I’m still surprised how early I was allowed to see “Blazing Saddles.”
So, one weekend every summer, my mom went off to a woman’s retreat, leaving us home alone with dad. We lived on eggs, cereal, hot dogs, and Ramen Noodles.
Yep.
Now, dad was a little more lenient than mom when it came to TV and movie viewership. We (me and my big sister and little brother) knew that. Did we take advantage?
Hell yes.
A few weeks prior to my mom leaving for her retreat, I remembered walking through the living room and observing my parents laughing at what they were watching, until they noticed me.
Mom: “This isn’t for you to see.”
Me: “What is it?”
Dad: “A Funny movie.”
Mom: “It’s for adults.”
Me: “What’s the name of it?”
Dad: “Blazing Saddles.”
Game over. I had a title. I knew mom was leaving. It was a matter of time before I talked my dad into letting me watch it. It wasn’t hard.
Me: “Dad, can we watch ‘Blazing Saddles‘ with you?”
Dad: “Sure….don’t tell your mother.”
Did I get all of the jokes? Hell no. But I had a dad that was more than happy to explain them to me.
I always thought my dad was an impatient man, and he was about certain things. He was very impatient with my ability to complete chores. That was my major interaction with my dad, so I, of course, always felt that he was an impatient, short tempered man. Looking back, there are plenty of moments where he displayed patience regularly. Watching movies with the kids is one of them.
Me: “Dad? What’s a shitkicker?”
Dad: (giggles) “It’s a mean name for a cowboy.”
Me: “Oh.”
That was most of the movie. Luckily dad had seen it enough to humor us throughout the viewing. Listening to my dad laugh along with us was like hearing The Beatles for the first time. It was something new and wonderful and you didn’t want the song to end on the radio. I have mentioned before that my dad was not one for laughter often. A trait that I have inherited from him. Watching “Blazing Saddles” with him was like listening to 5 of The Beatles greatest hits in a row on the radio.
My dad loved the ability to “pause” tapes. He grew up without a VCR and never had a chance to “stop” the things he was viewing. It seemed like we were giving him a chance to control the world when we had a question and he could grab the remote, click “pause,” and explain a scene to us. He enjoyed it, and he was good at it. This happened every time we watched some dialogue we didn’t understand and dad had a huge laugh.
I remember laughing at the funny faces, sounds, and slapstick of “Blazing Saddles” when I was younger. Viewing it as I grew, I started laughing at the scenes my dad laughed at.
What an amazing movie. The courage to take on a film like this deserves accolades itself. No way could this movie be made in this day and age of political correctness. Is that a good thing? Probably. Am I thankful this movie got made? Yeppers.
Mel Brooks to me, is the godfather of Farcical Comedy, without a lot of competition. He makes films that can make a child laugh for the reasons I mentioned above and have the wit to keep an adult’s attention with clever writing, and satire that strikes true. That is not an easy thing to do and he will never get the artistic credit that he deserves. It’s a shame that comedies–aren’t taken more seriously????
What the hell do I know?
I know three things in retrospect watching “Blazing Saddles” over 5 times over the years: 1) Richard Pryor is one of the greatest comedic writers of all time 2) Adults enjoy the layers of wit that occurs in the dialogue of EVERY Mel Brooks movie 3) Campfire farting scenes will always make any person laugh-out-loud.
Basically, the film is about a greedy railroad entrepreneur that cannot get a town to yield their land. They try to strong arm them, but that does not work. They send in a black sheriff to help them, with the idea that it will cause internal strife so that they will destroy themselves from the inside out. Shenanigans ensue on many, many, many, different levels–including breaking the “5th wall,” in which they fight into another Hollywood set of a musical production.
The cast is amazing:
the underrated and amazing Harvey Korman,
and a short/hilarious performance by Dom Deluise.
Reading through the quotes to pick one for this post was a mild joy. I laughed reading them, visualizing the scenes again in my head. Rarely can a movie do that and it is pure exuberance when that can happen.
What people need to understand before they watch this movie is that it is a total satire-farce on every level and is never supposed to be taken seriously. This is not a film for the easily offended, but for the person that can think about what the writers are trying to say between the lines…and snicker with them.
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I love this! I completely relate to Mel Brooks films and fathers. When I was 8 yrs. old, “Young Frankenstein” hit the theaters, and my dad took me to see it. Kind of an odd thing, I realized years later. We both loved it and laughed a lot. Like you, some of the jokes went over my head, but to this day I have to rewatch it from time to time and remember this bonding moment. Glad to know there’s another soul out there who gets this sort of thing.
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That’s a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing. “Young Frankenstein” is great! I’ll probably write on that at some point as well.
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Mongo like!
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Now don’t do that, you’ll just make him mad.
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My father, too, watched “Blazing Saddles” with me (yet “animal house” and “alien” were forbidden). He loved the baked bean scene most of all!!! I love much of it but “where’s my froggie?” And “excuse me while I whip this out” remain staples of my repertoire!
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Aren’t dads the best? What in the world would we laugh at if they didn’t let us watch farces together? 😉
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My dad passed away a year ago and I miss him terribly. We watched lonesome dove together one more time during my last visit. His favorite shows to watch with me growing up were Sesame Street & Bugs Bunny.
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I’m glad you were able to share and remember that last viewing with your father. It’s never easy when someone passes. We need to reflect on all the great stuff. The rest doesn’t matter, it’s over any way. But the great stuff can be fuel…
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Indeed. It’s important to me not to let his love for all things of the earth. I’m hoping to plant trees all around the world in his name. Thank you so much for reading my words.
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My pleasure. Again, thanks for sharing.
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Thank you so much for taking the time to read and even more so, to seek to understand.
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It is my pleasure.
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lol I loved reading this. Watched this movie with my dad as well. He laughed so much at it. Still does.
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It is one of the greatest moments of my childhood. My father was not much of a laugher, but he had a great chortle when he chose to. I loved hearing it. It always ends up being the little things that you miss when you’ll never see someone again.
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I have a lot of good memories sneaking this VHS into my room with my little brother. Of course, we also didn’t understand half of the jokes as kids. The two of us grew up injecting the strangest catch phrases from this movie into conversations. I remember slowly buying a six dollar pepsi from a vending machine in Disneyland, my brother exclaiming “Someone go back and get a shit-load of dimes!” And two or three random *grown up* men laughing out loud at my brothers recycled joke. To this day, when I’m staring at a stack of documents, I say “work work work work work work work”, even though my brother isn’t here to laugh at it.
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I saw this way too young with uncles & all of us kids. It was great! I introduced it to my hubby when we started dating. It is a classic
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In all its glory! A movie that will never be rebooted; nor ever have anything be made like it again…Love that film.
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