Blazing Saddles Film Analysis

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Blazing Saddles is a comical film directed by Mel Brooks in 1974. Mel Brooks was a well known and loved actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Brooks, in the process of making this film was faced with many obstacles that he had to overcome in order to make this film a success. In the process of making this film Warner Bros executives had many dislikes about the film. According to The Daily Beast, Bart explained that they wanted him to “Lose the fart scene, cut out any racial and ethnic jokes, edit scenes where a horse and an old lady get punched.” Brook explained “If I do this the movie would have only been 14 minutes long.” In Blazing Saddles race, gender, and stereotypes come together to show that the way women are objectified and dehumanized is …show more content…
Race was used to show the problem of what was occurring in that time period. In that period of time and in the film racism was used a lot towards not only the African Americans, but as well as other races. In the film Blazing Saddles, Brooks tries to get the point across that racism is “stupid”. In order to show that racism is “stupid” he provides his audience with many different scenes and dialogues throughout the film to support his claim. According to Bailey, “The n-word was used frequently and freely; it is used in casual dialogue and it is used as a punchline. But it’s not used for shock value — it is used as it would have been used at the time, and, as Brooks explained, ‘to show racial prejudice.’” Bailey’s point is that when watching this film your initial reaction may be to be shocked or surprised about the recurring racism but you shouldn’t be because this was a casual thing occurring in that time period. Think about how casual it is when you are having a cup of coffee pretty casual right? Well, Bailey is trying to prove that saying the “n-word” is just as casual as having a cup of coffee. According to Brooks he promises, “Those who call Bart the “n-word” are mouth-breathing morons, ignorant hillbillies who share their saloon and town council meetings with cows.” In other words, Brooks is proving the point that racism is absurd. He is showing that even though Bart was a smart, funny, and handsome human the …show more content…
Both of these characters showed how the appearance and characteristics of one can affect how the society views them. The society tends to view people based on how they dress and how they present themselves to others. In the film the Governor is a man who is presented as an odd looking person whom has odd characteristics. He has eyes that are a bit cross-eyed, is not able to do things on his own and has an obsession with his “sexy” secretary. As presented in one of the scenes the Governor is signing papers for Hedley with no pants on, is not able to sign the papers alone without assistance and speaks to the boobs of his secretary. These few scenes alone showed just how ignorant and unintelligent the Governor really is. It proves the point that he can’t do things on his own without help and that his secretary means more to him than signing important documents. This scene is showing the use of humor through the lack of being able to do things on his own and how he is easily distracted by his secretary. This scene is showing that no matter what position you hold or your what your job category is there is still a chance of having the lack of ability and the lack of self respect. His secretary whom should be dressed appropriately and be presentable is dressed as some would consider a “prostitute.” Her, being dressed in deceiving clothing distracts the governor from being able to

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