Blazing Saddles

I agree, one of the best comedies ever made. No way in hell would this film be made today. Ateast not in its current state.

I probably like YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN more, but this is right up there. Gene Wilder, as usual, just kills it here in every scene, especially his introduction. If I come across this while channel surfing, I usually have to watch it to the end.

I also enjoy referencing "a shitload of dimes" whenever I'm short on change.

As phenomenal as the whole movie is, Dom DeLuise's two minutes of screentime is what kills me the most.

"Watch! Me! FAGGOTS!"

Maybe back when the Farrelly Brothers were in their prime, but certainly not today.

The only thing that keeps this slightly behind Young Frankenstein for me is that I'm not a huge fan of the breaking of the fourth wall at the end. It just seems like a lazy way out.

Funniest film ever made.

Last month, I was gracious enough to meet the editor, Danford Greene. He reviewed a short of mine and his comments (all positive) really resonated with me because I love the film so much.

Yeah, self-indulgence over. Just was awesome to meet someone from this, and receive high praise from said person.

Cleavon Little saying: "Where the white women at?" to the KKK guys cracks me up every time.

This is probably my favorite Brooks film. I enjoy all of his films except for Life Stinks and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.

I only searched for it because I knew I had posted in one, but here is an old thread from 2004. Not worth bumping though.

Love this film. It hits all the right notes. It's social commentary wrapped up in a comedy which is sometimes the only way to get through to some people.

As much as I love the recruitment scene ("You said rape twice." "I like rape."), it's always Lili Von Shtupp's lines that stick in my head:

"I've been with thousands of men...again and again. They promise the moon. They're always coming and going and going and coming... and always too soon.
Right, girls?"

I just saw this again with my friend last night, and it's still one of the funniest films ever.

Just about everything Slim Pickens says or does is hilarious. "You're supposed to be working! Not dancin' around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots!"

The town waiting for the Sheriff is also killer.

"What did he say?" "He said the sheriff is near!"

All of this, and the scene when Mel Brooks stands up in his chair, puts his leg on it, and it's revealed that he's not wearing any pants. That scene has always made me laugh since it's so out of left field.

The entire climax is genius inspired hilarity.

Just talking about this with a co-worker today....just a great comedy. I agree that YF gets point because it holds all the way through; while BS's ending is funny enough, it just isn't quite as thematically consistent as YF. But that's quibbling...

I just wish I could use my favorite line from the film - "We'll take the chinks and the niggers, but NOT the Irish!" - more often without risking an ass-kicking or firing.

My favorite Cleavon Little delivery: "Well to tell a family secret, my grandmother was Dutch."

Way back when, Mel Brooks was being interviewed on the old Bob Costas Later show. He said there was a line they made him cut out. When Lilly von Shtupp is saying "It's twue...It's twue!" to Bart, he was originally supposed to say "You're sucking my arm."

Not sure if that's true or not, but I remember the crew on the Later show completely losing it when he told the story.

Lady please... I am NOT from Havanna!

....

What do you do for fun?

Play chess... Screw.

Let's play chess.

.....

What did you expect? These are people of the land. The common clay of the new west. You know... Morons.

........

Yeah. Just the best.

One thing. I hope I'm not the only one who felt that Madeline Khan in this film completely informed Diane Kruger's work in Inglourious Basterds.

Well, I felt she was kinda doing a riff on Ingrid Bergman, so it probably goes on down the line.

Are you crazy, don't you know that man is a ni?

Yep one of those cornerstone comedies I grew up with that I can watch over and over again. The pairing of Brooks whacky sensibilities with Richard Pryors stinging social commentary really does make for pure concentrated comedic genius.

While I love the hell out of Little in this, there's some parallel universe where this was the very first paring of Wilder and Pryor too - now that would've been something to see.

This may also be Harvey Kormans best work, almost every line delivery is fucking hilarious. I never stop utterly wetting myself when he puts the mint in his mouth and starts cackling maniacally only to suddenly start choking.

How many films have the women stampeded and the cattle raped while we're at it?

...and then of course there's the greatest moment of frontier gibberish ever put to film...

"You get back here you pious candy-ass sidewinder. Ain't no way that nobody is gonna' to leave this town. Hell, I was born here, an' I was raished here, an' dad gum it, I am gonna die here, an no sidewindin bushwackin, hornswaglin, cracker croaker is gonna rouin me biscuit cutter."

Yep, this movie is tatooed on my dna.

