Le shérif est en prison

The American Film Institute did not choose this as one of the 100 best American Movies of all time. They put Doctor Zhivago near the top of the list.

For these actions, all members of the institute should be stripped of rank, held somewhere with their eyes fixed open ala Clockwork Orange, and forced to watch the abysmal Zhivago until they change their minds.

Film "authorities" have these opinions that 1)great comedies inherently have less merit than serious films 2)great comedies aren't those actual funny ones, but are those stylish character-based films like Tootsie and It Happened One Night.

Blazing Saddles is one of the funniest movies ever made. It is a great parody. It has a gentle, loving spirit. People talk about it years after seeing it.

Sure, it is coarse, lowbrow, sometimes sophomoric, and silly. But it's funny, dammit. Isn't that what makes a great comedy.

I place it up there with Duck Soup - in comedy heaven.

Whenever I look at this film I laugh so hard that somtimes tears come to my eyes. Brooks manages to do with this film what Young Frankenstien did to classic horror films. The thing that really works is all the in jokes laced throughout the film. This shows that the cast and crew were really having fun in writing and producing this film. But the main credit should go to the late Cleavon Little. He was perfect as Bart. He took the role when many thought it should have gone to Richard Pryor (who was a co-writer on the film). However, I think Pryor might have been a little too over the top for the role. Little played it more low key and not as militant as Pryor might have.

Also, this film was rated R when it was first released back in 1974. Today it probably would get either a P.G. or, at most, a P.G.-13 rating.

Remember the days when humanity could laugh at itself? Blazing Saddles is a film that takes us all back to a more innocent era. An era where PC was just a couple of letters stuck together. I'll get this out of the way first: To all of you pc commies out there... the racism in this film is there to MAKE THE WHITE PEOPLE THE BUTT OF THE JOKES!!!! There is not a single person of color in this film who plays a negative character. The rednecks are what this film is really making fun of. I think most people realize this (hence the 7.7), but there are still a few who don't.

This is such a funny film. From the opening scene along the railroad tracks to the shot of Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little riding off into the sunset in a limo, the film provides an endless stream of laughs. Every time a person views this film, they can notice something truly hilarious that they may have missed the last time. Mel Brooks doesn't always hit the mark with his comedy, but this film was by far his best effort.

Cleavon Little and Harvey Korman give the best performances in my opinion. I think Cleavon Little stole every scene in every film I saw him in. He died way too young, and I wish he could have acted in more films. Korman's Hedley Lamar character is a real hoot. By the end of my most stressful days at work, I often find myself talking to everyone in his voice. So evil, and so calculating! He and Slim Pickens played off each other flawlessly.

Good luck catching an un-edited version of this classic anywhere but on the DVD. Forget about any kind of an effective remake, either. Not in this day and age.

Don't miss this film! 10 of 10 stars.

So sayeth the Hound.

In its side-splitting takedown of racism and all-purpose ignorance, 1974's "Blazing Saddles" is one of the boldest and most important satires ever made. As raunchy and as ludicrous as it is whip-smart, it can claim parentage of modern-day parodies from "South Park, le film : Plus long, plus grand et pas coupé (1999)" to "Sausage Party : La Vie privée des aliments (2016)" to music industry spoof "Stadium Anthems (2018)" in their uses of obscenity, intelligence, and song to expose inane social truths.

It's the Wild West. Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) is a white business opportunist with moronic and hyper-sexed governor William J. LePetomane (Mel Brooks) in his back pocket. Lamarr wants to build a railroad through the outpost town of Rock Ridge. When he can't scare off the town folk, he incites chaos by saddling them with a black sheriff (Bart, played by the now-iconic Cleavon Little), who just days before was a railroad laborer sentenced to hanging. It turns out that the sly Bart is a rare sage in a frontier littered with dumb white people; he pairs with booze-soaked gunslinger Jim (Gene Wilder) to rally the town against Lamarr's thugs.

Wearing no seatbelt, "Blazing Saddles" rebukes the absurdity of racism with its own absurdist countermeasures. While its blueprint would never make it past present-day studio tastemakers, its defrocking of ignorance has never been better primed for mass consumption. This is a watershed comedy that presides atop any short list of film's greatest satires. - (Was this review of use to you? If so, let me know by clicking "Helpful." Cheers!)

Quality. many people who love this film may feel that the negative comments from others are inoffensive as this is such a funny film, I will say this. They are entitled to their opinions ...even if they are wrong. This is one of the best comedies ever made.

Firstly it's not just Mel Brooks as scriptwriter which seems to make a big difference to the quality of the film he produces (Yung Frankestein is co-written by Gene Wilder) but then you have a cast in fine form, especially Harvey Corman as the fantastic Hedley Lamarr (Not Hedy, It's Hedley!) add to that a fantastic series of sight gags and word play, with a good dose of racism ridicule thrown in for good measure (...and they is so DUMB!)and it all makes for a brilliant mix of inspired film-making.

There are numerous scenes of note, but the scene of the townsfolk looking at their work and Bart chasing after the bad guy still makes my skin cold as they are genuinely moving moments.

best visual gag though has got to be the Wako Kid versus the goons at the railroad top drawer Much Love Mike