So Blazing Saddles was on Saturday night and I watched most of it for probably the 50th time. Of course any use of the “N” word is deleted now.
I got to wondering if this is a movie that could even be made now. As a satire any subject matter should for the most part be fair game but I really can’t imagine anyone trying to do this today.
By today’s standards is this a movie that is “racist”? It has to be one of the funniest movies of all time but I am looking at it from a different generations perspective.
I guess I am just curious if in this PC world this movie is now viewed any differently.
PS…I put this here. I didn’t think it fit in the movie forum and didn’t want to put it in P&R.
I’m guessing you watched it on some censored TV channel? The netflix version certainly isn’t censored.
I don’t think the movie is racist, it’s set in a time when that was the accepted language. Twenty years from now people will watch movies and be shocked that we call people who twitter “twits”, they’ll only know it as the T word.
I dunno if it’s racist because it’s so blatantly making fun of the racism of the time period it takes place in (and is filmed in). I doubt it could be made today though. :/
I have the DVD and it isn’t censored. My kids always wonders why I watch a movie with commercials when I have the DVD for it. I have no answer for her other than there are certain movies that when you come across them you have to stop and watch.
I don’t doubt that there will be some segment of the population who will view at as racist. Probably the same segment of the population who believe that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is also racist. The use of the “n” word seems to trigger an automatic cry of racism in some people.
It’s racist, but comprehensively so. Mel Brooks was always careful to make fun of everyone, including Jews, so he got away with a lot. It also helps that Clevon Little is the smartest character in the movie and the most racist whites are the dumbest.
That said, I rewatched it recently after twenty years and my monocle did pop out a few times.
No it isn’t. It has characters who are racist. Every racist character is depicted as an antagonist, all of whom by the end are either defeated or have seen the error of their ways (people of the land, etc). It’s pretty clearly anti-racist.
A racist film is one that acts as a proponent for racist viewpoints.
The wife and I watched it on TNT last year, and we were appalled by what they did to the movie. By “sanitizing” the language, they completely undercut the meaning of the film. For example, in the bargaining scene between the townsfolk and the sheriff, they cut the words “nigger” and “chink” but left in the word “Irish.” That scene makes NO sense without the words in it, and it is actually a hugely anti-racist scene. So much of the film is absolutely about how stupid people can be about completely trivial things, especially races, and either the TV execs just do not get it, or are so afraid of showing a movie that makes a statement that they destroy it while still wanting to make money from showing it. I find it shameful.
Blazing Saddles is as racist as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and should be handled with the same amount of care and redaction.
By the way, am I the only one who wondered whether Bioshock Infinite should have gone ahead and used the N-word? I’m glad I didn’t have to make that call, but if Django Unchained can play so freely with racism, why can’t Bioshock Infinite?
This, completely. Blazing Saddles routinely makes every “greatest film comedies of all time” list for two reasons. First, it’s freaking hilarious, and second, it’s a landmark in the civil rights struggle. The satire it levels at racism is savage, and it’s also the first example of a black/white buddy comedy that I can think of (and one of the earliest black/white buddy films, period, predated by Brian’s Song but not much else).
A bit oblique to the topic, but Richard Pryor was one of the Blazing Saddles writers and a good friend of Brooks. Both Pryor and Little supported the use of the N-word. Pryor was originally due to play the part that went to Cleavon Little but the studio execs balked because he was deep into the drugs at the time.
Depends on the context. In this particular instance, no.
The most racist use of the term for me is when there is an attempt to make the word casual/amusing.
What is described in this video is a lot more racist imo:
Well, racial, not racist. You couldn’t get away with most of the racist comments in that movie today unless you’re in a edge-fest like Tarantino produces. Throw it in a comedy and people would freak out, regardless of context. I agree that the movie isn’t “racist” in the sense of it being made with any ill will or anger, but the racism in the movie is a couple of cuts above what would get by today.
So, question: was it racist in Spaceballs when the black stormtroopers were combing the desert with a hair pick? There’s no context to excuse it since it’s just a throwaway joke, but it’s poking a bit of fun at black culture, which is usually interpreted as racism. Granted only on the level of “White people dance like this . . .”
