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Mel Brooks: ‘Blazing Saddles’ Is The Four Best Comedies Of All Time

By David Cornell
Published on: 05:59 PST, May 8, 2014

Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles was recently released on Blu Ray, and the man behind some of the most classic comedies we’ve ever seen has something to say about it. According to the pioneer of parody films, the Gene Wilder and Cleavon Little film is four of the best comedies of all time.

Yes, he actually said that in an interview, “It’s the funniest movie, I think, by far. No matter what the AFI list says. Five should be the next number. One to four should be Blazing Saddles.”

Blazing Saddles is the original send-up of the classic Western, poking fun at nearly every aspect of the genre including the blatant racism of its day.

Mel Brooks even pointed out how it’s one of those films that can’t be remade:

“They can’t make that movie today because everybody’s so politically correct. You know, the NAACP would stop a great movie that would do such a great service to black people because of the N-word. You’ve got to really examine these things and see what’s right and what’s wrong. Politically correct is absolutely wrong. Because it inhibits the freedom of thought. I’m so lucky that they weren’t so strong then and that the people that let things happen on the screen weren’t so powerful then. I was very lucky.”

A little backstory on Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles is that it was the film that made him a breakout star after launching Don Adams to fame with Get Smart. It was Gene Wilder who helped make it an instant success despite being a last minute casting choice. According to the original commentary on the DVD, the audience which laughed the loudest was the African Americans. They actually understood then that the movie was poking fun at the blatant racism in Westerns, not encouraging it.

It was partly co-writer Richard Pryor who gave the movie the freedom to use the infamous N-word at all, combined with his own brand of offensive comedy, handled hilariously by star Cleavon Little. Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles was a sheer stroke of luck for the man who directed, wrote, and starred in a film that almost wasn’t made. The studio wanted to bury it for being so controversial, and it ended up being one of their biggest hits of 1974.

Instead of being humbled by his success as a film-maker, Brooks boasted similarly last month, “It’s not right for me to say so, but I really think this could be the funniest motion picture ever made.”

Having also created equally classic parodies with Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Spaceballs, and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Mel Brooks has certainly proven his worth to the comedy crowd and ranks right up there with Monty Python among the greats.

Is Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles one of your favorite comedies?

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