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Blazing Saddles (1974)

tomatometer

89

Average Rating: 8/10
Reviews Counted: 46
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 5

No consensus yet.

80

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

audience

89

liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 192,296

My Rating

Movie Info

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

Aug 27, 1997

Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

All Critics (46) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (5) | DVD (34)

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.'

August 22, 2008 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comments (2)
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

One of the funniest awful movies ever made.

April 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

April 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment (1)
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out.

May 20, 2003 Comments (5)
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Kids may not get all of Brooks' Old West parody.

January 1, 2011 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

A lewd spoof of westerns and racial prejudice; enough laughs to cover the fact that it is, essentially, a stupid movie.

April 2, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comments (7)
TV Guide's Movie Guide

It's tough to beat as an outrageously phlegmy deposit in Hollywood's spittoon.

April 2, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

The screenplay is credited to five writers, and it shows in the confused melange of styles.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comments (3)

I laughed and laughed while viewing this again. Maybe part of it was nostalgia, but part of it came from a refreshing feeling of being shocked once more.

May 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Should I also remind you of the campfire scene and the baked beans? I thought not. (HD-DVD Edition)

May 21, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...at once a parody of old Western movies and a social satire on race and prejudice.

May 21, 2006 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Madeline Kahn was nominated for the Supporting Actress Oscar for her wonderful parody of all the cabaret singers that Dietrich used to play, including the comedy-Western Destry Rides Again.

April 29, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Chalk up Blazing Saddles as only a lampoon of Hollywood westerns and you miss the point by a Texas mile.... Its humor is the palliative that lets Brooks mock prejudices and, with gloves off, prejudiced people.

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

Warner Home Video puts Blazing Saddles back on the shelves with a 30th Anniversary Special Edition that's well worth a '****load of dimes,' or at least its sticker price, to replace the inferior DVD that's been out since 1997.

April 5, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDJournal.com | Comment
DVDJournal.com

Whacked out and brilliant. Eminently rewatchable.

November 10, 2005 Comment
Needcoffee.com

Still good for a few chuckles, but I find it somewhat overrated.

October 21, 2005 Full Review Source: FulvueDrive-in.com | Comment
FulvueDrive-in.com

Somehow the raunchy humor seemed to pass me by.

August 14, 2005 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comments (3)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Crass and messy, but intermittently funny, spoof of the Western genre that has not held up as well as Brooks' other film in 1974, Young Frankenstein, a spoof of horror flicks

June 30, 2005 Comment

The funniest Mel Brooks film, Clevevon Little, who died far too young, is a comic genius. With the success of The Producers on Broadway maybe we can expect a stage version of Saddles which I'd pay good money to see.

December 27, 2004 Comment
Entertainment Insiders
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Blazing Saddles

Western satire and racial vulgarity are the crux of what makes Mel Brooks's Western spoof funny. The story, set in 1874 (100 years prior to the film's release), is of Bart (Broadway star Cleavon Little), an African-American slave in the Old West. After being appointed sheriff by political boss Hedley Lamarr (Harvey

September 10, 2011
spielberg00
Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

Blazing Saddles is an american classic, it may be one of the funniest spoofs ever made, and is also one of Mel Brooks best film.

August 17, 2011
DreamExtractor
Brad Wright

Super Reviewer

    1. Lyle: Come on, boys. Where's your spirit? I don't hear no singing. When you was slaves, you sang like birds. Come on, how about a gold ole nigger work song?
    2. Bart: I get no kick from champagne. [back up singers vocalize] 'Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all So tell me why should it be true That I get a belt out of you. [back up singers throw some rhythm into it] Some get a kick from cocaine.
    3. Lyle: Hold it, hold it. What the hell is that shit? I meant a song. A real song. Something like, Swing low Sweet chariot. [the workers don't have a clue] Don't know that one, huh? How about "De Camptown Ladies?
    4. Bart: De Camptown Ladies? [other workers echo what Bart said].
    5. Lyle: Yeah. You know. De Camptown ladies sing this song Doo dah doo dah De Camptown race is five miles long Oh the doo dah day [joined by all his cohorts] Going to run all night, going to run all day I'd wage my money on a bobtail nag Somebody bet on the bay Going to run all night, going to run all day I wage my money on a bobtail nag [GUNSHOT in the distance]
    6. Taggart: [rides up] What in the wide world of sports is a-goin' on here? I hired you people to get a little track laid.
    – Submitted by Jordan P (5 days ago)
    1. Bart: Are we awake?
    2. Jim the Waco Kid: We're not sure. Are we black?
    3. Bart: Yes, we are.
    4. Jim the Waco Kid: Then we're awake. But we're very puzzled.
    – Submitted by Jordan P (24 days ago)
    1. Buddy Bizarre: What the hell are you doing here? This is a closed set!
    2. Taggart: Piss on you! I'm working for Mel Brooks! [draws back to punch him in the face]
    3. Buddy Bizarre: Not in the face! [Taggart obliges and punches him in the stomach] Thank you!
    – Submitted by Jordan P (24 days ago)
    1. Jim the Waco Kid: [to Bart, after the old woman insults him] 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.
    – Submitted by Jordan P (24 days ago)
    1. Gabby Johnson: [sees the new sheriff is black] Hey, the sheriff is a ni -- [BELL RINGS].
    – Submitted by Jordan P (24 days ago)

Latest News for Blazing Saddles

August 27, 2008:
Certified Fresh Picks from the WB Vault
It's the third-oldest American movie studio: the company that brought us Rin Tin Tin, convinced the...

May 29, 2008:
Blazing Saddles' Harvey Korman dies at age 81
Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny...

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