Blazing Saddles (1974), Mel Brook's western comedy

Two nights ago, around at 4AM, my sleep deprived mind was craving an all around enjoyable feel good film. So I went to the kitchen, made a bowl of spicy hot soup noodles and looked through a list of classic popular films that I somehow missed. Soon I stumbled upon this film "Blazing Saddles" by Mel Brooks and took a peek at its imdb profile. This is how the synopsis went —

In order to ruin a western town, a corrupt politician appoints a black Sheriff, who promptly becomes his most formidable adversary.

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I thought to myself—hmm, this is probably a political comedy in spirit of the civil rights movement. But I was kinda wrong. While it does have the core spirit of anti-racial ideas, it mocks all kinds of racial prejudices, stereotypes and then mocks them some more! It is a work of satire, with hints of black comedy.

A railroad is being constructed by black slaves. There's a quicksand ahead but no one knows where that is. Send two horses ahead to see whether they sink? No! Horses are too valuable. Send two black slaves instead!
Want to acquire huge amount of lands from the native Indians? Trade it for some ping-pong balls and bats. Seems like a fair deal!
Want to dupe a couple of KKK members? Lure them saying a black man was with white women, that will catch their attention!

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Railroads are a common trope in western films, aptly so, as they brought about progress and commerce and spread it far and wide.
With prosperity comes the greedy bunch. In Blazing Saddles, a politician wants to acquire a town that's directly on the path of the railroad. The railroad will cross the town and its value will likely skyrocket. But the townspeople have to be driven out first, as they are not likely to leave their homeland on their own accord. The politician first tries to scare them by letting loose hooligans on them, murdering the town sheriff. When that fails to shatter their spirit—he thinks of a devious plan that cannot possibly fail!
He conspires with the governor to appoint a Black Sheriff to the town! Surely, the townspeople will murder their own sheriff all by themselves. Whoever heard of a black sheriff ever?!

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The gullible idiot of a governor (played beautifully by Mel brooks himself) green lights the appointment, imagining himself right beside the forefathers of America—Jefferson, Lincoln and possibly ...himself...?
But things do not go as the the politician hopes. The new sheriff begins to change things that go directly to oppose him.

Some comedy elements are forceful, almost imposed. So silly that you cannot help but take notice. But the film itself is aware of that silliness and proceeds to break the fourth wall with it—and I've loved it! Mel Brooks wanted to be the film to be whacky and light, despite the heavy themes; and he succeeded. If he did not take that route, many of the comedy elements couldn't be justified for being there.

The film was entertaining enough that I didn't want to take a break and went to sleep after 6AM when the curtain dropped. I think I can suggest it to any film going folks out there without worrying much.

Happy watching!
Oh! And good luck for the new cine tribe. I'm hoping to have some quality time here!

Blazing Saddles (1974),
Imdb - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071230/
Trailer -