How breaking the fourth wall allowed 'Blazing Saddles' to go wild

Gene Wilder (left) and Cleavon Little put the wild in west with 1974’s “Blazing Saddles.” (Warner Bros./MovieStillsDB.com)

Ultimate Movie Year finds the best released films from weekends past to build an all-star lineup of cinema.

"Blazing Saddles"
Released Feb. 7, 1974
Directed by Mel Brooks

Comedy is sometimes thought of as the last stage for free speech. Comics look to push the boundaries of good taste, while audiences are encouraged to allow themselves to laugh at bad taste.

While some comedians strive to use foul language and socially-unacceptable terms in their acts, what you say is less important than how you say it. It's a fine line between hilarity and disaster, but it's one that "Blazing Saddles," a film that employs three world-class racial slurs in the first five minutes, successfully navigates.

The plot is simple: Ambitious Attorney General Hedy Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) wants to force residents of western town Rock Ridge to abandon their homes so he can enrich himself by selling the land. He recruits a cowboy posse of rabble-rousers led by Taggert (Slim Pickens) and then appoints a black sheriff named Bart (Cleavon Little) to Rock Ridge, further alienating the townspeople. However, through wit, courage, and ingenuity, Bart begins to rally the townspeople to his side to save Rock Ridge.

On the surface, "Blazing Saddles" has a pretty standard but coherent plot for a western, similar to the dozens made by Warner Bros Studios in the decades prior. Casting a black man as the town sheriff is a twist that you could also mine for a serious drama, and wouldn't have been too out of place of the films of the day that address civil rights and racial injustice. As a bonus, the Academy also loves giving out Best Picture Oscars for that kind of movie (maybe not in the exact year of "The Godfather Part II," but you get the point). It's an easily understood conflict that everybody can see themselves in, so for Mel Brooks to take this premise and launch it to comedic extreme is the kind of crazy notion that, if it works, approaches genius.

Fortunately, it worked. Casually dropping racial and ethnic slurs in a mainstream movie is a bold move fraught with danger no matter what era the film is released in. Still, Brooks successfully navigates the cultural minefield by having the characters in the movie speak directly to the audience several times, thereby breaking the "fourth wall" that separates the film from the viewers. Since "Blazing Saddles" comes out only a few years after the Civil Rights battles of the late 60s, bringing the audience in on the jokes helps relieve the tension that may reside. It gives them permission to laugh as they are constantly reminded this is only a movie.

Another critical point is the film makes Sheriff Bart the smartest man in "Blazing Saddles," and it's not even close. Bart consistently uses his wit and ingenuity to get himself out of conflicts and situations in a comical way, like a live-action version of Warner Bros.' trickster cartoon character Bugs Bunny. At one point, Taggert sends the imposing brute Mongo (Alex Karras) after Bart, who dispatches him with a gimmicked candy-gram that blows up in his face. As it happens, the audience hears the iconic Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes intro to remind us "Blazing Saddles" is more cartoon than reality.

"Mongo was easy," Bart says afterward. "The bitch was inventing the candy-gram. Probably won't even give me credit for it."

As Bart alludes to above, even the period of the western is not set in stone, as Brooks continues to throw in references, characters, and even locations from history. As a last resort, Lamarr recruits the vilest villains in history, including Nazis, KKK members, and also the Mexican bandits from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre." This dastardly gang of malcontents finally gets into a fistfight with the townspeople, a climax that spills out into the Warner Bros. Studio backlot, as Brooks breaks down the ultimate fourth wall of the film.

Sensing the tide turning, Lamarr sneaks out of the studio lot to jump into a cab by ordering, "Drive me off of this picture." With Bart chasing him down on a horse, Lamarr hides in the movie theater playing … "Blazing Saddles," where the screen in front of him shows Bart arriving at the entrance to the cinema. By continually knocking down cinematic conventions and having the film circle in on itself, Brooks reinforces we are watching a literal movie for entertainment. Thus, the slurs and insults don't seem as "real" as they would have been. The villains have been defeated, the racist townspeople have learned the value of tolerance, and our hero rides off into the sunset in a limo.

The one moment where "Blazing Saddles" fails the age test is the interruption of "The French Mistake" film set, where Dom DeLuise plays Buddy Bizarre, a clearly gay director shooting a musical inspired by Busby Berkeley's extravagant production numbers. The dancers are all men in tuxedos, but are stereotypically homosexual and offering jokes made at their expense designed for the audience to laugh at, not with. The moments where the dancers bond and connect with the cowboy villains of the movie are telling. Sadly, while 1974 was more tolerant of blacks, Jews, Native Americans, Asians, the Irish, and morons culturally, punching down on the LGBTQ community was still in vogue.

While Buddy Bizarre hasn't aged well, Gene Wilder's Waco Kid is a sheer delight, and one of the best supporting comedic performances in history. A depressed alcoholic whose spirit is revived due to his friendship with Bart, The Kid never entirely drops his melancholy, but it's balanced with the twinkle of irrelevance and playfulness by Wilder that creates three-dimensional comedic performance. It also helps that the Kid is introduced with three of the best straight-up jokes you'll ever find in movies: "We're awake, but we're very confused," "I shoot with this hand," and "Little bastard shot me in the ass." Also brilliant, funny, and sexy is Madeline Khan as Lili von Shtupp, the German burlesque entertainer inspired by Marlene Dietrich.

