Blazing Saddles
Short description
Blazing Saddles is set in the frontier town of Rock Ridge, which stands in the path of a planned railroad. To drive the residents off their land, the crooked politician Hedley Lamarr sends in a gang of thugs to make the town unlivable. When the local sheriff is killed, the townspeople ask for a replacement, and Lamarr persuades the governor to appoint Bart, a Black railroad worker, expecting him to fail quickly. Bart instead takes the job seriously, and with the help of Jim, a gunfighter who spends much of his time drinking, he organizes the townspeople to defend Rock Ridge against the forces sent to destroy it.
Mel Brooks directed the film, which followed his The Producers and Young Frankenstein, both released before it, and preceded Silent Movie. Richard Pryor, Brooks and Andrew Bergman wrote the screenplay, and Michael Hertzberg produced. Cleavon Little plays Bart, Gene Wilder plays Jim, and the cast includes Slim Pickens, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, and Brooks himself as the governor.
Released in February 1974, the film runs 93 minutes. Made for about 3 million dollars, it took in roughly 120 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.7 from about 164,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 from around 2,164 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 8.4 from 75 reviews. The large gap between the number of audience votes and the number of reviews reflects how widely the film was seen.
What's left behind the scenes
- The scene in which Cleavon Little's (1939-1992) character points a gun at his own head to escape the townspeople is based on an incident from Mel Brooks’ own childhood. Once, he stole chewing gum and a water pistol from a pharmacy, and when the pharmacist tried to detain him, he did exactly the same thing – pointed the pistol at himself and ordered the pharmacist to stay put.
- When the film was first shown to Warner Brothers' executives, no one laughed once, so the filmmakers thought it was a failure and that the film would not be released. Mel Brooks arranged a screening for ordinary employees, and when they began to roar with laughter and laughed throughout the entire film, the decision was made to release it after all.
- Mel Brooks never told Frankie Laine (1913-2007) that the song “Blazing Saddles” would be used in the comedy (he thought it was for a Western). He believed that if Laine knew the truth, he would refuse to perform the song.
- Mel Brooks himself played two roles in this film: a cross-eyed, amorous governor and a Native American chief, the latter of whom speaks with a Jewish accent.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
