I’m sure many of you are familiar with the film I chose to explore and with good reason! Blazing Saddles is written and directed by Mel Brooks and is one of the funniest, most exciting, and satirical films I’ve ever seen! The film opens in a small town set in the West, released in 1974 Westerns were incredibly popular at the time and this film was no exception! Our hero Bart (Cleavon Little) is a black man in the South, disadvantaged but very intelligent. The town sits on a valuable location and Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) a political man wants it for himself! Their sheriff has been killed by the goons hired by Hedley to drive them out so they reach out to their Governor none other than Mel Brooks himself! Governor William J. Lepetomane (Mel Brooks) appoints Bart after counsel from Hedley, thinking these good Western folks will not tolerate a black sheriff and will run him out of town! The rest of the film is Bart and his friend Jim (Gene Wilder) and his love interest Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) fighting Hedley and his goons to save the town! The film uses satire to explore public opinion in regards to politics, racism, land grabbing, and sexism. Every scene in this movie feels like it has a hidden message and often if you look close enough you’ll find one.
Bart
The film utilizes sarcasm on Bart’s part about racial tensions and class divisions; Bart often jokes with citizens of the town and uses slapstick humor with his buddy Jim. As in most Mel Brooks movies there is an element of seriousness to his satire, these are all very real issues of the time period and exploring them with humor allows viewers who might otherwise not notice the issues to feel free to dive in!
Governor Lepetomane and Hedley Lamarr
This film utilizes a lot of the same lighting techniques as the 40s and 50s, meaning three spots or five spots focused on the actors. However they shot a majority of the scenes outdoors in the daylight since it is easier to see that actors in natural light; this was very common in Westerns during the 70s. The idea was to bring the viewer out onto the plains with the actors and promote a sense of realism. Some of Von Shtupp’s scenes are shot boudoir style which adds to her allure! I personally prefer the daylight scenes, and the low camera angle used especially when they are lined up on their horses contemplating dastardly plans! This is seen a lot on ridges or hill tops when the riders rein in their steeds.
Indian Chief
Mel Brooks played multiple roles in his film, and one was the obviously racially stereotyped Chief seen above. During this time period Indians were being forced off their lands for settlers, and rounded up to be dealt with by the U.S. government, Brooks chose to explore the role this group played in the West and it’s conflicts with his trademark brash humor. I absolutely loved the speech patterns he used for this character, and the costumes were wonderful too! Eventually as in all good Westerns, Bart triumphs over the sneaky Hedley Lamarr and saves the town, they recognize his worth as a Sheriff, and Von Shtupp recognizes Bart as a true gentleman no matter the color of his skin. I highly recommend you watch this movie with some popcorn and some friends it is sure to have you laughing!
Sources
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/
http://nypost.com/2014/05/03/mel-brooks-10-things-you-never-knew-about-blazing-saddles/
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2014/05/01/blazing-saddles-mel-brooks/
http://www.filmsite.org/blaz.html
Art Through My Ages 
I have never heard of this film and enjoyed your blog. You did a very good job introducing the characters and explaining the movie. I like the included pictures of the cast. I found a few of them extremely humorous. Do you think this film was a good way to bring humor to extremely sensitive topics? I will be sure to look up this film. Thank you for the information.
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Great movie! Thanks for sharing this blog- I remember when I first started dating my wife and she said she had never seen this movie! Man oh man- did I change that quickly. Well that was six years ago, and we still manage to watch it at least once a year since then. Great movie pick, I agree with you and think this is a great movie. A lot of western movies in the 40-50-60’s were primarily action, adventure, and maybe if you were lucky a tiny tiny bit of romance. Not many directors were putting out movies that were comedic. But like always, Mel Brooks, hit satire right on the nose, and was able to use this comedy not only for humor and fun, but to comment on the racial and sex divides that the country was facing at that very time. I had never, until your blog, really thought about lighting especially in the early years of cinema. It is interesting that the director was still able to use lighting to help tell his story. Thank you for sharing that piece- I think it is great whether in door or out they utilized resources to highlight characters and portray themes. I personally really enjoyed the costumes that were used in this movie. While the costumes may not have been what was common in the actual time period, Mel Brooks did an amazing job being as stereotypical as possible with the suites of the men in business, the rugged but appealing clothing of Bart, the humorous clothing of the ladies, and the beautifully ornate and potentially not very accurate garb of the Indians. I really enjoyed the attention to detail and the use of costumes to continue the commentary and satire. When doing a little internet research on this movie I came across a fun web site entitled 10 things you never knew about blazing saddles. For example, did you know, that when Richard Pryor was helping Brooks write this movie Pryor told Brooks to not hold back on using the N-word. While Brooks thought it was getting to be too much Pryor said, “No, we are writing a story of racial prejudice. That’s the word, the only word. It’s profound, it’s real, and the more we use it from the rednecks, the more the victory of the black sheriff will resonate.” How interesting is that? If you are interested in the rest of the 10 things check it out here: http://nypost.com/2014/05/03/mel-brooks-10-things-you-never-knew-about-blazing-saddles/
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I have never heard of this film, however you did an awesome job analyzing the characters and the plot! I never knew that in the 80’s three through five lighting techniques were used to focus on the actors. Although this idea was very simple, I thought that this was a clever technique. Also, please keep in mind to use MLA citations to let us know where you got your information! Thanks for your blog!
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