When it comes to comedy, Mel Brooks might just be the best to ever make us laugh. With a career spanning more than seven decades, Brooks has given audiences countless hilarious films, many of them beloved classics that have helped define pop culture, including Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and the always enjoyable Spaceballs, the latter of which is getting a long-awaited sequel next year. But even in a filmography of famous and incredible works, there is one particular comedy that stands out above them all both for how funny it is and for its controversial nature — and time is running out to stream it on HBO Max.
Blazing Saddles is set to depart HBO Max on February 28th, giving subscribers just a few more days to stream this iconic comedy that is considered so significant that it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2006. directed and co-written by Brooks, the film is a satirical Western comedy that takes on (and mocks) not only some classic tropes of Hollywood Westerns, but racism and bigotry as well. Brooks also appears in the film, which also stars Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, David Huddleston, Claude Ennis Starrett Jr., Harvey Korman, and Madeline Kahn.
Blazing Saddles is Considered Controversial, But Uses Its Satire and Humor To Make Serious Points
Blazing Saddles has been a little controversial even from its release in 1974. In the film, Little plays Bart, the first black sheriff of the frontier town Rock Ridge that is about to be destroyed to make way for a new railroad. At first, the townsfolk are very racist towards Bart, but they warm up to him once they realize that he — along with his alcoholic gunfighter friend (Wilder) — may just be their only hope against the corporate thugs sent to get rid of the town’s population. While the description gives you a taste of what the film is about, the reality is much more interesting. Blazing Saddles extensively utilizes a combination of vulgar humor, offensive stereotypes, and racial slurs as part of its deep satire of racism. There were even scenes that the studio demanded that Brooks cut, though the filmmaker notably stood his ground for most of them.
However, while the slurs and stereotypes pushed buttons (as they should), Blazing Saddles is an example of a piece of art doing so not simply for shock value, but to hold up a mirror and in turn call out racist views and practices in both real life and Hollywood at the time — and, unfortunately, in contemporary times as well. By showing how ridiculous these narrow attitudes are, Blazing Saddles is making a point, vilifying and shaming bigotry rather than normalizing or glorifying it. It’s a major difference. Its usage may be crude — and to be clear, there is plenty of crude humor in Blazing Saddles — but there is something very sneaky and brilliant about using laughter to make people really look at themselves. It’s a huge part of why the film is an enduring classic, and one that should be seen before it leaves HBO Max.
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