[My Movie of the Week] Blazing Saddles (1974) - This next MotW was chosen to honor the films 40th anniversary. Many consider Blazing Saddles a comedy classic, so it should be a fun film to highlight: Blazing Saddles is a 1974 satirical Western comedy film directed by Mel Brooks. Starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, the film was written by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Al Uger, and was based on Bergmans story and draft.vThe movie was nominated for three Academy Awards, and is ranked No. 6 on the American Film Institutes 100 Years...100 Laughs list. The film satirizes the racism obscured by myth-making Hollywood accounts of the American West, with the hero being a black sheriff in an all-white town. The film is full of deliberate anachronisms, from the Count Basie Orchestra playing April in Paris in the Wild West, to Slim Pickens referring to the Wide World of Sports, to the German army of World War II. While the film is widely considered a classic comedy today, critical reaction was mixed when the film was first released. The film grossed $119.5 million in the box office becoming only the tenth film in history up to that point to pass the $100 million mark. On the film-critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 90% positive reviews based on 46 reviews. The film received three Academy Awards nominations in 1974: Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Madeline Kahn, Best Film Editing, and Best Music, Original Song. In 2006, Blazing Saddles was deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Source: IMDb / Wikipedia ----------------- Be sure to check back all week long as we honor the anniversary of this iconic American comedy classic. What are your thoughts / impressions of Blazing Saddles?
Posted on: Wed, 21 May 2014 03:07:34 +0000
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