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"…Damn Near Lost A $400 Hand Cart!" – Blazing Saddles on BLU
RAY
I can vividly remember seeing "Blazing Saddles" at
the cinema in Dublin in 1974. Even as the credits rolled - the entire audience
was screaming – helpless with laughter as bullwhip-cracks accompany a truly
cheesy yee-haw song crammed with cornball lyrics like "...Conquer bad guys
near and far…Bart was his name!"
But then as scene after scene unfolded and we began to
realize this latest Mel Brooks caper was a pisstake on racism using the Wild
West idiom - we also sat there in utter astonishment - and even excitement.
Here was a film breaking down barriers – tackling taboos and monsters - but
using comedy to do it (like Chaplin did with "The Dictator").
It’s 1874 and the town of Rock Ridge is building a railroad
through 200,000 acres of other people’s land and the local greedy District
Attorney (a stunning turn by Harvey Corman as Hedley Lemarr) needs a way to
frighten the locals so senseless – they’ll just up and leave. And one day while
he’s watching hangings out his window by a one-eyed Cyclops – Hedley hits on
the genius idea of making the new sheriff a black man.
Playing that part with just the right amount of inner-smirk
is Cleavon Little as Bart – a smart Negro outfoxing all the rednecks as he
rides into town sporting a Gold Sherriff Star, a Gucci side saddlebag and a
shiny new outfit. He’s teamed up with Gene Wilder as The Wako Kid - once the
fastest gunslinger in the West but now a drunk in jail. Cue an endless stream
of ball-breakingly funny Wild West set pieces and fabulous one-liners about
‘nig*ers’ and hick white attitudes…
"You use your tongue prettier than a $20 whore!"
Slim Pickens says after Hedley Lemarr recites a list of the worst scum ever he
wants assembled for a posse. There’s a preacher at a town meeting that says of
the impending doom – "We should act!" Then grabs his coat. "I'm
leaving!" A bearded dusty prospector speaks 'Genuine Frontier Gibberish'
you can’t understand. Slim Pickens helpfully suggests how to rid Rock Ridge of
the simple folk getting in the way of the railroad - "We'll ride into town
and kill every first born child!" and Hedley Lemarr replies "Too
Jewish!"
Even something as simple as Cleavon standing on the town
podium addressing an all-white crowd becomes loaded with black virility when he
says "Excuse me while I whip this out!" and all the white women duck
for cover. And then there’s Director and Co-Writer Mel Brooks as the Governor
who can’t string two words together (has GOV on his jacket) and keeps lusting
after his big-chested assistant (Robyn Hilton of Vixens fame). "Work!
Work! Work!" he complains as he signs another dodgy Bill into law.
But best of all is the famous farting sequence where all the
cowboys are sat around a campfire eating plates of beans - I remember some
people in the audience very nearly suffered a coronary they laughed that hard.
And equally as joyous is Alex Karras as the unstoppable MONGO –a huge
monosyllabic klutz that punches horses who annoy him. And on it goes like
"Airplane" – whomping you in the nuts with clever one-liners and
unbelievably edgy gags - all of which lead up to a Randolph Scott joke and a
very slapstick ending. Wow!
The print quality on the BLU RAY starts out very badly with
a lot of heavy grain shimmering and even the occasional line down the negative.
But after a short while it settles down. In truth (and rather disappointingly)
- you’d have to say the picture is good rather than great. However even
stretched to Full Aspect – "Blazing Saddles" still looks cool for a
1974 production. Audio is Dolby Digital: English 5.1, French 1-channel Mono and
German 1-channel Mono. Subtitles are English, French and German.
Extras include: Additional Scenes, Scene-Specific Commentary
by Mel Brooks, 2 Documentaries – Back In The Saddle and Intimate Portrait:
Madeline Kahn (Excerpt), Black Bart: 1975 Pilot Episode Of The Proposed TV
Series Spinoff and a Theatrical Trailer.
Re-watching "Blazing Saddles" on BLU RAY has been
a joy. It’s easily in the top 5 funniest films ever made – still brilliantly
anarchic – snotty – and fresh in a way that so many gross-out comedies of today
can’t even get near.
Two black men are sent up the railway line they’ve been
slaving on and sink in quicksand – Slim Pickens comes along and throws a rope.
But it’s not over the two drowning Negroes - but onto the handcart (his line
titles this review).
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