Wonderful Westerns: ‘Blazing Saddles’ (1974)
For this edition of Wonderful Westerns, we’re going into a subgenre of Westerns that’s very rarely seen, and that, my dear readers, is the Comedy Western. While many movies that fit into the category have been made, there really aren’t any that have stood the test of time — except for one: the Mel Brooks comedy classic Blazing Saddles.
In this satirical take on the classic studio Western, a black man named Bart (Cleavon Little) is named the new sheriff of the small frontier town named Rock Ridge by the corrupt State Attorney General Hedy — whoops, I mean, Hedley — Lamarr (Harvey Korman). With the help of drunken gunfighter the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), Sheriff Bart foils the well-spoken politician and earns respect in the small town.
Not only is the film a good parody of the classic Western, but it also tackles an issue that was prevalent in America at the time and still is today — racism — by showing a slightly more realistic version of the Old West. Even as a fan of the genre, I can’t deny that the portrayal of the Old West in most Westerns is far from being accurate. When it comes to the portrayal of African-Americans in Westerns, for the most part we’re at the level of Uncle Remus in Song of the South (1945).
Sheriff Bart may not be the first African-American lead in a Western, but it’s obvious that this role had a big impact. Of course, Bart has to deal with racist remarks from the townsfolk (one of them portrayed the Big Lebowski himself David Huddleston). Even after he saves the town from one of Lamarr’s goons, Mongo (Alex Carras), they still only compliment him in private. In spite of this, he manages to keep calm and maintain a form of command and authority, while also having a bit of fun. One of his best bits is when he first enters the town, and it’s obvious that the citizens aren’t too happy and threaten to kill him. How does he get it out of it? You have to see it to believe it.
Another outstanding bit of subtle satire of the race portrayals in Westerns is when Bart recalls how he and his family arrived out west. As part of a wagon train — in the loosest sense of the term — they’re ambushed by a group of Indians, and the chief rides up to Bart’s wagon and gives the family a pass. Why is this a great joke? The chief is played by Mel Brooks and is speaking Yiddish. This is a send up of how Indian characters in classic Westerns are very rarely played by Native American actors. They were often played by people who could “pass” as a Native American, like Ricardo Montalban, Charles Bronson, and Burt Lancaster. And the Yiddish dialogue is probably a satire of the dialogue usually given to them — which most certainly wasn’t an actual Native American language.
It also has a terrific cavalcade of comedic characters portrayed by some of the best actors of the time including Little, Wilder, Korman, classic character actor Slim Pickens, and even football star Alex Carras, who’s famous line was “Mongo only pawn in game of life.” There’s too many to count. But if I had to single out one best performance, it’s a tie between Jack Starrett as the crusty old prospector Gabby Johnson (an allusion to Gabby Hayes) and Madeline Kahn, one of my favorite actresses of all time, as Lili von Shtupp (a clear tribute to Marlene Dietrich). This role earned Kahn an Academy-Award nomination, which is very rarely seen when it comes to comedies.
Add in an awesome theme song sung by Frankie Laine — who, by the way, had no idea that this movie was a comedy when he recorded the song — and you’ve got something great. My words can’t possibly do this film any form of justice, so I highly recommend you give it a watch. But make sure you buy, rent, or download it; it’s just not the same on television.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLNQv19YpG4
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