Most Western movies are gritty affairs with actors, like Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, delivering justice and battling outlaws. Once in a while, you get another sort of Western that turns familiar tropes, like a hired gunslinger saving a town, on their head to create a comedy masterpiece.
Blazing Saddles is a legendary Western spoof known for its outrageous slapstick humor. It’s often regarded as one of the funniest movies of all time and was nominated for three Oscars, including best supporting actress for Madeline Kahn, Best Song, and Best Editing.
This Mel Brooks-directed movie was released in 1974 and made almost $120 million off a $2.6 million budget. It stars Cleavon Little as Sheriff Bart, Gene Wilder as The Waco Kid, Madeline Kahn as Lili Von Shtupp, and Harvey Korman as the villainous Attorney General, Hedley Lamarr.
It’s also been recognized as culturally significant and inducted into the National Film Registry for preservation. The movie might be old, but it’s still regarded as fresh with an 89% critic score and a 90% audience on Rotten Tomatoes.
There’s no doubt that Blazing Saddles is a product of its time and the zany plot would probably be considered offensive today. A railroad under construction in the old west runs into quicksand and needs to be diverted through the town of Rock Ridge. The corrupt attorney general wants the town for himself and sends his goons to intimidate the townspeople who refuse to leave.
They refuse and petition the governor to send a new sheriff to protect them. The attorney general and governor connive to send an inexperienced railroad worker to be the town’s first black sheriff in an attempt to offend them and cause disunity. He ignores the townspeople’s initial hostility and teams up with an alcoholic former gunslinger to save the town.
Hilarity enures as they must battle more bad guys sent to destroy the town, and find unlikely allies in the form of the other railroad workers. The movie is stuffed with gags and cultural references and has a self-aware tone that winks at the audience while it spoofs the Western genre.
- notable shows
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Kitchen Nightmares, Merlin
- notable movies
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Clueless, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, How to Train Your Dragon, Mean Girls, Star Trek
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Yes, $13.99 per month
- Originals
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No
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YouTube is one of the biggest internet video platforms of them all, with news content, viral videos, niche fandoms, and everything in between.
Blazing Saddles is now available on YouTube
You can now stream the funniest western of all time for free with ads
Blazing Saddles is currently available to stream here for here on YouTube. Yes, YouTube isn’t just for shorts and fun videos and also has a movie library with an extensive list of titles in every genre. You can also rent or buy Blazing Saddles on Amazon Prime Video, Fandango, and Apple TV if you prefer an ad-free experience.
If you prefer buying a physical copy for your collection, you can find the Blu-ray and 4K UHD versions on Amazon.
More free movies on Youtube
If you enjoy the irrelevant humor of Blazing Saddles, you can also see other fun comedies on YouTube. Monty Python and the Holy Grail is another comedy classic which parodies Arthurian legends and the knights of the round table on their quest to find the Holy Grail. Up in Smoke invented the stoner comedy genre and was responsible for launching Cheech and Chong’s movie career.
- Release Date
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February 7, 1974
- Runtime
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93 minutes
- Director
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Mel Brooks
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Harvey Korman
Hedley Lamarr
