Blazing Saddles (30th anniversary edition) [1974]

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Editorial reviews

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

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Customer reviews

review by: moviebuff05 date: 2008-10-25 rating:
pretty good
my boyfriend had gone on for ages about how good this film was so when i went away for a week i stole it out his dvd case to watch. Mel Brooks has a particular style which is so recognisable that you don't even have to check who the director of the film is. The one highlight of this film for me is Gene Wilder whom I think is fabulous. To be honest the three stars predominately go to him rather than the actual film, which is humorous in its own way, although sadly there is something lacking. I felt the film would have more of a kick of constant and intelligent humour rahter than lukewarm gags here and there. However its a good enough film, so worth a watch.

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review by: date: 2008-10-15 rating:
Remains a gem - despite a desperate ending!
Hard to know where to start with a Mel Brooks satire of not only everything western, but everything about film making and movies. It's sense of school yard fun and nothing-is-sacred shocked and titillated the 1970's audience - but today the crude lines and the farts come as standard.


Racism and clichés about black men are naturally not left out - because Brooks, when has thought of a joke, cannot leave it out. In interviews he even seems to suggest that some are left in "because they are bad."

Brooks isn't a great comedian or a great film maker (there is continuity error here - involving kicking down a shell of a building - that would embarrass a student) because all he can do is copy. In copying he actually takes aboard a lot of the tricks and devices that make the original work: The bad guys get routed, the townsfolk realise that the black guy isn't so bad after all, that the washed up gunfighter is not washed-up after all, etc., etc.

Madeline Kahn, as a kind of Marlene Dietrich character, is the real winner with Cleavon Little (standing in for an "ill" Richard Prior) not being able to do much with his role other than keep a (mostly) straight face. Brooks repertory company of glad-to-have-a-jobs come on to do their bits with the one-note Slim Pickens, perhaps, getting the best of it.


The pilot for TV spin-off (the main extra) should be watched through the cracks of your fingers...

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review by: date: 2008-09-22 rating:
Top notch, amazingly good comedy
This is a fantastic film! It's incredibly funny, very rude and has some great performances!

There are brilliant one liners, great setpieces and some wonderfully surreal humour.

A first class comedy - a must see.

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review by: TenDown date: 2007-12-15 rating:
Blazing Saddles - best patrol movie
We had Blazing Saddles as a movie onboard our submarine back in the mid 80's. I think my watch must have seen it a dozen times, until the Control Room watch could recite any scene from it. It is brilliant. Doing the watch handover to the strains of "There was a sleepy town called Rock Ridge..." in the background was slightly surreal. Best line in the film, you almost miss it - "Bart! They said you was hung!" "And they was right...!"


review by: mazzarak date: 2007-11-14 rating:
They keep coming and going and going and coming, and always too soon...
Films by Mel Brooks are guaranteed to court controversy amongst the easily outraged. This film may not be a timeless classic, but in a world of political correctness gone mad, it is perfect escapism. In this age, where everything is offensive to someone, this fixes that by being offensive to pretty much everyone.

You know you're in for a treat when you hear the sheriff ride in shouting "What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is going on here?". Cleavon Little puts in a great turn in the only performance of his I have ever seen. Gene Wilder sails through his alcoholic gun-toting cowboy, and Dom De Luise has a great little camp cameo at the end when it all goes really silly.

Don't be offended by this, life is far too short.

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