godfather of the spoof.

Seeing as it is a spoof, the plot really doesn't matter too much since the entire genre is basically an excuse to poke fun at other things. And, I must say, BLAZING SADDLES does this quite well. Parts of it are kind of corny, and the middle 20-30 minutes is a bit dry, but the way it sends up the Western and makes fun of racial stereotypes more than compensates for whatever weaknesses it has.

My favorite parts were Madeline Kahn as a Marlene Dietrich parody, Lili Von Shtupp, and Harvey Korman as the verbose Hedley Lamarr. Those were probably the most substantial running gags and they never got old.

The opening and closing sequences (which goes more meta than I've never seen pre-90's) were also quite good. When it comes down to it, renting this was certainly a good choice but I'll probably have to add some Mel Brooks to my Blu-ray collection in the future.

And for the few people who possibly haven't seen this yet, you don't know what you're missing.