Blazing Saddles (1974)

Blazing Saddles
Directed by Mel Brooks
Written by Mel Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor etc. etc.
1974/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Jim: [consoling Bart, who is upset that his attempts to be cordial with the citizens of Rock Ridge led to him being racially insulted] What did you expect? “Welcome, sonny”? “Make yourself at home”? “Marry my daughter”? You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.

Not politically correct, but very funny.

The tale takes place in 1874.  Bart (Cleavon Little) is working on a chain gang laying railroad tracks.  He is sent to investigate some quicksand up ahead, of course falling into it with a buddy.  Soon he is standing in line to be hung.  The railroad will have to be shifted and is now slated to go through the town of Rock Ridge.  Evil political hack Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) decides the best way to lower property values in Rock Ridge would be to send the town a Black sheriff.  Thus Bart is spared and heads to Rock Ridge.

Bart sets himself up in the jail and meets ex-sharpshooter “Waco Kid” Jim (Gene Wilder) who is now a common drunk.  But the two become friends and allies and Jim sobers up. It’s the two of them against the whole racist town.  But Bart has unusual smarts and is determined to do his job and protect the town.  Hedley hires saloon singer Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) to seduce Bart and find out what he’s up to.  This has the opposite effect and now Hedley has three foes instead of two.

Bart and Jim cook up an elaborate plan to build a replica of Rock Creek and lure the bad guys to the wrong town.  After an epic brawl, the fourth wall is breached and the fight takes over the Warner Bros. lot.  With Slim Pickins as the railroad foreman and Mel Brooks in a double role as randy Governor Le Petomane and another as an Indian Chief.

This movie seems to have grown on me over the years.  It is chock full of bad puns, fart jokes, double entendres, and physical humor.  Brooks got the final cut on the picture and left every outrageous bit in.  For example, the movie ends with a huge pie fight.  Some of it is kind of juvenile but mostly it’s a laugh a minute.  Recommended