Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humour is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon

my boyfriend had gone on for ages about how good this film was so when i went away for a week i stole it out his dvd case to watch. Mel Brooks has a particular style which is so recognisable that you don't even have to check who the director of the film is. The one highlight of this film for me is Gene Wilder whom I think is fabulous. To be honest the three stars predominately go to him rather than the actual film, which is humorous in its own way, although sadly there is something lacking. I felt the film would have more of a kick of constant and intelligent humour rahter than lukewarm gags here and there. However its a good enough film, so worth a watch.

Hard to know where to start with a Mel Brooks satire of not only everything western, but everything about film making and movies. It's sense of school yard fun and nothing-is-sacred shocked and titillated the 1970's audience - but today the crude lines and the farts come as standard.


Racism and clich??s about black men are naturally not left out - because Brooks, when has thought of a joke, cannot leave it out. In interviews he even seems to suggest that some are left in "because they are bad."

Brooks isn't a great comedian or a great film maker (there is continuity error here - involving kicking down a shell of a building - that would embarrass a student) because all he can do is copy. In copying he actually takes aboard a lot of the tricks and devices that make the original work: The bad guys get routed, the townsfolk realise that the black guy isn't so bad after all, that the washed up gunfighter is not washed-up after all, etc., etc.

Madeline Kahn, as a kind of Marlene Dietrich character, is the real winner with Cleavon Little (standing in for an "ill" Richard Prior) not being able to do much with his role other than keep a (mostly) straight face. Brooks repertory company of glad-to-have-a-jobs come on to do their bits with the one-note Slim Pickens, perhaps, getting the best of it.


The pilot for TV spin-off (the main extra) should be watched through the cracks of your fingers...

This is a fantastic film! It's incredibly funny, very rude and has some great performances!

There are brilliant one liners, great setpieces and some wonderfully surreal humour.

A first class comedy - a must see.

I have to agree with Peter Hutton, I used to have this years ago on video and have now got it on DVD.

I remember it being really funny, too much of the "humour" relies on fart, belching and use of the racist term n*gger "jokes".

It does not take itself seriously, which is fine, there are some good bits, for me the last 20 minutes contains the best bits, before the laughs come slow and thin rather than thick and fast.

According to the IFA list compiled in 2000 this is the 6th funniest film of all-time, all I can say is that they've not watched many comedies over the past 28 years as in my opinion there are at least 50 films funnier than this in that time alone.

Much of the humour in this film is outdated and many of the things that I found funny 15-20 years ago fall flat on their face, even Gene Wilder does not seem particularly funny in this anymore and I never thought I'd say that.

If you want a film that does pass the test of time then take a look at the considerably better Young Einstein which is another Mel Brooks/Gene Wilder film, Gene Wilder is superb and very funny too!!

We had Blazing Saddles as a movie onboard our submarine back in the mid 80's. I think my watch must have seen it a dozen times, until the Control Room watch could recite any scene from it. It is brilliant. Doing the watch handover to the strains of "There was a sleepy town called Rock Ridge..." in the background was slightly surreal. Best line in the film, you almost miss it - "Bart! They said you was hung!" "And they was right...!"