Rating of
4/4
Badges? We don't need no stinking badges
mdtinney - wrote on 09/23/09
"Blazing Saddles" is argubly Mel Brooks' best and funniest film. It also ranks up there with "Airplane!" and "The Naked Gun" as one of the funniest movies ever made. Brooks has been well known for his movie spoofs. He has spoofed Hitchcock suspense-thrillers ("High Anxiety"), science fiction movies ("Spaceballs"), old historical epics ("History of the World Part I"), and the horror genre twice ("Young Frankenstein" and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It"). With "Blazing Saddles" Brooks sends up the western genre and does a pretty darn good job of it. There are laughs galore in this picture with most of the jokes done in bad taste. This is one movie that shouldn't be watched on television. Rent it or catch it on cable because if you watch "Blazing Saddles" on a network station or a basic cable channel I imagine most of the crude jokes will be edited (especially the uproarious flatulent campfire scene). "Blazing Saddles" also has a great cast. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder are terrific as the new sheriff in town and his new sidekick who team up to save their town from being destroyed by the bad guys. Harvey Korman is a riot as the villainous Hedy Lamarr, uh I mean Hedley Lamarr; Madeline Kahn in a small but memorable Oscar-nominated performance as Lili Von Strupp, the Marlene Dietrich sendup; and Brooks himself cast himself in two very funny small parts as the Governor and a Yiddish-speaking Indian. Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and a pre-"Magnum P.I." John Hillerman also register big laughs throughout. With "Blazing Saddles", the Old West will never be the same again. This is an absolute must-see for fans of comedies with big laughs.
