Mel Brooks’ BLAZING SADDLES Screens Midnights at The Tivoli This Weekend

“They said you was hung!”
“They was right!”

Mel Brooks’ BLAZING SADDLES screens this Friday and Saturday nights (July 7th and 8th) at midnight at the Tivoli Theater as part of their ‘Reel Late at the Tivoli’  Midnight series.

I showed the condensed Super-8 version of BLAZING SADDLES, appropriately enough, at my Super-8 POLITICALLY INCORRECT Movie Madness show a few years ago at The Way Out Club and there are enough N-words in the 18-minute edit alone to make Paula Dean blush, but damn, this movie just keeps getting funnier as it ages!

BLAZING SADDLES is my favorite Mel Brooks comedy. Yes, even more than YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN – it’s hard to believe Brooks produced both yuk-fests the same year. I just watched his 1977 follow-up HIGH ANXIETY on 16mm last weekend for the first time since it was new and Yikes! – I see why it was a critical disaster – didn’t laugh once!

Many of the sight gags in BLAZING SADDLES are straight out of Looney Tunes, and most of the dialogue is unspeakable in polite society. On the Looney Tunes point: Sheriff Bart (a very funny Cleavon Little) shows up in a period-inappropriate bellhop uniform, marches up to a rampaging lunkhead named Mongo, and says in a high-pitched Bugs Bunny-esque voice, “Telegram!” Mongo accepts the delivery, Sheriff Bart crisply walks away with his fingers in his ears, and the package explodes in Mongo’s face, leaving him sullied and smoking. The Merry Melodies theme plays and the scene fades to black. You might not expect that kind of thing to work in live action, but it does. As to the dialogue, Mel Brooks doesn’t exaggerate when he says in a recent interview that BLAZING SADDLES could not be made now. Strangely, it might skate by with a PG-13 rating, going strictly by the MPAA’s infamously “de facto censorship” system: there are no F-bombs and no nudity. Yet the overall impression is that far more sensitive taboos than these are being lampooned (if you know what I mean), and many are the jokes that might prompt boycotts, demonstrations, and general condemnation today. The pilot for the TV spin-off (called Black Bart) is included on the BLAZING SADDLES special edition DVD and I’m amazed how many times the N-word is used in that TV show! It was a different time indeed.

In 1974 BLAZING SADDLES was the highest-grossing film of the year, and Warner Brothers not only released it but was a character in it; the studio’s iconic lot–tour groups, cafeteria, and all–is the setting of one of the most memorable scenes. The movie’s repeated acknowledgment that it is a movie is another Mel Brooks hallmark. His films parody Hollywood, but they exhibit real affection for it too, and this one is full of references to the likes of Cecil B. DeMille, the Academy Awards, Douglas Fairbanks, HIGH NOON, and so on. In other words, this film contains the kind of smart, flattering stuff that Hollywood loves to reward, the fart jokes that audiences want, and the fresh, risky content that gives critics something to write about. It is a classic.

A side note: One time I was at a trivia night once and the category was “guess the movie from the quote”. One question was “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” Of course I wrote TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE, but the host claimed I was wrong and argued that the line was from BLAZING SADDLES! WTF!

Now you’ll have the chance to laugh your ass off and feel just terrible about it when BLAZING SADDLES plays on the big screen this weekend (July 7th and 8th) at The Tivoli at midnight as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli midnight series.

The Tivoli’s located at 6350 Delmar Blvd., University City, MO. Admission is a mere $8!

The Tivoli’s website can be found HERE

http://www.landmarktheatres.com/market/st.louis/tivolitheatre.htm

Here’s the Reel Late at the Tivoli Line-up for the next couple of months:  

July 14-15            TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990)

July 21-22            SHAFT (1971)

July 28-29            THE PRINCESS BRIDE 

Aug. 4-5               THE EXORCIST: EXTENDED DIRECTOR’S CUT

Aug. 11-12           SPIRITED AWAY 
Friday and Saturday at midnight, Subtitled
Saturday matinee at noon in English

Aug. 18-19           THE SHINING 

Aug. 25-26           THE ROOM  with Tommy Wiseau in person! –
Preceded by a trailer for Tommy’s upcoming film BEST F(R)IENDS
All tickets $15; no passes