Synopsis
A town—where everyone seems to be named Johnson—stands in the way of the railroad. In order to grab their land, robber baron Hedley Lamarr sends his henchmen to make life in the town unbearable. After the sheriff is killed, the town demands a new sheriff from the Governor, so Hedley convinces him to send the town the first black sheriff in the west.
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Cast
- Cleavon LittleBart
- Gene WilderJim
- Slim PickensTaggart
- Harvey KormanHedley Lamarr
- Madeline KahnLili Von Shtupp
- Mel BrooksGovernor William J. Le Petomane / Indian Chief
- Burton GilliamLyle
- Alex KarrasMongo
- David HuddlestonOlson Johnson
- Liam DunnRev. Johnson
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
It's a crazed grabbag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken. Mostly, it succeeds. It's an audience picture; it doesn't have a lot of classy polish and its structure is a total mess. But of course! What does that matter while Alex Karris is knocking a horse cold with a right cross to the jaw? - 100
Empire
Stands next to Young Frankenstein as Brooks' best movie, and, of course, boasts the god of all fart gags. - 91
The A.V. Club
No comic trope, however musty or studded with whiskers, is off limits, including bad puns, physical shtick, pie fights, goofy names and accents, song-and-dance numbers, Jewish Indians, or just having a bunch of cowpokes farting around the campfire. Some of the jokes drop like lead, but the film's anarchic spirit carries a lot of excitement, because Brooks' anything-goes philosophy means that no comedic possibilities go unconsidered. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
Brooks' fast-paced direction is a masterpiece of comedy detail, filled with delightful and perfectly timed sight gags. - 80
Time
Like its many raucous predecessors, Blazing Saddles is a thing of bits and bits—some good, some awful—pinned to a story line that sags like a tenement clothesline. The movie tends to improve in the retelling, as memory edits out ineptitudes, the better to dwell on moments of glory... But goldarned if it doesn't work. Goldarned if the whole fool enterprise is not worth the attention of any moviegoer with a penchant for what one actor, commenting on another's Gabby Hayes imitation, calls "authentic western gibberish." - 80
Chicago Reader
One of the funniest awful movies ever made. - 80
Variety
Although Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder head a uniformly competent cast, pic is handily stolen by Harvey Korman and Madeline Kahn. Kahn is simply terrific doing a Marlene Dietrich lampoon...Rest of cast is fine, although Little’s black sheriff doesn’t blend too well with Brooks’ Jewish-flavored comic style. Wilder is amusingly low-key in a relatively small role. - 50
The New York Times
Much of the laughter Mr. Brooks inspires is hopeful, before-the-gag laughter, which can be terribly tiring...Blazing Saddles has no dominant personality, and it looks as if it includes every gag thought up in every story conference. Whether good, bad, or mild, nothing was thrown out.
