We've broken into the top 20! Now we're getting serious.
What better way to kick off the top 20, than to start with Mel Brooks' most treasured comedy masterpiece.
In the old west in the year 1874, construction on a new railroad will soon be going through Rock Ridge, a town inhabited exclusively by white people with the surname Johnson. When Hedley Lamarr (comedy legend Harvey Korman) wants to force Rock Ridge's residents to abandon their town to lower land prices and allow a smoother, better construction of railroad, he sends a gang of thugs, led by his flunky assistant Taggart (comedy legend Slim Pickens) to shoot the sheriff and trash the town. It worked, as the townspeople demand that the Governor of their state, William J. Le Petomane (comedy legend Mel Brooks himself) appoint a new sheriff to protect them. Hedley easily sways the inept Le Petomane to appoint Bart (Cleavon Little), the black railroad worker who was about to be hanged, as the new sheriff of Rock Ridge. Hedley surmises that as a black sheriff, Bart will offend the townspeople, create chaos, and force people to leave the town anyway.
With his quick wits, lovable attitude, friendly nature, and the assistance of recovering alcoholic gunslinger Jim "The Waco Kid" (comedy legend Gene Wilder), Bart works to overcome the townspeople's hostile reception and even become a renowned member of the populace. He subdues Mongo (Alex Karras), an immensely strong, dim-witted, but philosophical henchman sent to kill him, and then seduces the German seductress-for-hire Lili von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) at her own game. Lamarr, furious that his schemes have backfired, hatches a larger plan involving a recruited army of thugs, including common criminals, Ku Klux Klansmen, Nazi soldiers, and Methodists. "Hey, where the white women at?"
Three miles east of Rock Ridge, Bart introduces the white townspeople to the black and Chinese railroad workers, who chose to assist the white townsfolk in exchange for their acceptance into their community. Bart explains his plan to defeat Lamarr's goons to build a dummy town that would diver them from their real one. They labor all night to build a perfect replica of their town, but Bart realizes it won't fool the villains with no people inside it. While the townspeople construct replicas of themselves, Bart, Jim, and Mongo buy time by constructing the "Gov. William J. Le Petomane Thruway," forcing the raiding party to turn back for "a shitload of dimes" to pay the toll. Once through the tollbooth, the raiders attack the fake town populated with dummies, which are boobytrapped with dynamite bombs. The Waco Kid detonates the bombs with his sharpshooting, launching bad guys and horses skyward, leaving the citizens of Rock Ridge to storm LaMarr and his cronies.
The resulting brawl between townsfolk, railroad workers, and LaMarr's thugs breaks the fourth wall, quite literally spilling onto a neighboring movie set where director Buddy Bizarre (comedy legend Dom DeLuise) is directing a tophat and cane dance movie, and then into the studio cafeteria for a food fight, and then out of the Warner Bros. film lot into the streets of Burbank, CA. Hedley LaMarr hails a taxi and orders the driver to "drive him off this picture." He ducks into Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which is playing the premiere of Blazing Saddles. As he sneaks into the thaeter screening, he sees Bart arriving on horseback outside the theater. Bart halts LaMarr's escape, and then, in a spoof of a classic cinematic gunfight, shoots him in the balls. Bart and Jim then go into the Chinese Theater to watch the end of the film for themselves, which shows Bart announces to the townspeople that he is moving on, for his work there is done (and he is bored). Riding out of town, he finds Jim, the Waco Kid, finishing his popcorn from the movie theater and invites him along to "nowhere special." The two friends then ride off into the sunset in a chauffeured stretch limousine, despite the fact they're in the old west.
Blazing Saddles will have you in stitches every time you watch it. It frequently tops "top comedy" lists, "most quotable movies" lists, "best ensemble comedy acts" lists; it's very much worth your time to check it out. The quotable lines, the cast of comedy movie icons, the ridiculous twists & turns of the story; it's all going to have you rolling on the floor. It kickstarted Mel Brooks' comedy career following the success of his film The Producers and saw him go on to make other comedy flicks such as Young Frankenstein, History of the World - Pt. 1, and Spaceballs. Give it a watch, if you haven't because you've been living under a rock. You won't be disappointed. Even if you've watched it a thousand times, watch it again for old time's sake.
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