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Our Mel Brooks series continues with his parody of the Western Genre – Blazing Saddles! Alison Anderson joins us for her first viewing of a film that took on racism head on in the 1970’s. When it comes to addressing racism, the film still really does a good job. When it comes to…other things, it might not have fared so well. Still, for the most part it holds up fabulously and is still wickedly funny.
From here, we are going to watch one more Mel Brooks film – Young Frankenstein.
| Blazing Saddles (1974) | |
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Rating: 7.7/10 (156,201 votes) Director: Mel Brooks Writer: Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman Stars: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens Runtime: 93 min Rated: R Genre: Comedy, Western Released: 07 Feb 1974 |
| Plot: In order to ruin a western town and steal their land, a corrupt politician appoints a black sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary. | |
Kyle Dekker joins us to watch a Western that is a not even a little bit subtle allegory for the behavior of Hollywood during the House UnAmerican Activities Committee hearings – 
We take a trip down Western lane with the John Wayne/John Ford classic, Stagecoach! This film basically made a superstar out of Wayne and defined the western genre for the next several decades. It features Ford’s favorite location – monument valley – as well as his favorite actor. In addition to Wayne, the movie also stars a lot of very well known character actors including Andy Devine and John Carradine. Interesting trivia: Wayne was not the first billed actor in this film. That was Claire Trevor!
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