The bold use of language in "Blazing Saddles" makes it unlikely a modern-day version could ever be replicated in a reactionary world. Hell, it barely made it onto screens in 1974 as studio executives were unsure it would find an audience. But found an audience it did, as "Blazing Saddles" became the top box office success of the year. To give you a sense of how big the movie was at the time, "Blazing Saddles" sold more tickets than the 1989 "Batman," Pixar's family classic "Finding Nemo," and any of the individual installments of "The Lord of the Rings" films. It's an incredible feat for a ridiculous western spoof, but like the movie itself, sometimes the rules aren't meant to be followed.

The Weekend: Selecting "Blazing Saddles" for our Ultimate Movie Year gets in one of film's all-time great comedies by one of the premiere comedy minds of his generation. As funny, impressive, and revered as "Blazing Saddles" is, Brooks followed it up later that same year with "Young Frankenstein," which is, amazingly, also one of the greatest film comedies of all time. "Saddles" placed sixth in the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Laughs" list of all-time comedies, while "Young Frankenstein" is 13. Another Brooks film, "The Producers" from 1968, is 11, so if you like fantasy drafting the Ultimate Movie Year, "Blazing Saddles" is a high-level pick.

Moving onto Week 6 releases, another acclaimed comedy premiered back in 1936. Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" (No. 33 on the AFI list) is one of the essential works of his career, as the classic Tramp character struggles to succeed during the Great Depression. Another Chaplin movie, "The Kid," was also released this weekend in 1921, and it's his first feature-length film as a director. As I mentioned with "City Lights," Chaplin is one of the early master filmmakers, especially in the field of comedy, but sadly I couldn't find a week to squeeze him into the Ultimate Movie Year. If there's ever a sequel, you can be sure I will be eyeing "The Gold Rush," "City Lights," and "Modern Times" for inclusion into the year.

Moving forward to 1940, the second feature-length animated picture from Walt Disney Studios debuted with the New York premiere of "Pinocchio." Following the success of "Snow White and the Seven Drawfes," "Pinocchio" is another adaptation of a classic fairy tale, and in my estimation, the best film of this particular Disney era with beautiful animation and the classic song, "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Yet another strong contender for the week and another cinematic classic is 1975's "Taxi Driver," Martin Scorcese's gritty tale of an angry New York city driver played by Robert De Niro. While Scorsese directed several films before this, "Taxi Driver" is a moody masterpiece with an iconic performance by De Niro. It became a cultural touchstone that received several Academy Award nominations for the principal creators and continues to be revered today. But when push came to shove, I went with the September release of "GoodFellas" as the Scorcese entry to the Ultimate Movie Year, but one can easily make a case for one of the half-dozen or so masterpieces the director released in his career.

Obviously, there are several top-of-the-list draft picks for Week Six of the release calendar, but there's also a deep bench of sentimental favorites that maybe don't reach the level of an Academy Award or AFI list, but are beloved and rewatched all the same. A group of young men must fight their way across New York City in 1979's "The Warriors" by Walter Hill; the era of Steven Seagal as the low-key action hero of the VHS era continued with 1990's "Hard to Kill;" Harrison Ford begins transitioning from blockbuster star to dramatic actor with 1985's "Witness;" Adam Sandler starred in his first comedy hit in 1995, "Billy Madison;" an Ultimate Movie Year selection returned for a sequel in 2004's "Barbershop 2: Back in Business;" John Woo's first American picture with John Travolta, "Broken Arrow," dropped in 1996; Mel Gibson remade a crime picture classic in 1999's "Payback;" the story of the United States Olympic hockey team's incredible upset victory "Miracle" came out in 2004 with Kurt Russell as coach Herb Brooks; Steve Martin donned the duster of Inspector Clouseau in the 2006 reboot "The Pink Panther," and the Coen Brothers recruited an all-star ensemble cast for 2016's "Hail Caesar!"

Since Valentine's Day is around the corner, there are also plenty of films dealing with romance and heartbreak, including the 1942 comedy with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, "Woman of the Year;" Dudley Moore starred in the 1984 remake of the Preston Sturges classic, "Unfaithfully Yours;" Woody Allen's "Hannah and Her Sisters" debuted in 1986; a young Julia Roberts was threatened by her husband in 1991's "Sleeping with the Enemy;" Will Smith showed anxious men how to date in the 2005 romantic comedy, "Hitch;" young stars navigated modern love in 2009's "He's Just Not That Into You;" and Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried found love in 2010's "Dear John."

The releases of 2017 tried to find something for every audience with a diverse but marketable triple bill: "John Wick: Chapter 2" for action and martial arts fans, "Fifty Shades Darker" for couples and enthusiasts of camp films, and "The LEGO Batman Movie" for families. While the "John Wick" sequel is an outlier here, the other two franchises found a comfortable spot on the calendar here. "The LEGO Movie" premiered this weekend in 2014, and the direct sequel "The LEGO Movie 2" debuted in 2019. Meanwhile, the first "Fifty Shades of Grey" opened around the same time frame (technically Week 7, but still in time for Valentine's Day) in 2015, and the finale "Fifty Shades Freed" completed the trilogy in 2018.

Finally, this week was a favorite one of Hannibal Lector, the genius serial killer character from the Thomas Harris books, who eventually became a legendary silver screen villain. "Hannibal," the long-awaited followup to "The Silence of the Lambs," was released in 2001 with Anthony Hopkins back in the starring role that won him an Academy Award. Gaspard Ulliel took over as a younger version of the character for "Hannibal Rising," a prequel that was released this weekend in 2007. As to why the MGM Studio thought the horror franchise would find box office success around Valentine's Day,

Next Week: "The Silence of the Lambs"

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