Posted on 05/09/2014 7:05:49 AM PDT by rktman
There are plenty of lousy film comedies, but there are only two that I outright hate: "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" and "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby." Both were released in 2006 when Hollywood's fury against George W. Bush had reached its peak, and both let the voters who re-elected him in 2004 have it with both barrels.
On its face you would think that Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles" chose the exact same targets (rural Red Staters) to humiliate, but he didn't. With his masterpiece (that has just been released as a special 40th anniversary edition Bluray), Brooks managed to craft a hilarious comedy with a social message, and do it without coming off as a cold, mean-spirited Hollywood snob.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Most important lesson from Blazing Saddles: “No Irish”.
This has always been my favorite movie... What I didn’t know until reading a biography about him, was that Richard Pryor was behind most of the writing and was intended to have the role as Sheriff but the Exec’s (and Brooks) chickened out.
**We have a lot of old movies, too, but I’ve also started to collect TV westerns on DVD. The heroes were always strong, intelligent, and good with a gun***
Same here. I got lots of old RANDOLPH SCOTT, Joel McCrea, and Gary Cooper movies. Many many others.
Lots of dramas from the 30s through the 70s.
Song of the South is a great movie. As I recall, the most negative characters in it were a couple of bratty little white boys.
Saturday Night and Family guy (Simpsons as well) didn’t poke fun at the false idea of Disney’s racism or anti-semitism, they promoted it.
It’s really stupid that all these guys who went through CalArts, a school Disney funded to get started, buy in to the big lie (begun by Communists in retaliation for Disney testifying in 1947 to the HUAC) of his racism and anti-semitism. They try to place worse libels on him as well.
I think there was a line in that scene about “Sissy Marys.”
Great, great stars and actors you have there. Just watched Gary Cooper in “Ball of Fire.” What a delight that movie is.
We also have a ton of foreign movies. Nothing like sitting at the computer while your husband goes through Japanese movies made during WWII. Torture!
He struck me as a genuinely likeable person. He was a guest star on one of my favorite Rockford Files episodes. I agree that he died way too soon.
****I’m about as far from overly serious as one can be but Blazing Saddles is simply not the greatest comedy that Hollywood ever produced.***
As a satire comedy it is ok, as a situation comedy I still prefer IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD.
Each is a comedy in a different format. Years ago I saw HARDBODIES on HBO. Silly and the only reason I watched was to see, well ah, never mind. It was on not long ago. It was so bad I shut it off after about 10 minutes. Way too juvenile. Very forgettable.
Dom’s great grandmother and my great grandmother were sisters from Palermiti Catanzaro Calabria.
Mr Mike. What a sad lost pathetic person.
There are anecdotes in his first book about his family. His mother killing chickens in the kitchen in their...Brooklyn flat? I don’t think it was The Bronx. Funny man.
Try finding the book “Little Black Sambo.” Same thing, very difficult to find, but as it cannot be controlled like film masters, they may be located.
Offensive or not, these things are actually historical documents. People think by banning offensive material they remove the offense. Not true. Will it be a better world if people grow up believing there was never anything offensive? SHould we get rid of all copies of “Mein Kampf”? What about those Shirley Temple movies where she dances with the happy slaves (LIttle Colonel?)? Should all Step n’ Fetch it films be sequestered?
Bad idea.
I rememebr seeing “Song of the South” as a child. Yes, there are some objectionable things in the film, but it is also a document of traditional Black folk tales. Should those be lost?
I used to watch the original thirty minute GUNSMOKE before it was downgraded to a kid friendly after 1968.
We knew when someone was going to get killed because that was when Matt opened the show with philosophizing from Boot Hill.
I didn’t know until recently that Sam Peckinpaugh wrote so many of the Rifleman scripts.
Facebook has it’s own IAMMMMW page filled with admirers. I saw it on its first release as a kid. Great movie. Started two of my relatives on the road to being comedy writers in LA.
Really??! That would explain it all.
I always remember the Cosby routine about his little kid wanting to watch “Froofie the Dog” instead of “Gunsmoke.”
“Ma, Dad was watching Gunsmoke, and they were drowning little baby kittens.”
So now I’m watching, “Froo-froo-Froofie The Dog.”
I love all of those shows. Gunsmoke definitely went downhill in the late 60s. But, my God, it was on for how many years? I first became fond of Steve McQueen from tv. First crush? Little Joe!
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