Chris At The Pictures

Released in 1974 but set 100 years previously, Mel Brooks Western-comedy Blazing Saddles holds many accolades, including three academy awards, a place on four of the AFI’s prestigious ‘Top 100’ lists, but most notably it was the first major studio picture to contain a fart joke (seriously, look it up). And if that isn’t enough to catch your attention, then there’s really no hope for you. So don your cowboy hats, load your six-shooters and whoopee cushions to revisit a comedy classic.

The film tells the story of Bart (Cleavon Little), a black railroad worker who is employed by Baron Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) as the new sheriff of Rock Ridge in order to scare off the townsfolk so the Baron can purchase the land. However, upon arriving in the town, the sheriff quickly proves his value to the townspeople and they begin to rally behind him and his partner Jim (Gene Wilder).

Little is likeable and charming in his role, bouncing off Wilder well, just managing not to be overshadowed by him through a selection of key scenes, the majority of which I’d rather not give away if anyone reading has never seen it (shame on you), save for a moment in which he turns to a pair of Klu Klux Klan members and exclaims ‘Where the white women at?’. Harvey Korman as Lamarr steals the show whenever he’s on screen, alternating between tight-lipped sarcasm and pants-on-head insane whilst perfectly offset by Slim Pickens as Taggart, his slow-minded crony. Mel Brooks makes an appearance as Governor Lepetomane and is instantly hilarious. There is just something about that cross-eyed, cigar smoking face gawping towards the camera that will never be anything but funny.

Where the comedy is concerned, there are great swathes of gags in all varieties, from simple visual jokes (a hangman placing the noose around a horse and the man sat upon it), to surrealist comedy (a pair of World War 2-era German soldiers making friends with the outlaws), to downright toilet humour (the famous beans around the campfire scene). The jokes are plentiful pushing the boundaries of what was deemed ‘good taste’ back in the 70’s, but they don’t all rush over themselves in an attempt to get quick laughs like many comedies nowadays. By placing an in-joke here, a farting scene there, then going completely for broke in the finale, it is clearly written by people who understand that the essence of comedy is timing, and Blazing Saddles has that down to a tee. Even the social/racial satire (though not always particularly subtle) is well-done, and at its heart is the idea of securing equality in a mainstream movie as a positive force in the mind of American audiences who – merely ten years previous – would have balked at the idea of a black protagonist.

One of the more striking things one notices upon re-watching the film is that, despite its comedic nature, it is still made like a traditional Western. The cinematography echoes the camerawork of classic movies such as The Searchers and the musical score carries a strain of epic motifs as well as the more traditional harmonica pieces one would come to expect. It might be conformity to stereotype but it helps sell the setting of the movie and therefore serves only to increase the audience’s bewilderment when the more surreal elements come into play (and trust me, when it gets to that point you’ll wonder if you've accidentally taped another movie over the film).

With its mixture of bizarre anachronisms, racial satire and toilet humour all played with a – nearly – straight face, Blazing Saddles is a remarkable comedy that has stood the test of time, and whose DNA can be clearly seen in everything from the Monty Python movies to Family Guy (Seth MacFarlane appears to have built up most of his back catalogue simply by ‘referencing’ or downright ripping-off the comedies of the 70’s and 80’s). Everything that A Million Ways to Die in the West does spectacularly wrong, Blazing Saddles did (albeit haphazardly) side-splittingly better forty years before. 

Directed, written by and starring Seth MacFarlane – creator of Family Guy and Ted – A Million Ways to Die in the West is a comedy western concerning a cowardly farmer named Albert (MacFarlane) whose girlfriend Louise (Amanda Seyfried) has left him. Desperate to win back her heart affections, he teams up with mysterious newcomer Anna (Charlize Theron) to hone his gun-fighting skills, find his bravery all whilst avoiding death by a menagerie of causes, including merciless outlaw and gun-slinger Clinch (Liam Neeson). 

In the background of this film is of course the original comedy western Blazing Saddles, a film that had laugh-a-minute jokes with characters and set pieces that were memorable. This, sadly, has none of that. The great strength in the better years of MacFarlane’s Family Guy, the comedy worked because there were twenty minutes in which to get the best laughs in, so a certain number of low-brow, crude humour was perfectly acceptable. This film just feels like a Family Guy episode that has been stretched far beyond a reasonable length at an ungodly two hour-long running time.

There is only so much comedy one can extract from bowel humour, and even then, it has to be carefully timed and set up properly. In this film, fart jokes and anatomy jokes and liberal use of foul language are just thrown in at a moment’s glance, and the worst thing is that there are jokes that should be funny (such as a flower being placed between the nether regions of an unconscious Liam Neeson) but don’t illicit a laugh because the setup hasn’t earned it. I can’t deny that there were three laughs during the film, but two came in the first twenty minutes and the third was during the end credits.

MacFarlane isn’t an enjoyable screen presence, and that is a problem when he’s front and centre for most of the film. Supposedly playing the only man who hates the West and a complete stranger to life there, he always looks a quick wardrobe change away from attending a premier: his hair, teeth and face are perfect while everyone else around him (save for the supporting cast) is miserably dirty. Charlize Theron does what she can in a role that only exist so MacFarlane can claim to his buddies that he kissed her, and Neil Patrick Harris is saddled with cringe-worthy dialogue that just doesn’t befit him. There are also a number of bizarre cameos, all of which appear to be there just for the director to show off all the buddies he’s made in the business.

It has to be said that in the film’s favour, the Western aesthetic is accurately replicated: a combination of period costumes, buildings, stunning landscape shots plus a suitably epic musical score provide a fitting backdrop – a handsomely shot one at that with a gorgeous palette bursting with colour – but all this is wasted on a film which just doesn’t meet the standards of it’s premise. 

A Million Ways to Die in the West is an exercise in extravagance: MacFarlane has gotten hold of a great big dressing up box and a bunch of his mates then headed out to the West to have a laugh for a couple of weeks with a script that in the end falls far too short. It drew three laughs from me, and with three writers and a shared back catalogue that includes good comedy material that just isn’t good enough.

1.5 stars