Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks / US, 1974 / 93 min.
Racist jokes in an all-out comedy that confronted the US with its painful history – could you still do that today? For his unrestrained Western parody Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks – who turns 100 this year – hired Black comedian Richard Pryor to co-write the screenplay.
A Yiddish-speaking Native American, a Black sheriff in a Wild West town full of dyed-in-the-wool white racists, brothel madame Lily von Schtüpp as a parody of Marlene Dietrich’s performance in the Western Destry Rides Again: nothing was too outrageous for Mel Brooks in his aim of shocking the audience awake.
By that time, countless slapstick scenes, lame puns, one-liners, and parodies of the Western had passed in review, including a stream of racist dialogue containing the N-word. The latter caused a stir, even in the year the film was released. Was this acceptable? Whose side was the director on?
Blazing Saddles turned everything on its head and, in its grotesque exaggeration, held up a mirror to America: as a country built on racist prejudice, violence, and ruthless profiteering. Black co-screenwriter Richard Pryor, the founding father of stand-up comedy, later expressed regret for the frequent use of the N-word, as he stated in 1980.
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Details
Director
Mel Brooks
Production year
1974
Country
US
Original title
Blazing Saddles
Length
93 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
Eye Classics
Eye’s collection includes a wealth of classics. With the Eye Classics series, Eye brings film history even closer. Every week, we screen at least three classics from the collection under one recognisable name: Eye Classics.
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