Iconic satire Blazing Saddles to screen as $5 film at the Panida

By Reader Staff

Among the many iconic comedy films of Mel Brooks’ career, Blazing Saddles could fairly be described as a high point not just for the writer-director-actor, but for the genre of satire as a whole.

Courtesy photo.

Set in 1874 in the small Western town of Rock Ridge, the film centers on Bart — a railroad worker who through happenstance ends up being named as the town’s first Black sheriff. His hiring couldn’t have come at a worse time — not only is he a Black man living in the 1870s, but there’s a plan in the works by corrupt Attorney General Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) to depopulate the town so he can capitalize on the land as it’s needed for a new railroad line.

Bart, played by Cleavon Little, needs to overcome Rock Ridge residents’ racism then marshal his forces to fight off Lamarr’s henchmen with the help of boozy gunfighter Jim, a.k.a., the “Waco Kid” (Gene Wilder).

The send-up of Western films also serves as a piece of social commentary on contemporary racism, and features a cast of greats like Madeline Kahn as cabaret singer Lili Von Shtupp, Slim Pickens as hired tough guy Taggart, Dom DeLuise as Buddy Bizarre (the fictional director within the film whose own musical gets interrupted by the actors in Blazing Saddles) and no less than Count Basie in a cameo appearance.

Brooks plays dim-witted sleazeball Gov. William J. Lepetomane (a riff on the stage name of the late-19th and early-20th century French performer who made his fame by farting for an audience) and a deeply politically incorrect tribal chief.

Practically every scene in the film is a masterclass in subversive humor, which should come as no surprise since Richard Pryor was among its screenwriters. The film is such an icon that the Library of Congress considered it “culturally historically or aesthetically significant” enough to warrant inclusion in the National Film Registry.

One thing’s for certain: They don’t make them like Blazing Saddles anymore, and the Panida Theater will host a special $5 screening of the film on Friday, June 7 at 7 p.m. Doors open 30 minutes before the show. Get tickets at panida.org or at the door, 300 N. First Ave., in downtown Sandpoint.