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.
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!
Max, he’s wearing a dress.
You’re so right
I’ve always been a HUGE fan of Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder and that whole stable of greats. I have every one of their movies...made together and made separately. I even have just about ALL of them on discs. :-)
I saw that mall featured in a web documentaey entitled “deadmall”. Isn’t the current occupancy rate like 20%?
CC
Sorry, I just checked. The theater is the only remaining part of the mall. The rest has been torn down.
CC
Blazing Saddles is shown on the television from time to time here in Indonesia, and is shown full and uncensored. Mayhaps the locals don’t get it .....
Why no one mentions Start The Revolution Without Me is madness.
It was hilarious.
Probably my favorite Wilder movie, even above WW and YF.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svB0cl3gGs
I saw Blazing Saddles in the theater when it first came out.
The PC versions suck.
Thanks,
I need to update My collection.
I crossed paths with him twice. Once when I was 17 he came into the store where I worked. I was wearing a t shirt that said “Je t’aime,” meaning “I love you” in French. He gave me a big smile and said “Je t’aime aussi.” (I love you, too.)
Then later when I was in college, one day I snuck away and walked to a matinee of some Woodly Allen movie (before he slept with his stepdaughter or raped his actual daughter). I was almost alone in the theater. There was one guy up front, also alone, laughing uproariously. When the lights came on, guess who it was? Gene Wilder.
I’m sorry he had to end his life with Alzheimer’s. My parents were his age and they did/are as well. RIP to a smart and funny man.
That was Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles, not Richard Pryor
Pryor was one of the writers IIRC
Oh I know that. No one could have played the Sheriff better than Cleavon......I was talking about Pryor as far as some of the comedies he and Gene Wilder made like “Stir Crazy”...and I think Pryor was involved in the writing of Blazing Saddles if I’m not mistaken. Anyhoo, they were all comic geniuses and left us with alot of good laughs and memories.
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