Take Five
By George Rose
August 11, 2009
In an effort to scare away the citizens, the governor (Mel Brooks) is conned into sending one of the black laborers to become the town's new sheriff. Okay, fine, Mel Brooks always plays the near-mentally-challenged character in high power (he was the evil ruler in Spaceballs), but this time he plays the part with... crossed eyes? He's the director, so there is nobody to blame for this annoyance but him. Why he finds it funny to have his characters be blatant buffoons is beyond me. Not funny-stupid, just plain stupid. Gags include bumping heads and the inability to play with a rubber ball attached to a paddle. The eight-year-olds in Role Models are funnier and, quite frankly, are better actors.
The town of Rock Ridge is apprehensive of the new black sheriff. If you can't tell from their frequent use of the N-word, then you aren't picking up on the obvious ways in which Brooks tries to convey this message. And what better way to cover up this lack of subtlety than to add more gags about people getting hit on the head, old women being impossibly aggressive, and a group of rowdy cowboys eating beans, which leads to a symphony of farting. Was 1974 really so boring that everyone found this movie hilarious enough that it would become deemed a classic and nominated for three Academy Awards? This is why I don't watch "classics." Because they are classic to a period in time. Rarely do they hold up and bring the same joy to the present that they once did.
One redeeming quality of the film is Jim (Gene Wilder), the fastest shooter in the world who is now a raging drunk. His relationship with the sheriff, Bart (Cleavon Little), is both sweet and funny, mainly because it has what the movie lacks so much of: subtlety. Gene gives the most restrained performance of the film, which makes me care about what he's doing. Together, he and Bart successfully plot genuinely funny ways to deter the advances of the corrupt political figures trying to profit from the abandonment of Rock Ridge. This middle-third of the movie is the best, and is the only thing saving it from receiving the D-grade I had in mind based on the beginning.
But just when this compelling, yet poorly executed, plot seems to be on the rise to a C-grade, Brooks breaks reality. A group of criminals (Mexicans and the KKK, of course) is gathered to destroy the town. The final action sequence doesn't just have the angry mob and citizens battle past the limits of the town, though. They break out into... the dessert? No, out to a Hollywood studio lot, onto the set of a gay musical. While the N-word may not have personally offended me (though it did bother me plenty), every gay character did. Not a single one of them showed any ounce of masculinity, all flailing around like helpless ballerinas. Leave it to Hollywood to project false, negative stereotypes. By "breaking the boundaries" or race, reality and sexuality, Blazing Saddles became too distracted from the core of the film, the parts which could have made for a classic Western comedy: Jim and Bart. Just before the film ends, with the pair finding their way to a screening of the Blazing Saddles movie, the main antagonist says, "taxi, drive me off this picture." With a sigh of disappointment, I tell myself, now that's advice that should be taken.
Overall Rating: C-
Continued:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Print this column
