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Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition) Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 62 Reviews)

Blazing Mel!
Blazing Saddles is a comic masterpiece! Mel Brooks took the idiocy of racism and showcased it in the guise of a western farce. Cleavon Little is fantastic as sherrif Bart, the poor guy who has to deal with a world full of bigotted numbskulls. Gene Wilder is perfect as his sidekick "The Waco Kid", a washed-up, incredibly drunk ex-gunslinger (who's so fast he doesn't need a gun). Harvey Korman proves that there's more to him than his role on the Carol Burnett show. He is pure evil and purely hysterical as "Hedley Lamar"! Madeline Kahn dances, sings, and seduces Bart as Von Schtupp. I find this movie to be as funny the tenth time as it was the first. Mel Brooks is a genius! If looked at superficially, Blazing Saddles might be seen as offensive. However, as a commentary on how dumb racism really is, it soars! Enjoy...

New and improved but not pefect
Mel Brooks' classic western farce comes to DVD for the second time and the second coming is well worth the wait. Although it isn't perfect, the 30th anniversary edition has a lot of great extras that weren't on the previous DVD. I have to disagree with some of the 1 starred comments here about the film. While there is no "scene by scene" commentary (actually, the box says it is a "scene specific" commentary. In reality, it's Mel's hour interview from the previous set), there's the great "Back in the Saddle" documentary which discusses the original making of the film with writer Andrew Bergman, Brooks, star Wilder and others. We also get additional scenes (some of which were in a televised version of the film when it was shown on network TV), the television pilot "Black Bart" (with Lou Gossett and Steve Landensberg of "Barney Miller" fame). The 1/2 hour pilot has some funny bits in it although the laugh track (which was common at the time)is annoying. It's nice to finally have this available. We also get the theatrical trailer which given the time the film was made is actually pretty good. It's clear it was going to be shown to a general audience so there's none of the best bits from the film and, in fact, it plays like a parody of the "traditional" trailer. There's also an excerpt from the Biography program on Madeline Kahn. I'd much prefer to have a two disc edition with the full length biography as well as any other bits and pieces on the wayside but, well, this is what we have.

The remastered sound and picture looks very good and improves on the previous edition (which, admittedly, looked pretty good). We only get the widescreen version not the full screen as well (which is fine with me but some folks would want that version). There are some minor analog imperfections visible but, on the whole, the print looks very good.

"Blazing Saddles" looks good and has some tasty extras. The movie deserves 5 stars.

Great Movie, Just not up to DVD
I have to start this by saying that this is one of the funniest movies of all time. The problem is with the packaging of the DVD. First, the box is cheap. Not a hard plastic case, but one made out of cardboard. Secondly, where are the Mongo scenes? Those who seen this on network TV remember scenes where Mongo has an anvil dropped on his head, is dropped down a well, and all other sorts of Warner Brother foolery a la Bugs Bunny. The only bit you get is the "Candygram for Mongo." (Track 12). The other missing scene (at least the only other I can remember) is where Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder are being chased by Harvey Korman's gang after the "Sign In" scene (Track 18). They elude their persuers by blending in with a group of baptists.

I'm not saying that the movie is lacking because of these scenes, but I was dissapointed that they weren't included. To me, DVD is about having some of those extras. I looked between the boxed set and the single-sale disk and I can't see a difference in the features. The disk you get is double sided with widescreen on one side and regular viewing on the other. The quality of the print could be better; it seems a bit grainy. I have the feeling that this was something that somebody at Warner Brothers slapped together just to increase the DVD library.

If you can find it cheap, go ahead and get it. I have it and I'll buy it again IF it comes out with the extra scenes and a couple more features like out-takes and the such. This movie is nearly 30 years old (EEK! I was 7 when it came out.), there should be a Special Edition issued.

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