Blazing Saddles (1974)
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89% of critics liked it
(46 reviews) -
89% of users liked it
(192,296 ratings)
Vulgar, crude, and occasionally scandalous in its racial humor, this hilarious bad-taste spoof of Westerns, co-written by Richard Pryor, features Cleavon Little as the first black sheriff of a stunned town scheduled for demolition by an encroaching railroad. Little and co-star Gene Wilder have great… More Vulgar, crude, and occasionally scandalous in its racial humor, this hilarious bad-taste spoof of Westerns, co-written by Richard Pryor, features Cleavon Little as the first black sheriff of a stunned town scheduled for demolition by an encroaching railroad. Little and co-star Gene Wilder have great chemistry, and the delightful supporting cast includes Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, and Madeline Kahn as a chanteuse modelled on Marlene Dietrich. As in Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), and High Anxiety (1977), director/writer Mel Brooks gives a burlesque spin to a classic Hollywood movie genre; in his own manic, Borscht Belt way, Brooks was a central player in revising classic genres in light of Seventies values and attitudes, an effort most often associated with such directors as Robert Altman and Peter Bogdanovich . Some of this film's sequences, notably a gaseous bean dinner around a campfire, have become comedy classics. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Directed By
- Mel Brooks
- Written By
- Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Unger
- Genres
- Western, Classics, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Feb 7, 1974 Wide
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures
Critic Reviews
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Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine
Goldarned if the whole fool enterprise is not worth the attention of any moviegoer with a penchant for what one actor, commenting on another's Gabby Hayes imitation, calls 'authentic western gibberish.'
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Don Druker, Chicago Reader
One of the funniest awful movies ever made.
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Variety Staff, Variety
Although Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder head a uniformly competent cast, pic is handily stolen by Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn. Kahn is simply terrific doing a Marlene Dietrich lampoon.
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, Time Out
The screenplay is credited to five writers, and it shows in the confused melange of styles.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
It's a crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Cleavon Little
as Bart
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Gene Wilder
as Jim the Waco Kid
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Slim Pickens
as Taggart
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Harvey Korman
as Hedley Lamarr
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David Huddleston
as Olson Johnson
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Mel Brooks
as Governor Lepetomane, Indian Chief
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Alex Karras
as Mongo
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Madeline Kahn
as Lili Von Shtupp
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Carol Arthur
as Harriett Johnson
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Richard Collier
as Dr. Sam Johnson
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Liam Dunn
as Reverend Johnson
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George Furth
as Van Johnson
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Burton Gilliam
as Lyle
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John Hillerman
as Howard Johnson
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Robyn Hilton
as Miss Stein
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Charles McGregor
as Charlie
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Claude Ennis Starrett Jr.
as Gabby Johnson
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Dom DeLuise
as Buddy Bizarre
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Don Megowan
as Gum-chewer
- Darrell Sandeen
- Carol DeLuise
- Count Basie
- Jack Starrett



