They understood everything.īlazing Saddles was not just the first Hollywood film to extensively use the slur ' nigger', but the film needed to do so to succeed. And it was really understood by the black community.

I showed it from good people who didn't know any better. I don't think the word should be used… unless it's used absolutely correctly… to show… race prejudice. That the sheriff was subject to this weird uh you know… These people who he was helping were against him simply because he was black, and called him 'nigger'. They knew that it was used correctly in the movie. Strangely enough only… not from blacks… never objected to the word 'nigger'. “ ”There was a lot of white people that didn't like the word 'nigger'. You couldn't make Blazing Saddles in the year 2023! Because white racists would be even more upset at being repeatedly pwned as hard as Blazing Saddles pwned them in 1974. predating the first US antitrust law by 16 years ) and 1974 was shortly after the Civil Rights era (1954-1968). This works as a plot device because 1874 was towards the end of the Reconstruction era (1865-1877) as well as firmly within the so-called Robber Baron era (e.g. The basic premise for Blazing Saddles is that it is set in the year 1874, but also in the year 1974 at the same time, with cultural references from 1974 drifting into the dialogue of the 1874 setting. One could make a dull film that says 'racism is bad', or one could make an 'unapologetically politically incorrect also skewers nearly every western trope listed on' TV Tropes that became a blockbuster and was eventually inducted into the US National Film Registry. Despite its broad and vulgar humor, frequent sight gags, and use of racist slurs, Blazing Saddles does have a serious message, and it expresses the message by subverting tropes and breaking things: the western film genre, stereotypes, expectations, time and the fourth wall. The film has often been misunderstood by critics, for example as a simple burlesque, but it has also been an audience favorite. Brooks was aided by four other writers, including comedian Richard Pryor, in an unusually chaotic screenwriting process. We will all be arrested for this movie.'īlazing Saddles is a 1974 movie directed by Mel Brooks. “ ”As Mel Brooks once said to his writers on Blazing Saddles, which is a great film, 'Write anything you want, because we'll never be heard from again.

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