Amazon.co.uk Review
Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humour is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea.
--Jeff Shannon
Synopsis
A hilarious, madcap spoof of nearly every Hollywood Western convention, BLAZING SADDLES turns racism on its ear at every turn. When the sheriff of a small frontier town is killed, convict Bart (Cleavon Little) is appointed the first black sheriff of the all-white Rock Ridge by the evil Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) in a plot to chase the townspeople from their homes. The naive Sheriff Bart soon realizes from the less-than-cheery welcome that the townspeople (who all seem to be named Johnson) aren't prepared for a black sheriff and that he was never meant to succeed at all. Enlisting the sensitive town drunk (Gene Wilder), formerly the Waco Kid, Bart embarks on a plan to help save Rock Ridge. A scathing spoof that deals with racism, sexism, and bodily functions, BLAZING SADDLES offers a contrast between picture and words that is shocking, subversive, and hysterical. Director Mel Brooks makes two memorable appearances as both the sleazy governor and a Yiddish-speaking Sioux Indian chief, while Madeline Kahn does a sidesplitting Marlene Dietrich imitation as the town floozy-entertainer. Featuring fabulous comic turns also by Alex Karras, Slim Pickens, and the aformentioned Little, Brooks, Korman, and Wilder, BLAZING SADDLES is one of the raunchiest, funniest, and lovable films ever made.
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