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| I just want Mel Brooks to hire me so I can legitimately say this to someone. |
"Blazing Saddles? You could never make that movie today." I hear this phrase a lot, usually from someone who acts like they just came up with this thought, and it drives me crazy. Because *of course* you can make Blazing Saddles today.
So you have to wonder why people would say this. The likeliest suspect is the repeated use of the n-word. I'm here to say that's horseshit. I'll explain in a moment. Let's first take a look at movies people say you can't make today and why that would seem to be the case.
Revenge of the Nerds. They wouldn't be able to make it because of its depiction of playful sexual assault. The panty raid would not fly today. Nor would having sex with someone who thinks you're someone else.
Porky's. Obviously the shower scene. But I recently watched it again and noticed something else that I didn't remember from way back when. Casual use of the n-word by someone who is not a villain and never suffers consequences for it.
Even a movie as recent as The 40-Year-Old Virgin would be problematic for the gay jokes.
So why would I not think the same thing of Blazing Saddles? For one, who is it, exactly, that keeps saying the n-word? Racists. Assholes. Villains. You never hear that word coming out of the mouth of a character who is supposed to be viewed in a heroic light. Also, you might want to remember that one of the writers of the movie was Richard Pryor. Put all of that together, and it's not a racist movie. It's *about* racism. Only white people would be upset over a remake of this movie, and I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut about offending white people. Rest assured, the rolling doughnut is safe and will continue on its merry way.
There are a couple of gay jokes, but the people they're about seem to emerge victorious, so that's not an issue. Maybe it's Mel Brooks playing a Native American, but that's can't be it, either. Westerns back then were notorious for casting white people to play native roles. This is Brooks making fun of them. So the butt of the joke is not Native Americans; it's the studios who cast white people to play them. And the only thing that could possibly be considered sexual assault is when a nightclub dancer seduces the sheriff and makes him think that she's there because she's attracted to him instead of the fact that she's working for Hedy Lamarr.
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| It's Hedley! |
The only thing that I can think of is the meta ending that no one ever remembers. Would audiences ride along for that kind of picture show? Maybe not.
But I say fuck it. We can make Blazing Saddles today, and it would still be just as relevant, what with police officers murdering Black people almost every week and middle-aged white women calling the cops on Black people who they don't think "belong" in their neighborhood when it turns out they've lived there for years. Could you imagine how awesome Blazing Saddles would be if it came from Donald Glover and Diallo Riddle?
By the way, what in the unholy name of fuck is a Blazing Saddle?!?!?!?!
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