Now it's a time of great decision,
Are we to stay or up and quit?
There's no avoicing this conclusion,
Our town is turning into shiiiit.

Saw this the night before its official opening at a packed Bruin Theater in Westwood, and while I also prefer Young Frankenstein as a film, I have never had a moviegoing experience to compare with the full-house hilarity that night.

"Oh Lord! Do we have the strength to carry out this mighty task in one night?! Or are we just jerking off? Amen."

Still the only prayer I will ever utter aloud.

If not for the weak fourth wall stuff, this would easily top Young Frankenstein for my favorite Brooks film. And even then, the French Mistake stuff is amazing. Especially the "I'm parked over by the commissary" bit.

I do appreciate that once we go back into the movie, Wilder is sitting there holding the popcorn he bought.

Just want to add my love for this film overall it's fantastic.

However I agree with Richard here the ending is kind of a cop out, Monty Python and the Holy Grail does the same thing and both movies are kind of spoilt for it..

Having said that Holy Grail is my favorate Python Film.

This and Young Frankenstein are probably the peaks. Everything else I can take or leave. I have a blind spot for Brooks. He tries too hard a lot of the time. Pauline Kael said something to the effect that Brooks' style is to grab you by the lapels and scream "LAUGH! IT'S FUNNY!", and that makes you laugh but it also makes you stop laughing.

That said, he made me lose my shit on, of all things, Mad About You. "HAVE SOME JUICE! IT'S A BLEND BUT IT'S VERY PEACHY! YOU GOTTA WATCH THE PEACH, IT'S LIKE HITLER!" while Reiser is off to the side pinching his lips to keep from completely losing it.

At least Holy Grail uses it as the final joke and ends the film right there.

Agreed: Saddles does seem to use it more as a way to get them out of a bind whereas there was no way in hell the Pythons were going to do an epic battle to end the film.

For me, the difference is that Holy Grail is playing with the whole self-aware idea all through the film, from the opening credits to things like the coconuts and the killer rabbit, to characters commenting on the story at the same time they participate in it (like the "Sir Robin" song, or Launcelot's analysis of his "performance"), so the ending is almost the natural progression. In Blazing Saddles, it really does just come out of nowhere at the end.

But let's face it, even if a movie is only the second-funniest film that Mel Brooks ever made, that's not exactly damning with faint praise (The Producers might actually be my favorite of his, but that's largely because I saw it as a kid, and it was one of the first "grown-up" movies I can remember seeing).

I rank The Producers as his best because it's an original story and doesn't rely on being a spoof for its humor. Then comes Frankenstein for being, in my mind, a more complete script than Blazing Saddles. Then comes Saddles and High Anxiety and then I choose to believe he just stopped making movies.

Agreed; I thought I was the only one that didn't like Spaceballs. I remember sitting through Silent Movie in a fairly packed theatre that was for the most part... well, silent. Cringe-worthy experience.

As Justin said, the fourth wall breaking stuff has The French Mistake in it, so its every transgression is forgiven.

And the interplay between Harvey Korman and Slim Pickens is some of the best comedy ever put to film. Just glorious.

Harvey Korman is the only thing keeping this film from 'perfect' status. I'm sorry, but his froggy sequence is jaw-droppingly bad.

I'll agree that this film, 'Young Frankenstein', and 'The Producers' are probably his best, but I also have a soft spot for 'Silent Movie'. The Marcel Marceau moment is too perfect.

I love the fourth-wall-breaking. It's pure intentional Looney Tunes (which is even set up earlier in the film with the Candygram sequence).

I think everyone agrees that Brooks' Brilliant trilogy is Producers, Saddles and Frankenstein, but I'll admit I laugh a shitload during History of the World Part I, even when I know I shouldn't.

High Anxiety is also great. While it's not as good as his 70's classics and maybe it's due to nostalgia, I really enjoy Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

Korman's the right antagonist for this as well. His deadpan seriousness suits Brook's material perfectly.

History of the World part 1 started off great but fell apart when it got to Rome. The pot jokes just seemed forced.

Mongo punching out the horse did me in when I was a kid. That, and the cowboys sitting around the fire, eating beans and farting up a storm.

What's weird is that the farting scene is cut out when aired on Television.

I loved Spaceballs when I first saw it. Now I can't bear to sit through it. And Silent Movie has its moments, but I think High Anxiety is a stronger film. And Brooks' musical number just kills. "Key change!"

