Blazing Saddles
Blazing Saddles is a Warner Bros. 1974 comedy starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. Director Mel Brooks appears in multiple supporting roles, and Slim Pickens, Alex Karras and Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman are also featured. Richard Pryor is a notable writer for this movie, and was originally selected as the star.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The film is a parody of the Western film genre. The story is set in an unidentified state in the western United States in 1874. Construction on a planned railroad runs into quicksand, and has to change its route, which will cause it to be built near the town of Rock Ridge. Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Korman)--not to be confused, as he often is in the film, with Hedy Lamarr--wants to buy up all the land cheap, but has to cause the townspeople to leave. He hires some thugs to scare them, which causes them to demand that the Governor appoint a sheriff. The Attorney General convinces the dim-witted governor (Brooks) to appoint Bart (Little), an African-American, as the new sheriff, believing this will so offend the townspeople they will either lynch him or they will leave.
With his quick wits and the assistance of over-the-hill, but still amazing, gunslinger Jim (Wilder), Bart overcomes the initially hostile reception and the seductions of wily temptress-for-hire Lili von Schtupp (Kahn) and inspires the townfolk to resist Lamarr's band of thugs. The movie uses some outrageously racist themes, but in a self aware way that successfully manages to mock the racist attitude itself, rather than the race in question.
One of its most famous scenes is of a group of cowboys sitting round a fire eating plates of beans; the soundtrack has repeated, loud evidence of the most notorious side effect of beans.
This film proved to be the most successful western film for years and a comedy classic. In 2000, the American Film Institute listed Blazing Saddles as #6 on its list of the all-time funniest American films.
Working titles for the film included Tex X and Black Bart. The above-mentioned Hedy Lamarr sued Warner Bros. for the unauthorized use of her name; a settlement was reached.
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