The 1974 film Blazing Saddles written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is a well-developed parody of a western classical film. The film was known for being politically incorrect and comical. Blazing Saddles is a part of the western and comedy genres. In Brook’s film, he incorporates excessive use of racism and sexism. Mel Brooks is known for taking social content and making fun of it. Some viewers may see this film as vulgar.
While Blazing Saddles is a parody of a classical western, the movie has original western content from beginning to the end. The original content needed for a film to be a classical western is: conquest of the wilderness of territorial rights, saloon, sheriff and jailhouse, and small town (western films, nd). Also, some western films include Native Americans. In the Blazing Saddles film, the elements saw were wilderness landscape, sheriff, jailhouse, good versus bad, Indians, and several hostile scenes.
As mentioned earlier, this film is a parody of a classical American western. A parody can be defined as a piece of work that uses exaggeration to show flaws and absurdities of a social issue (Parody, nd). Parodies are said not to be criticism, but a comment on the issue. A parody should be used for entertainment and should not be used as negative judgment (parody, nd). Mel Brooks used the parody for the black sheriff, corrupt government officials, Indians, and sexism of women. Due to the parody film using comedy, it is almost “seems” acceptable for the movie to use language according to the historical era.
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In this film analysis, there will be six topics of discussion. The six topics are: genre pattern, stereotypical characters, icons, social function, and historical context. The analysis will also touch on how the film is a slap stick comedy in disguise without the silly clowns and pies. Mel Brooks executed a strong parody of a classical film while bringing to the attention social and political unjust issues.
In the western genre, there should be content such as sheriff, journey through the wilderness, small town, jailhouse, dance hall, and good vs bad. Almost always, there are trains or horses in western films used for transportation. Also, there is usually a showdown between good vs bad to conclude the movie. The cowboys in these movie are gunslingers and traditionally wear cowboy hats and bandannas. Native Americans are always a recurring actors in the western genre.
A common plot for a western genre is the construction of a railroad on the wild frontier. In the film Blazing Saddles, Mel Brooks begins the movie with a crew of black men building a railroad. The crew is oversaw by a white chain gang. The setting for this scene in located in the West of 1874. They are seen working in the hot sun laying down track for the railway. They are requested by the white men to sing negro spirituals. Furthermore, the parody is ignited when one of the white men says “Now come on boys, where’s your spirit? I don’t hear no singin’. When you were slaves, you sang like birds. Go on. How ’bout ‘a good ole nigger work song?” While the black men sung, the white men interrupt and say not that type of song! The white men began singing their song while dancing creating a comical scene (Filmsite Movie Review: Blazing Saddles, nd).
A common theme for the western genre is a protagonist who usually acts out a selfish motive during the story. A selfish motive during the story in Blazing Saddles is when two corrupt government officials, the attorney general and assistant governor, realizes the town of Rock Ridge lies in the middle of the proposed rail track. They come up with a crooked political scheme to snatch the land and resell it. The language in the film is “…when that railroad goes through Rock Ridge, that land will be worth millions and I want it” (Filmsite Movie Review: Blazing Saddles, nd). The land snatching of the town of Rock Ridge is the beginning to the climax of the movie. Bart, one of the main characters who is a black man who worked on the railroad will soon to be elected as sheriff from the two corrupt government officials.
Bart, the African American sheriff in the film is a clever character who is a master manipulator. He has a way of tricking people into questioning what is actually happening. For example, when Bart rode into town as sheriff for the first time on his nag and introduced himself to the racist town, they threatened to shoot him. He played reverse psychology on the town’s people by pointing the gun to himself and saying “Hold it. The next man makes a move, the nigger gets it…Drop it! For I swear, I’ll blow this nigger’s head all over this town. Oh Lordy-lord, he’s desperate. Do what he say. Do what he say” (Filmsite Movie Review: Blazing Saddles, nd). In the film he turns out to be a very likeable guy and a town savior.
Governor Leptomane, is played by writer and director Mel Brooks. The governor is a typical example of satire and is sex obsessed. He is not a very smart or effective governor. He in the movie is seen signing a bill to steal 200,000 acres of Native American territory which is deemed “unsafe.” Additionally he signs a bill to turn a state hospital into a gambling casino for the insane. While satire is meant to be funny, Mel Brooks does a great job of making the character comical and not judgmental or negative.
Mongo is a classical stereotypical character in the film. The townspeople are unsure if Mongo is a human being or something exotic. He has strength of ten men and will do what he instructed to. The townspeople first decided to use Mongo to destroy Bart. Of course, Bart outsmarted Mongo by giving him a box of candies and they become allies.
Lili Von Shtupp is a sex symbol the entire film. She is only in a couple of scenes throughout the movie. In comparison with Hedley Lamarr he is seen as the bad guy.
A clever icon in the film is Hedley Lamarr’s froggy. While sitting in a bubble bath being the evil villian that he is, he suddenly is in a frantic state looking for his frog bath toy. When he finally receives the froggy, the audience can see how immature and insecure he is. The term insecure is used because he seems to be a bad guy who serves the purpose of achieving his motive, but he secretly is asking a frog bath toy if it still loves him.
Another icon in the film is the replicated town Bart and the townspeople created. This icon was showing how impressive and smart Bart actually is. It also shows the use to be “white’s only” townspeople and the black sheriff working together to save the town. Before the implementation of the replicated town, the townspeople was not going to allow Bart to save the town. They gave him a chance to save their own skin while putting prejudice aside.
There are several social functions in the movie that display social and political unjust. The quotes from the film talks about sexism, racism, and gay men. All of the scenes in the film that display social function highlights the political environment.
When the sex obsessed governor was sitting with colleagues in his office while signing bills, he had his face in between Lili Von Shtupp breast. Considering the political circumstances in the 1970s the supreme court was battling women’s right issues. Furthermore, the governor is openly engaging in sexual activity with women while the political environment is in an uproar. This clip of the movie also displays satire of the federal government.
When it is time to take over the town, Taggart attempts to rally up gunslingers and viscous criminals. When one of his peers ask what would be the qualifications, Taggart responds with “rape, murder, arson, and rape… i like rape” (Filmsite Movie Review: Blazing Saddles, nd). In the 1970s women were fighting for reproductive rights and to be recognized as equal to men, there was also an anti-rape campaign. The anti rape movement came around 1974 when a horrifying rape story hits the streets in America.
In the governor’s office, he signed a bill to take 200,000 acres of Native American land. One of the governors peers stated “they’re such children… the Indians would be given paddle-toys in exchange for the land” (Filmsite Movie Review: Blazing Saddles, nd). In the 1970s, there were several lawsuits pending against the white race for illegally taking the land of native americans. Also, their intelligence was assaulted, treating them as the minorities they already were.
Lastly, as expected in the film, there was heavy racial slur used towards the black race and the sheriff. In a couple of the scenes, they actors are using the term nigger to describe the black race. In the 1970s the black race was making history. There were black citizens who were being elected as government officials. While the law was passed to treat African Americans equally, prejudice still remained.
