Blazing Saddles by Mel Brooks

This past weekend I watched Blazing Saddles, a mid-western parody by Mel Brooks. As expected, it was full of ridiculous scenarios, punchlines, and 4th wall breaking. The story is simple enough: on the whim of politician, a condemned black man becomes sheriff. After that, most of the film's comedy center around the racism of the town's people: they freely use the n-word yet still come asking for the man's help. Besides that, a lot of the film's humor might be called offensive: the aforementioned n-word, sex, prostitution, the KKK all appear. That the movie is full of plot holes, inconsistencies, and over-convenient events fits with its random comedy. The movie does not take itself seriously, and all plot "problems" and 4th wall breaking are choices made deliberately and with a nudge and a wink. It gives the impression that the creators of the movie are a part of the movie, and that they're as big a bunch of fools as a lot of characters on screen.

I personally thought the film was funny. The randomness of the movie was appealing to me. The 4th wall breaking debacle at the end didn't make any sense continuity wise, but that only added to the ridiculousness of the movie for me, which made the chaos so much funnier. I loved a lot of the characters, my favorite being the old sweet woman who you never expect to be a racist. She walks around being a sweet grandmother, at one point giving the new black sheriff a pie, but still says and does the most racist things. The contrast of that is funny. I also liked the governor (played by Mel Brooks), with his indulgent lifestyle (mostly surrounding his mistress secretary) and blatant incompetence. I didn't mind the offensive language and jokes, partially because I knew it had to be rated R for something, but also because that kind of thing just doesn't normally bother me. Overall, I had a good time watching the movie.

This is a clip of the sheriff's welcome at the town and the town's surprise at him being black: