| | | Never Give a Saga an Even Break!
Features: DVD
The railroad's got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land Send in the toughest gang you've got...and name a new sheriff who'll last about 24 hours. But that's not really the plot of Blazing Saddles, just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film - many call it his best - gets started, logic is lost in a blizzard of gags, jokes, quips, puns, howlers, growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman, Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid, Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can't contain itself at the finale, it just proves the Old West will never be the same!System Requirements:Running Time: 93 MinutesFormat: BLU-RAY DISC
"Little and Wilder have impeccable comic timing, delightful chemistry, and some outrageous gags." At-A-Glance Film Reviews
"Mel Brooks' funniest film. Cleavon Little's performance is priceless." Brian Mckay, eFilmCritic.com
"The finale offers the most daring 15 minutes in cinema history." Christopher Null, FilmCritic.com
"I can say with full confidence that this is one of the funniest movies ever made." John Venable, SuperCala.com
"...a riotous Western spoof...None of Brooks's later films have topped this one for sheer belly laughs." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
A madcap spoof of the classic Hollywood Western, BLAZING SADDLES is also one of the most gleefully anti-P.C. films ever produced by a major studio. When the sheriff of a small frontier town is killed, convict Bart (Cleavon Little) is appointed the first black sheriff of all-white Rock Ridge by the evil Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), who hopes this will chase the townspeople from their homes. The naive Sheriff Bart soon catches on, realizing from the less than cheery welcome that the townspeople (who all seem to be named Johnson) aren't prepared for a black sheriff and that he was never meant to succeed at all. Enlisting the help of the sensitive town drunk (Gene Wilder), formerly the Waco Kid, Bart embarks on a plan to save Rock Ridge. A scathing spoof that deals with racism, sexism, and bodily functions, BLAZING SADDLES offers a contrast between picture and words that is shocking, subversive, and hilarious. Director Mel Brooks makes two memorable appearances--as both the sleazy governor and a Yiddish-speaking Sioux Indian chief--while Madeline Kahn does a sidesplitting Marlene Dietrich imitation as the town floozy. Featuring fabulous comic turns by Alex Karras and Slim Pickens, BLAZING SADDLES is raunchy, lovable, and uproarious.
| Features | Black Bart: 1975 Pilot Episode Of The Proposed TV Series Spinoff | | 2 Documentaries: Back In The Saddle & Intimate Portrait: Madeline Kahn (Excerpt) | | Additional Scenes | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Interactive Menus | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Scene Selection | | Scene Specific Audio Commentary By Mel Brooks | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | This Is An HD-DVD Made For HD-DVD Format Players Which Produce Higher Quality Picture & Sound |
| Entertainment Reviews
 | Blazing Saddles - DVD By: Matt Paprocki - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 1/22/2007 3:17 AM | | The greatest film comedy ever made gets a gorgeous video makeover. Mel Brooks is a comic genius. This undisputable fact is proven by Blazing Saddles, the sixth all-time greatest comedy according to the AFI and ninth when Bravo handed out their awards. Granted it wasn't Mel Brooks alone, but his ability to get past the hand of the censors was the key to this film's success then and it still is today....read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Warner |
| Release Date: 9/5/2006 |
| Running Time: 93 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1974 | | Catalog ID: 82838 | | UPC: 00012569828384 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English, French Dubbed, Spanish Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Widescreen 2.40:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Nominee (1975) | | | British Academy Awards, Cleavon Little, Best Newcomer | | | British Academy Awards, Mel Brooks, et. al., Best Screenplay | | | Oscar, Madeline Kahn, Best Actress in a Supporting Role | | | Oscar, John Morris, Mel Brooks, Best Music, Original Song | | | Oscar, John C. Howard, Danford B. Greene, Best Film Editing |
| Memorable Quotes| "It's not Hedy. It's Hedley. Hedley Lamarr"----Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman)|"What the hell are you worried about? This is 1874. You'll be able to sue her."----Governor Lepetomane (Mel Brooks) | | "My name is Jim. But most people call me...Jim."----Jim (Gene Wilder) to Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little) | | "Yeah, but I shoot with this hand."----Jim | | "If you shoot him, you'll just make him mad."----Jim to Sheriff Bart, about Mongo (Alex Karras) | | "Excuse me while I whip this out."----Sheriff Bart | | "I got it! I know how we can run everybody out of Rock Ridge...We'll kill the firstborn male child of every household."----Taggart (Slim Pickens)|"Too Jewish."----Lamarr | | "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!"----Mexican bandit | | "You'd do it for Randolph Scott."----Sheriff Bart|"Randolph Scott!"----the townspeople | | "I didn't get a 'harrumph' out of that guy!"----Governor Lepetomane|"Give the governor a 'harrumph!'"----Lamarr|"Harrumph!"----Reporter|"You watch your ass."----Governor | | "Can't you see that's the last act of a desperate man?"----Sheriff Bart|"We don't care if it's the first act of HENRY V, we're leaving!"----villager |
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| | Professional Reviews | USA Today
"...This cowboy-tweaking smash was great in its day..." 07/03/1997 p.3DEntertainment Weekly
"...Brooks' success left an unmistakable scent on movies from AIRPLANE! To AMERICAN PIE..." 01/11/2002 p.36 Premiere
"[I]t's still unfailingly hilarious, and it's practically overflowing with real heart and warmth..." 07/01/2004 p.111 Sight and Sound
"Gene Wilder is ingenuous..." 09/01/2004 p.94 Widescreen Review
"In a hilarious assault on good taste, BLAZING SADDLES stars Cleavon Little as an unlikely sheriff and Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid..." 07/01/2006 p.64 Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
There are some people who can literally get away with anything -- say anything, do anything -- and people will let them. Other people attempt a mildly dirty joke and bring total silence down on a party. Mel Brooks is not only a member of the first group, he is its lifetime president. At its best, his comedy operates in areas so far removed from taste that (to coin his own expression) it rises below vulgarity..."Blazing Saddles" is like that. 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. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karris is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw? - Roger Ebert
Reel.com 9 of 10
A singular mix of Borscht Belt shtick, good-natured parody, sly social commentary and the silly, "anything goes" humor of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, Blazing Saddles has its fair share of jokes that fall flat. The timing on some of the gags could also be sharper. At this stage in his filmmaking career, Brooks was still honing and refining his directorial skills; Blazing Saddles was his third film, after The Producers (1968) and The Twelve Chairs (1970)...Yet for most of its running time, Blazing Saddles is hilariously inspired and features terrific performances from its entire cast, most notably the brilliant comedienne Madeline Kahn...Blazing Saddles is one of Mel Brooks' best films, right up there with The Producers and Young Frankenstein (1974). See it unless you're easily offended or humor-impaired. - Tim Knight
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