"Where would I find such a man? Why am I asking you?" All through the film (the old lady to camera "Did you ever see such cruelty?") show the characters know all along they are in a movie ("You will only be risking your lives, while I will be risking an almost-certain academy award nomination for best supporting actor)
The Yes/No is a reference to truckers back in the day. It meant that, when driving, you should pass a big rig on the left (yes), not the right (no). This is because it was much more difficult for the driver to see a car passing on the right. I barely remember seeing things like this on trailers when I was a kid, but they were pretty much gone by the end of the 1970s. The inference here is that bull/ox = big rig.
1. Mel Brooks played the Governor, the Indian Chief, the round-up thug with the aviator hat. 2. Mel Brooks doesn't just break the 4th wall he shatters, steps on and grinds it into the ground. 3. The preacher/Liam Dunn also plays in Young "Frankenstein" as Mr. Hilltop. Madeline Khan also had a great role in it. 4. Imagine how much fun this was to make. 5. The line, "You know morons" was ad lib by Wilder. Little's reaction was real. 6. "Look, it's comin' off"🤣 7. Gig Young was supposed to play Jim but showed up the first day drunk so he was let go. Wilder agreed to do this movie for Mel Brooks only if Mel would direct Young Frankenstein for him. 8. Richard Pryor was supposed to play Bart but he was going through his addictions at the time and they thought it wouldn't be a good idea. However, he did some of the writing. 9. Finally, Mel Brooks is the only member of "Blazing Saddles" still living. What's up with the cows? It's Mel Brooks.
Wow this is amazing! Thanks for those details. I definitely noticed a lot more when I did the edit and rewatched. It’s a movie I can rewatch over again with ease.
The cows are a movie industry joke. When they announce for extras to only be seen in the background without having any lines it's called a cattle call.
The basic framework of the plot is from the 1939 western comedy, Destry Rides Again. A western town, plagued by outlaws, sends for a new sheriff. Expecting a "shoot-'em dead" guy, they wind up with his son, who appears to be the exact opposite. The new sheriff, though, turns out to be more effective and rids the town of the bad guys, helped by an all-out fight in the street, between all the timid townspeople and the bad guys. Part of the plot includes the saloon-hall madam with a heart of gold, played by bombshell Marlene Dietrich, in fishnet stockings, and with her characteristic German accent. (Dietrich was well-known for wearing a feminized version of a man's top hat and tails, as Lili is shown later on in the movie.) ---- I think it is important to be put Blazing Saddles in context. Movies had long been heavily censored by the Hays Code until it was replaced by the current letter-code rating system in 1969. In the 1939 Stagecoach, the town prostitute and the pregnancy of the other woman could only obliquely be indicated. Bodily functions (and words related to this) like farting or even flushing a toilet (this latter, broken by the 1960 movie Psycho) were taboo. The racial insults that pepper this movie was not allowed in movies, despite them being common in everyday life. So when the censorship was lifted, movies went crazy with their new found freedoms, and a rash of over-the-top zany movies to exploit these followed: Blazing Saddles, Holy Grail, Airplane, Rocky Horror, Naked Gun, Life of Brian, etc. The studio refused to let Brooks make this a contemporary movie, so he made a period movie that broke the 4th wall into modern times. ---- Most people don't get the joke of the title. A blazing saddle would be most unpleasant. ---- Movie is set (supposedly) a century earlier, 1874, when railroad lines were being built all over the west. The trackworkers, however, are supposed to be driving spikes to hold the rails to the ties, but instead whacking the dirt in between the ties. ---- The trackworkers sing a sophisticated Cole Porter song from the 1930's. The cowboys want them to sing Camptown Ladies, about as offensive a song as could be. This song was composed in 1850 by legendary American composer Stephen Foster, but it was intended for minstrel shows, which were a common feature of vaudeville shows of the era. Half-a-dozen white men, in blackface, sat on straight-back chairs aligned in across the stage. They would sing such songs as Camptown Ladies, accompanied on banjos, tambourines, "bones," and "spoons." The singing would be interrupted ever so often by two of men, speaking in racist stereotypical dialect, doing a corny joke. One would ask the other something like "Mr. Jones, when is a door not a door?" The other would repeat the line "I don't know, Mr. Smith, when is a door not a door?" And then the first would say "When it was ajar!" and they would all go back to singing. The trackworkers pretend not to know the song so the cowboys have to demonstrate it, making complete fools of themselves, even though we hear Bart and his friend on the handcar and later Bart tacking up the wanted posters, singing the same song. ---- Beans contain a couple of complex sugars that normally most people don't produce much of the enzyme that breaks them down. Instead these sugars pass to the large intestines, where bacteria act on them to produce gas. In reality, a regular diet of beans will soon increase the body's production of this enzyme and gas ceases to be much of a problem. But then we won't have a joke here. ---- In reality, a large number of cowboys were either Mexican or former slaves. In 1866, Congress authorized 6 regiments of former slaves to help fight the Indians and rebuild the West. One regiment became known as the Buffalo Soldiers. And according to Wiki: "the actual “Lone Ranger” seems to have been inspired by an African-American man named Bass Reeves. Reeves had been born a slave but escaped West during the Civil War where he lived in what was then known as Indian Territory." All of this has mostly been whitewashed out of general American history. ---- The cowboy with the dazzling smile was quite progressive and had marched once with Dr. King. He had a hard time saying all the racial slurs. At one point, Cleavon Little (Sheriff Bart) pulled him aside and said that if he ever used such language off the set, he'd be really upset, but it was okay and necessary ON the set.