Forgot to mention The Twelve Chairs. Probably the most un-Mel Brooks movie he ever did. It'd be interesting to see where his career would have gone without the massive success of Saddles and Frankenstein and the resulting "Master of the Genre Spoof" label it got him, because Producers and Twelve Chairs are pretty straight-forward comedies without the crutch of making fun of a specific film or type of film.

"they lose me after the bunker scene"

"Evewryone is equal in my eye"

"You Teutonic.. TWAT"

"are we awake?"
"that depends, are we...black"
"yes we are"
"then we're awake"

"This Bill will be a giant step forward in the treatment of the insane gambler."

"Well, my name is Jim; but most people call me... Jim"

Le petomane, Hedley Lamarr (What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You'll be able to sue her!)

One town, one surname, the 1 flavour ice-cream shop. Brooks as the Yiddish indian chief.

I remember once Brooks saying (actor's studio i think) that Pryor wrote all the slapstick stuff and Brooks wrote the n-bomb gags, but who knows if he's telling the truth.

Personally I prefer Saddles to YF - not that I don't love YF, it's just I was allowed to watch Saddles when I was about 7 years old and it blew me away - weirdly the farting scene fell flat even with my fart obsessed 7 year old self.

The fourth wall finale works (IMHO) as it gives Korman a chance to really have some fun: "Student?" as well as 2 of the greatest moments in cinema "get your pies for the great pie-fight!" as well as the aforementioned "WATCH.ME.FAGGOTS" plus it allowed them to deviate from the standard schmaltzy western finish (which is still there).

I also think that mel brooks is one of the very best comdey directors of all time - and even some of his weaker moments are still head and shoulders above whatever judd apatow is churning out or the teen gross-out du jour.

Do yourself a favour and revisit:

Men in tights
12 chairs
high anxiety
spaceballs ( i know people (4-5) who say this is their all time favourite film)

Spaceballs is unfairly elevated when you only poll 4-5 year-olds. For the rest of us, it's weak.

'Spaceballs' has a couple of good laughs in it, that's it. I remember the entire theater howling during the opening minute-long flyby of MEGAMAID, but it was pretty-much all downhill from there.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit it was years before I realized the "laurel and hearty handshake" joke.

Spaceballs gets a minor pass from me for the amazing Alien gag.

High Anxiety is only so-so with me. Oddly enough, the weak link are the Madeline Kahn scenes. The bit where she and Brooks try to get through airport security by impersonating an old Jewish couple brings the movie to a screeching halt. On the other hand, everything with Nurse Diesel is fucking gold.

Matrix, your avatar is one for the ages.

I bought this on Blu-ray a couple of months ago. Brooks repeats the story here that he was writing Cleavon Little and Richard Pryor was writing Mungo. For me, it kinda drags anytime the towns people get involved. All those Johnsons are just standing around.

I always crack up at the executioner hanging the man in the wheelchair or the guy and the horse. I could sing the theme song all day. I laugh at the Sheriff's introduction to the town folks. I just like Cleavon Little. I would like to have seen a universe where he worked better roles.

But as someone said above, it really is Harvey Korman's performance that steals the show. The repeated window jokes, cough drop jokes, and anything involving him and Slim Pickins. Sadly, his Hitler is the one thing I don't like about the original Producers. You can't top that medley from the 2005 version.

Overall of Brook's film, I have to put this at 2, with Young Frankenstein coming first.

Um, that wasn't Harvey Korman as Hitler in The Producers, that was Dick Shawn, and he, like most everything else in the film, simply rolls over the musical version.

Yeah, the musical is a fun, little alt-universe version, but the original is the Real Deal. Zero Mostel and, particuarly, Gene Wilder, school Lane and Broderick every which way to Sunday.

Oh a hundred times yes. If I started with the quotes, I'd be here all day.

Pretty sure Kahn was doing a riff on Marlene Dietrich. Specifically from this scene in Destry Rides Again.

To this day I confuse Dietrich and Kahn because of these two movies. It's led to some very interesting discussions about film.


I love Blazing Saddles though. Quotable years later and still (maybe sadly) relevant.

"Mongo only pawn in game of life."

I prefer Young Frankenstein, but you can't go wrong with either. I know, a really bold statement to make.

Harumph!

I stand corrected! I picked up the original Producers from Blockbuster (when my town still had one) and I didn't have nearly as much fun. Maybe I watched it on a bad day?

Maybe. Its pacing is very much of the time, which may or may not work for everyone.