Blazing Saddles- Directed by Mel Brooks - 1974-Starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, and Slim Pickens

 

Blazing Saddles- Directed by Mel Brooks - 1974-Starring Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, and Slim Pickens 

Blazing Saddles is set in the American west in 1874.

 Slavery just ended a few years ago and railroad construction is opening the opportunity for new found wealth for those prepared to capitalize.

  The opening scene centers on a group of former slaves and imported Chinese workers laying track in 114 degrees Fahrenheit. When a Chinese worker collapses, the track forman says "Doc that Chink a days pay for napping on the job". Then he asks the black workers to "sing a good old nigger work song like when you were slaves"

When I first saw Blazing Saddles in the theatre 50 years ago I thought it was one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Now streaming it on a tablet, I still think that. The racially abusive language is still a little shocking.

The plot centers on the efforts of Hedley Lammar, brilliantly played by Harvey Korman, to get control of the land where the railroad will go through, in the town of Rock Ridge and the efforts lead by Bart, Clevon Little is a complete success in the role, to stop him.

In the  American frontier  a new railroad under construction will have to be rerouted through the town of Rock Ridge to avoid quicksand. Realizing this will make Rock Ridge worth millions, territorial attorney general Hedley Lamarr plans to force Rock Ridge's residents out of the town and sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky Taggart, to shoot the sheriff and trash the town.

The townspeople demand that Governor William J. Le Petomane, played by Mel Brooks,vappoint a new sheriff to protect them. Lamarr persuades dim-witted Le Petomane to appoint Bart, a black railroad worker about to be executed for assaulting Taggart. A black sheriff, Lamarr reasons, will offend the townspeople, create chaos and leave Rock Ridge at his mercy.

After an initial hostile reception in which he takes himself "hostage" to escape, Bart relies on his quick wits and the assistance of Jim, an alcoholic gunslinger known as the "Waco Kid", played by Gene Wilder, to overcome the townspeople's hostility. Bart subdues Mongo, an immensely strong and dim-witted, yet philosophical henchman sent to kill him, then outwits German seductress-for-hire Lili Von Shtupp at her own game, with Lili falling in love with him.

Upon release, Mongo vaguely informs Bart of Lamarr's connection to the railroad, so Bart and Jim visit the railroad worksite and discover from Bart's best friend Charlie that the railway is planned to go through Rock Ridge. Taggart and his men arrive to kill Bart, but Jim outshoots them and forces their retreat. Furious that his schemes have backfired, Lamarr recruits an army of thugs, including common criminals, motorcycle gangsters, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazi soldiers, and Methodists.

East of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the White townspeople to the black, Chinese, and Irish railroad workers who have all agreed to help them in exchange for acceptance by the community, and explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's army. They labor all night to build a perfect copy of the town as a diversion. When Bart realizes it will not be enough to fool the villains, the townsfolk construct copies of themselves.

Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway", forcing the raiding party to send for change to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town and its population of dummies, which have been booby trapped with dynamite. After Jim detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, the Rock Ridgers attack the villains with Lili singing with the Nazi soldiers.

The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and Lamarr's thugs literally breaks the fourth wall and bursts onto a neighboring movie set where director Buddy Bizarre is filming a Busby Berkeley-style top-hat-and-tails musical number. Then the brawl spreads into the studio commissary for a food fight and spills out of the Warner Bros. film lot onto the streets of Burbank.

Lamarr escapes the brawl and takes a taxi to hide at Mann's Chinese Theatre which is showing the premiere of Blazing Saddles.

 

Available on Amazon Prime Video