@@JimmyRenReacts One of my favorite movies, among the best of the "non-Hitchcock Hitchcock" movies is Billy Wilder's 1957 Witness For The Prosecution, based on an Agatha Christie story. Has been adapted at three times already with the '57 version by far and away the best. However, the reason I bring this up is it also stars Dietrich. (And unrelated, I defy anyone to guess the ending.)
@@johnnehrich9601 As were the 1934 Cole Porter song I Get a Kick Out of You being sung, and the 1929 Cole Porter song You Do Something to Me lyrics (the voodoo that you do...) being quoted.
One of the oft-commented bits on the whole 'it wouldn't fly today' or 'you couldn't make this movie today' , is a quote from Mel Brooks more recently, who states that "we couldn't make it then!" . But, he had a trick - when the execs came by and said 'you can't do this! ' or that, or a number of other things, he'd nod, say yes of course, I understand, take notes, etc.. then go right ahead and do it anyway. And he had the contract and the standing to get away with it.
You wanted to know why lily talked like that there was a German born actress named marlene dietrich who had a huge acting career spaning from 1923 to 1978 was the inspiration for lily's german accent.
If you want to understand the full story of Hedy Lamarr, read her bio on Wikipedia. Aside from being a gorgeous actress, she is responsible for inventing Spread Spectrum that underlies all wifi and cellular radio communications
Some of the references you don't get are for old films that would have been familiar to people like us who saw this when it came out in 1974.(For example: "badges? We don need no stinkin' badges."
15:57 Mel Brooks even had jiddisch letters on the headband. The joke there is from the healthy western genre that they are spoofing when the hero was white and perfect, the native Americans were played by Jewish and Indian actors and they did eat beans right and left but never farting.
It's not a comedy, it's a commentary on racism. Which is why it should be shown today. It does not promote racism as being something worthwhile or intelligent.
Okay, since you didn't get it, among the various slurs you caught, Mongo's name is short for "mongoloid," which went from being a medical term to a slur about people with Down's Syndrome, because White people thought such people looked vaguely Mongolian; so yes, he was supposed to be "mentally challenged." Meanwhile, gurlfriend, let your hair down. It's not like we can't tell. You be you. Tell you what. You be a little more... vibrant, and I will recommend your content. I already liked and subscribed. Your content is better quality than mine, which has been scattershot, and personal. For a suggested set, I would LOVE you to watch the Blade Trilogy, and To Wong Foo, both with Wesley Snipes. You have probably seen some or all of those. But even if so, your reaction, and your putting those out there, would promote good movies, and great actors. Snipes is so underrated. And Wong Foo has so many co-stars who are amazing, most of whom are now dead. Be well, and I will look for more of your content.
@@JimmyRenReacts Checking in, and sorry to be all "uncle" at you. When you get to "a certain age," shit starts to leak out, so to speak. lol I never watch "first time watchings" of things I haven't seen, so your current ones are out of bounds for me. That said, I am sure you will do so well with your views! You have a spark. My old ass sees it, and I am envious of your youth and vitality. Keep on, beautiful soul.
