WESTERNS: Blazing Saddles (1974)

CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of racism, . Mel Brooks’ now-classic Western spoof is as controversial as it is well-regarded. Mel pulled absolutely no punches making this movie, and assembled a writer’s room that was willing to push the envelope. The only problem is that Mel is too focused on landing the joke and less attentive to the story. It’s funny, because that same year he’d release what may have been his masterpiece, a focused, fantastic parody of classic horror. It’s hard to know what to cut here, but he definitely needed to figure out what story to tell. Grab your Gucci saddlebacks as we watch Blazing Saddles on Have a Good Movie! You can email us with feedback at [e-mail], or you can connect with us on BlueSky! If you like the podcast, please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends. Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive. Excerpt taken from "Signature / Main Title (Instrumental)" from the film Blazing Saddles, written and composed by John Morris, Max Steiner and Mel Brooks. Copyright 1974 Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved. Excerpts taken from "Blaze of Glory" from the film Young Guns II, written and performed by Jon Bon Jovi. © 1990 Bon Jovi Publishing/PRI Music, Inc. (ASCAP). ℗ © 1990 PolyGram Records, Inc.