Tucked away on Amazon Prime’s free streaming selection is a film so bold, bizarre, and beloved, it was once voted the funniest movie ever made.
Blazing Saddles – Mel Brooks’ genre-defying 1974 Western spoof – holds the number one spot in Rolling Stone’s “Readers’ Poll: The 25 Funniest Movies of All Time,” outranking modern cult classics like Anchorman, The Big Lebowski, and even Airplane!.
Part Western, part slapstick satire, Blazing Saddles arrived just as the Hollywood cowboy genre was beginning to ride off into the sunset. Instead of honouring the form, Brooks took every familiar trope – gruff sheriffs, corrupt politicians, dusty saloons – and gleefully tore them apart.
The story centres on Bart (Cleavon Little), a Black railroad worker unexpectedly appointed sheriff of the all-white town of Rock Ridge.
His appointment is part of a political ploy to drive townsfolk away and make room for a new railway line – but Bart, smart, smooth, and quick with a one-liner, has other ideas. He teams up with the washed-up gunslinger Jim (Gene Wilder), and together they battle ignorance, outlaws, and the Fourth Wall itself.
Scripted by Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, and notably Richard Pryor – whose influence is unmistakable – the film pulls no punches when it comes to race, class, or Hollywood’s own blind spots.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film boasts a strong 89% rating and continues to receive glowing reviews from new and returning viewers alike. One long-time fan wrote, “A hilarious movie with many quoted lines but most importantly a great message about how to treat people. A classic that I first watched almost 40 years ago. Was great seeing it for the first time on the big screen – and my teenage son saw it for the first time.”
Another added, “Hilarious!! Very eclectic and irreverent but still hilarious all these years!! In any case, this is Mel Brooks, Cleavon Little, Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder at their best!!! Great cast, great script, well done in every way!!”
One viewer called it “an absolute comic masterpiece and the centerpiece of free speech in film. A bastion of comedy freedom no one would dare make today. What a trailblazer!”
Madeline Kahn’s Oscar-nominated performance as saloon singer Lili Von Shtupp is another highlight, blending old-Hollywood glamour with razor-sharp parody. And Gene Wilder’s calm, dry delivery grounds the chaos in something strangely touching.
You can stream Blazing Saddles now for free on Amazon Prime.