Blazing Saddles is one of Mel Brooks many films that poke fun at not only the entertainment industry, but society as a whole as well. Released in 1974, it is a parody of the classic "Western" film that had been popularized by the likes of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, to name a few. It stars Cleavon Little, a black railroad worker who was sentenced to hang after he struck his white boss in the head with a shovel. In the mean time, a little town called Rock Ridge was raided by the railroad company to attempt to drive them out of the town. The raid killed the sheriff of Rock Ridge, which forced the incredibly incompetent and oversexed Governor of the unnamed state to appoint a new sheriff for Rock Ridge. The Attorney General, who is in the pockets of the railroad company, decided that the best way to get everyone in Rock Ridge to abandon it so they could finish the railroad, decided to appoint Cleavon Little's character as the sheriff of Rock Ridge, which is all white and very racist. The rest of the movie shows the relationship that Cleavon Little and the people of Rock Ridge develop so that they may keep their town and livelihood. The "N"-word is used often throughout this movie, as well as other racist terms. Ultimately, this movie is an attempt to show how rediculous stereotypes about different races are, and pokes fun at the way that we percieve each other.
Brooks, Mel, dir. Blazing Saddles. 1974. Warner Brothers. YouTube. 6 Feb. 2008. 24 Feb. 2009.
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