While looking for a specific DVD in my local library, I saw Blazing Saddles. I had seen this movie when I was in college, several years after it had come out. At the time. Mel Brooks was all the rage, with his "in your face" slapstick humor. I wanted to watch it again because, honestly, all I could recall about it was the title song and the campfire scene, which was not funny to me. I wanted to know why this particular film is such a classic.
I sat and gawked. I didn't laugh. I'm not a lover of crude humor anyway, but how was this trash ever acceptable?
I watched with my mouth hanging open at what was deemed funny 45 years ago. I shudder at the thought of millions of people cackling with hysteria (I know my father did) at how stereotypes were treated. Times change (THANK GOD!), but the film, in all its blatant farce makes me cringe. This would never work today. I am glad about that.
What does it say about me that I probably laughed at the Yiddish "Shvartzes!" line? I thought a lot about the whole sequence with "Camptown Races" - meant to show that the Black workers were easily smarter than the "overseers". Was it supposed to be "okay" because Cleavon Little, an actor with a formal stage background, was the hero in the end? As a bonus on this particular DVD, there was a television pilot with Louis Gossett, Jr., one of my favorite character actors, in the role of Sheriff Black Bart. I tried to watch it, but only lasted a few short minutes. I'm grateful this pilot never went anywhere. Fortunately, Gossett went on to much better things.
I'm not sure what to make of people who think political correctness has gone too far. Respecting another human being is never too far. I won't ever be watching this movie again, unless it is to teach what not to do.
I sat and gawked. I didn't laugh. I'm not a lover of crude humor anyway, but how was this trash ever acceptable?
I watched with my mouth hanging open at what was deemed funny 45 years ago. I shudder at the thought of millions of people cackling with hysteria (I know my father did) at how stereotypes were treated. Times change (THANK GOD!), but the film, in all its blatant farce makes me cringe. This would never work today. I am glad about that.
What does it say about me that I probably laughed at the Yiddish "Shvartzes!" line? I thought a lot about the whole sequence with "Camptown Races" - meant to show that the Black workers were easily smarter than the "overseers". Was it supposed to be "okay" because Cleavon Little, an actor with a formal stage background, was the hero in the end? As a bonus on this particular DVD, there was a television pilot with Louis Gossett, Jr., one of my favorite character actors, in the role of Sheriff Black Bart. I tried to watch it, but only lasted a few short minutes. I'm grateful this pilot never went anywhere. Fortunately, Gossett went on to much better things.
I'm not sure what to make of people who think political correctness has gone too far. Respecting another human being is never too far. I won't ever be watching this movie again, unless it is to teach what not to do.