Movie · 1974 · Western, Comedy · 1h 33m · R · English
Curator score: 7.3/10 (359.6K ratings)
...or never give a saga an even break!
Overview
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.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.3/10
IMDb: 7.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.81/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Mel Brooks
Production
Crossbow Productions, Warner Bros. Pictures
Cast
Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, Mel Brooks, Burton Gilliam, Alex Karras, David Huddleston, Liam Dunn, John Hillerman, George Furth, Jack Starrett, Carol Arthur, Richard Collier, Charles McGregor, Robyn Hilton, Don Megowan, Dom DeLuise, Count Basie
Curator Review
Verdict
A wildly irreverent Western parody that still lands because it’s smarter than its chaos suggests: it skewers racism, frontier mythmaking, and studio-era genre clichés while delivering relentless gags and a genuinely anarchic comic energy. Some jokes are dated or uneven, but the film’s audacity, pace, and willingness to torch its own genre make it a landmark comedy.
Best for
Viewers who like sharp, high-energy satire
Fans of classic studio comedies with a mean streak
People who enjoy genre deconstruction and fourth-wall-breaking humor
Audiences looking for a historically important comedy that still feels unruly
Skip if
You prefer subtle or low-key humor
You’re sensitive to dated racial and sexual jokes
You want a straightforward Western with serious stakes
You dislike broad, fast-firing gag comedies
Overview
Blazing Saddles is one of the great acts of comic sabotage in American movies. It takes the iconography of the Western, loads it with racial politics, studio-movie absurdity, and relentless slapstick, then blows the whole thing apart with a grin. The result is messy, aggressive, and often very funny, with a confidence that lets even the dumbest jokes feel like part of a larger attack on the genre’s self-importance.
Worth noting
What keeps it memorable is how much it understands the machinery it’s mocking. The film is not just about jokes at the expense of Western clichés; it’s about exposing the racism and hypocrisy buried inside them. That gives the comedy a sharper edge than a simple spoof, and it explains why the movie still feels alive even when individual bits don’t fully land.
Bottom line
It’s also a showcase for comic timing and escalation. The film keeps widening its target, from frontier politics to Hollywood convention to the audience itself, until the final stretch becomes pure chaos. Some material is undeniably of its era, but as a piece of audacious studio comedy, it remains a landmark.
Top Letterboxd reviews
demi adejuyigbe · 3308 likes
Not gonna lie, some of the super goofy jokes just... didn't work for me. This will make a stranger mad at me and I'm sorry about it! Love a good horse gag, though. Explosions sending a horse fifty feet into the sky? Can't beat that! This movie could NEVER be made today!!!!!!! (Multiple cast members are dead, film is expensive, horse unions, coronavirus)
Wesley R. Ball (4★) · 2995 likes
AY, WHERE THE WHITE WOMEN AT?!
mia lee vicino (3.5★) · 1907 likes
this could never be made today 🤠 but only because laugh-out-loud studio comedies no longer exist 😔
Joe (5★) · 1545 likes
"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know, morons."
Holly-Beth (4★) · 1400 likes
they were in love, right? please someone tell me that bart and jim were in love, because that ending was adorable...
“Where you goin’, cowboy?” “Nowhere special.”“Nowhere special? Always wanted to go there.”
please get a room
on a serious note, this was great. i've never seen a fourth wall absolutely obliterated like that! mel brooks' mind... is so powerful