Posted on 09/01/2016 8:34:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Gene Wilder, star and writer of some of Hollywood’s greatest comedy classics, passed away this week at 83 years of age from complications of Alzheimer’s. He partnered with Mel Brooks for the best work both of them have done, including the original version of The Producers, Young Frankenstein, and one of my all-time favorite films, Blazing Saddles. Those films and others have long been in rotation on the movie channels and even on cable and broadcast outlets, albeit with heavy editing, but have been absent from the big screen for decades.
Those who never caught Blazing Saddles on the big screen will get their chance this weekend:
AMC Theaters nationwide are bringing a few of Gene Wilder’s most beloved films back to theaters this weekend.
The theater chain announced Thursday that audiences can catch “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Blazing Saddles” this Saturday and Sunday evening at 55 participating AMC locations.
The re-release of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory won’t cause any backlash from anyone, save perhaps the family of original author Roald Dahl, who reportedly hated it in part because of the casting of Wilder in the title role. It’s a classic children’s film, perhaps a bit too much of its time, but still has plenty of charm and no little moral instruction against the sins of gluttony, pride, sloth, and so on. If you haven’t seen it, and especially if all you’ve seen is the also-worthy Tim Burton remake Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with its headshaking subplots, try to catch it. Wilder is wonderful in the role, no matter what Dahl thought.
Blazing Saddles, however, is chock-full of language, portrayals, and scenes that will offend practically every convention in modern political correctness. Even in its time, it was considered a cutting-edge satire, edgy and risky, but it emerged in a time when freedom of speech was considered a much higher value than shying away from offense.
The makers of the new Ben-Hur got pilloried (unfairly, in my estimation) for remaking a classic, but it’s a very safe bet that Hollywood wouldn’t dare remake Blazing Saddles — and that reluctance has nothing to do with comparisons to the classic version. There is no way any comedy that included derogatory references to “n****rs” and “chinks” in the first five minutes would ever get green-lit today, let alone released — even for social satire from a small-L liberal point of view. Richard Pryor co-wrote the film (and was originally cast to play Sheriff Bart), but even if he was still alive to endorse the project today, it’s doubtful in the extreme that anyone would touch it.
Just how “triggering” will this get? Take a look at this scene, which is generally representative of the satirical humor throughout. Sheriff Bart (the late Cleavon Little) shows up for the first time in Rock Ridge, gives a good flavor of the film … and needless to say is Not Safe for Work:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
AMC may need to keep a theater open in all 55 locations for “safe spaces” for all those triggered by some of the stronger material in the film. That’s what makes this re-release in honor of Wilder and his comic genius so ironic — and so necessary. Kudos to AMC for recognizing this and for taking a risk, even though it might be mitigated by the film’s 42-year-old status as a classic. Blazing Saddles skewers bigotry as well as political correctness, while operating at its most superficial level as a hilarious send-up of old westerns. It’s precisely the antidote we need to hyperventilation about “triggers” and heckler’s vetoes over bruised feelings.
If you get the opportunity, find an AMC participating in this retrospective. And just to hedge your bets, invest some of your retirement in the fainting-couch industry before Saturday.
In honor of Gene Wilder, here’s a classic clip of The Waco Kid and Sheriff Bart, along with Harvey Korman and Slim Pickens And yeah, this is Not Safe for Work either, and probably contains a social-justice warrior trigger or two:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
RIP, Gene Wilder. Thanks for decades of laughs, and for the decades to come as well.
Wilder was very very funny, yes!
but definitely not all of his movies were completely PC....
such as this unfortunate clip?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=493pL_Vbtnc
Mel Brooks offered John Wayne first dibs on that part.
The Producers isn’t the most popular Gene Wilder movie, but in my opinion, the best. He played that neurotic bean counter perfectly.
Wonka actually bombed at the theatre, it was considered too dark for children.
There are scenes that still bust my guts even after several viewings.
First time I saw Blazing Saddles was in SOuth Carolina, me and my white boyfriend in a theater that was FILLED with black folks...IN SOUTH CAROLINA!!!!!! I didnt care, I was a fishbelly white chick form Minnesota, and I laughed my butt off!
Every time I have seen it on the small screen it has been hacked to a fair thee well.
The DVD shouldn’t be censored.
HA!!!! that would have been great, too!
This Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory & Blazing Saddles return to 55 AMCs nationwide. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory will play at 5 p.m. at every participating location and Blazing Saddles will play at 7:30 p.m. All tickets are $5 for each title.
For Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory tickets head here & for Blazing Saddles tickets head here.
None of his films were PC at all, BTW; not even the one SHERLOCK HOLMES' YOUNGER, SMARTER BROTHER.
It isn’t, or at least the DVD I have isn’t.
Every time I have seen it on the small screen it has been hacked to a fair thee well.
Yes, the old broadcast TV cuts of the movie had so much of the theatrical version cut, Brooks had to supply some discarded scenes to fill the time (Mongo in the diving helmet is one example).
Oh yeah, AMC Owings Mills, near the end of the subway line from Baltimore, should be sooooo safe! /sarc
“Sooooooo, cracka, you goin’s ta watch Blazing Saddles?” *KNOCKOUT*
unfortunate because
1. just trying to be courteous to any readers who might misunderstand, and
2. the Klan tarred and feathered my uncle before throwing him in the river (it was their JV team I guess, because he survived) so anyway, other than that no particular reason for ‘unfortunate’
smile
smile
I bought Silver Streak and See no evil, Hear no evil a couple weeks ago. Both were Wilder and Pryor movies. In Silver Streak Richard buys some Kiwi brown shoe polish from a shoeshine man in a train station and makes Wilder look black to evade the police.
Anytime you get Brooks, Wilder, Pryor and Kahn together wear Depends. We still mimic lines from Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety (those two especially)......wonderful, funny, memorable movies. Brooks was an equal opportunity offender and that’s what I love about him and his movies.
Should the relatives of the dead and/or few survivors of the Holocaust, refuse to see THE PRODUCERS?
Should the friends and relatives of Marlene Dietrich have sued Madeline Kahn ?
There is NOTHING "unfortunate" about nonPC words/movies and anyone who takes offense because someone is smoking a cigarette in a 1940's movie, or Mel Brook's classic movies, needs to just grow up. Sorry; that's just my take on things.
He made fun of everyone and everything! He is also a true genius and whilst ALL of his movies aren’t “great”, most are and even the so-so ones are better than anything made today!
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