Classic Review: Blazing Saddles (1974)

Mel Brooks’s anarchic Western comedy isn’t quite as funny as its reputation might suggest but it does display occasional flashes of brilliance. It was a highly ambitious project that tried to wrap its arms around several different challenging themes, as it took aim at the various prejudiced viewpoints that influenced the creation of the genre. Brooks was hardly the first director to point out the shortcomings of old fashioned Westerns but Blazing Saddles resonated with a wide audience in a way that low budget, independent productions didn’t. This was a genuine, bona fide hit that ordinary middle Americans were willing to fork out money to see and it didn’t cause middle-aged kooks to immediately raise their hackles. Brooks can be credited with helping to broaden the scope of the public debate over the presentation of racial minorities in mainstream films. That’s no small achievement, but it doesn’t necessarily make up for the fact that Brooks’ scattershot approach to comedy yields a wildly uneven product. 

The film’s plot ostensibly centers around the battle between corrupt Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) and the racist residents of the small town of Rock Ridge. Lamarr wishes to gain ownership over the town, as he knows that it will become a profitable tourist trap following the construction of a new railroad. In an attempt to push the current residents of the town away, he hires the African-American Bart (Little), to serve as the town’s new sheriff. The local population reacts negatively to this news and begin to antagonize Bart. With the help of his good friend Jim (Wilder), Bart discovers Lamarr’s diabolical scheme and plots to take him down. 

With Blazing Saddles, Brooks engages in a considerable amount of experimentation throughout, which occasionally causes it to feel completely undisciplined. This complete dismissal of the usual rules and regulations that govern comedic filmmaking should be thrilling but Brooks ends up reminding you why Robert McKee is such an influential figure. This would be far more consistently entertaining if it didn’t feel like Brooks was throwing everything at the wall and waiting to see what sticks. After a while, viewers get exhausted and lose patience with his aggressive, unpredictable approach. It becomes more and more difficult to distinguish between good and bad and individual scenes fail to naturally segue into one another. Any foundation that the story is built upon completely collapses in order to make way for random gags that he might have come up with on the spot and he loses sight of any of the through lines that the audience might have been following. 

In the midst of all this tumult, Madeline Kahn delivers one of her most uproariously funny performances as Lili von Shtupp, a seductive German chanteuse who functions as a parody of Marlene Dietrich. Kahn nails all of Dietrich’s mannerisms but also manages to take her mockery of the star’s persona one step further. She overlays her own tics on top of Dietrich’s mannerisms and allows us to dissect her own intellectual analysis of Dietrich’s on-screen presentation. She brings an additional layer of artificiality to a performance that’s already fairly arch and it’s difficult not to be taken in by her expert delivery of some tricky dialogue. When she’s on screen, the whole film is elevated to another level for just a couple of minutes and you keep waiting for her to re-enter the frame during the third act. She is so powerfully charismatic that she never really leaves your mind and that proves to be a bit of an issue during some of the sludgier passages. 

At the end of the day, Blazing Saddles does what it needs to do for fans of Brooks. He is a widely adored comedic genius and it’s hard to deny that the man is capable of crafting likable, endearing characters. With the passing of time, it has become clear that his films don’t actually hold together nearly as well when sitting down and trying to get through them in one sitting. 

still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Zita Short

I am passionate about screwball comedies from the 1930s and certain actresses from the Golden Age of Hollywood. I’ll aim to review new Netflix releases and write features, so expect a lot of romantic comedies and cult favourites.