Excuse me while I whip this out: "Blazing Saddles"
Rare are the times I'll introduce a post with a quote from the movie at hand. But that line is ilarious, whether it's the first time you've seen that scene or the 50th.
Can't recall when I last saw this Mel Brooks classic, and I was curious to see if it still delivered the goods after all these years -- 24, to be precise. (Wow.) It's never been my favorite Brooks movie; that's "Young Frankenstein," or Frahnkensteen. But "Blazing Saddles" remains a movie that -- especially in the era of political correctness -- can win you over pretty quickly.
Our story: A devious villain wants to clear out a Western town for a new railroad. To rile up the townspeople, he names a black man sheriff. Little does he know that this sheriff is a smart fella, and the townspeople eventually learn what's afoot. All together now ... hijinks ensue.
I have to admit, "Saddles" started out a little flat for me this time. True, this line is gold: "I hired you people to try to get a little track laid, not to jump around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots!" But a lot of stuff seemed stale. Then we got to the outlaws busting up the town, and when the guy getting dragged by the horse delivered his throwaway line -- "That's the end of this suit!" -- I came around.
Soon Brooks showed up as the governor, complaining, "I didn't get a 'harumph' out of that guy!" Then came the sheriff (Cleavon Little) and his money line. Seriously, is there any occasion where you can't utter "Excuse me while I whip this out" and get a laugh (even if only from yourself)? We also get the fantastic Harvey Korman as villain Hedley Lamarr and Gene Wilder as the Waco Kid, the sheriff's buddy. Madeline Kahn got an Oscar nom as Lili von Shtupp, but I tend to think her performance is overrrated. Not bad, just not close to the funniest thing in this movie.
Yeah, "Saddles" will never be the definitive Brooks movie for me, but its still offers plenty of laughs over 90 minutes, including when the Western tale gives way to the Hollywood back lot. And when Korman tries to get a student discount on his movie ticket? Kills me every time.
posted by Jefferson @ 11:03 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
The whole movie is a smorgasbord of quotes. The casting of the movie borders on genius. Just like Fast Times, the edited TV version to make it run longer has some great added Mongo scenes. IMO, Brook's best script. Tried to watch it on AMC the other night but couldn't since they have now decided to bleep out the "N word". It still doesn't compare to Robin Hood: Men in Tights.
I can't watch anything on AMC -- largely because whenever you flip over there, you have about a 50-50 chance of hitting a commercial. Used to be a decent channel, showing movies unedited, uninterrupted and in widescreen if that was the original format. No more. Yes, they do show newer movies than they used to -- but they're all cut up, so what's the point? There are way too many uninterrupted movie channels, not to mention DVDs, to waste time on that nonsense.
When you watched AMC back then, was it after walking five miles to school? Uphill? (Both ways!)
And I didn't even mention the daily blizzards. Except in the summmers. That was locusts.
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