The film takes place in the wild west during 1874. A bunch of slaves are working on building a railroad and are being forced to sing a song as if they were enjoying their free work. But a few of them fall into quicksand yet are able to get out.

The territorial attorney general, Hedley Lamarr, discovers that having a railroad could make the town, Rock Ridge, worth millions of dollars. He decides to make all the residents of the town leave and send a gang to shoot the sheriff.

Of course, the residents are not happy with that. They demand a new sheriff for protection. A black man, named Bart, is chosen, hoping that he could scare away enemies.

Unfortunately, when he is selected, the townspeople are not pleased. He gets a lot of mistreatments from the public. Eventually, he holds himself “hostage” in order to escape with the help of an alcoholic inmate, Jim.

Later, a scary man, Mongo, enters Rock Ridge, frightening everyone away. He knows about Bart as well as Lamarr’s connection to the railroad, which is going to go through Rock Ridge.

Learning that his town is in danger, Lamarr gathers a bunch of fighters to stop Rock Ridge from being destroyed.

I will admit that this movie was a little hard to follow. I was able to understand the basic plot, but the constant POV-switching made it more difficult to understand beyond that.

And unfortunately, the movie is a bit too dated. Even though it was released in 1974, it had a lot of uses of the N-word. And I didn’t like that, particularly when Bart asked a woman how she was doing, and she was racist to him.

On the bright side, it did have some positive moments. One was when they broke the 4th wall and “left” the movie and into the real world. That was hilarious.

Another moment that I liked was when the slaves sang “I Get a Kick Out of You” (originally from Anything Goes) but twisted the lyrics. That is always fun.

And Gene Wilder is also in this movie. You probably know him from 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Young Frankenstein, which also came out in 1974. He played Jim. I found it interesting to see him play a guy with a drinking problem.

Otherwise, Blazing Saddles was just okay. My main issue was prejudice. I am surprised that the filmmakers were able to get away with this in the 70s, especially since racism was likely becoming more unacceptable. At that point, segregation laws had been abolished too.

Note that the movie is also rated R for mature language. So, it is not suitable for kids. And I really wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who gets easily offended by any story that uses insensitive slurs.

I give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.