However, we do need a bit of hand-holding if we want to watch it on HBO Max. We might get the wrong ideas from the movie. We might miss the subtle sociological commentary and nuanced discussion of race in America. We need someone to explain to us why it’s okay to laugh at funny jokes, even if they have the N-word in them.
Ryan Parker, Hollywood Reporter:
If you really need someone to explain to you that Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder are the good guys in Blazing Saddles, and the bad guys are racist bigots whose behavior you should not emulate — especially after a plate of beans — maybe you shouldn’t be watching this movie without adult supervision.
https://pjmedia.com/culture/jim-tre...hing-it-doesnt-turn-you-into-a-racist-n791840
Ryan Parker, Hollywood Reporter:
Blazing Saddles is currently streaming on HBO Max, along with a new introduction that automatically plays before the Mel Brooks classic begins…
TCM host and University of Chicago cinema and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart provides the intro to Blazing Saddles. She also did the intro for Gone With the Wind.
The professor is near!A little more than three-minutes long, Stewart’s intro puts the bigotry and racist language in context, the host saying, “as the storyline implies the issue of race is front and center in Blazing Saddles. And racist language and attitudes pervade the film. But those attitudes are espoused by characters who are portrayed here as explicitly small-minded, ignorant bigots. The real, and much more enlightened perspective, is provided by the main characters played by Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder.”
If you really need someone to explain to you that Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder are the good guys in Blazing Saddles, and the bad guys are racist bigots whose behavior you should not emulate — especially after a plate of beans — maybe you shouldn’t be watching this movie without adult supervision.
https://pjmedia.com/culture/jim-tre...hing-it-doesnt-turn-you-into-a-racist-n791840