Blazing Saddles - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

This is where I take a single quote from Blazing Saddles and use it to mount my full-throated defense. No, not really. One of Mel Brooks’ characters would probably kick me in the balls or something to that ribald nature. That’s why I’m just here to once again reverberate what everyone has said about this studio classic, it’s still a monumental work that’s as beautiful as it is silly, plus its humor is always pointed at the people who deserve it most. The famous story of Richard Pryor going to the set and almost immediately being called an N-word by an extra has always stuck with me. When you watch the film, you’re reminded of the disgusting racist past of America in the same breath in which Mel Brooks’ comedy pokes right through it. That isn’t to say that Brooks provides a solution to anything. Far from it, actually. 

Blazing Saddles plops you in the American frontier in 1874, where plans for a new railroad hit a snag when quicksand is discovered, forcing the local attorney general Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) to reroute the railroad into the town of Rock Ridge. Discovering that doing this will increase the town’s value and make all the locals rich, he hires a bunch of thugs to shoot the sheriff and drive the locals out of town. All of that gets disrupted when Lamarr recommends Bart (Cleavon Little) to be appointed sheriff of Rock Ridge. And since Bart is a Black man, Lamarr predicts that the townspeople will revolt and make it easier for the railroad to be built. But when Bart teams up with an alcoholic gunslinger named The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), the duo work together to thwart Lamarr’s plan and turn the tables on them with an angry mob. 

Although the depiction of racism is biting and satirical, some critics have assessed that the film has a closeminded view of women and gay people. I don’t necessarily disagree, especially in the moments where the film falls on a woman or gay person to stick the landing, it’s disappointing but not overwhelmingly so. Brooks’ comedy doesn’t express disdain for these people, even if the characterizations can be a bit thin. Then again, Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) singing “I’m Tired” to a bunch of horny saloon dwellers is the closest I’ve come to god and a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon. 

All in all, Blazing Saddles is every bit the classic it has been and always will be. The scarier the racism becomes in this country, the more powerful this film becomes in showing us how fucking stupid racism can be. I’m happy for the yuks, but never not left with the feeling that there’s still such a long road to go. Either way, thank you Mel Brooks for activating my lizard brain when I was a teenager seeing this for the first time.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-rays
Excuse me while I whip this out. Okay, don’t shoot, I was just taking a look at Warner Bros. single-disc (BD66) 4K Blu-ray release that comes housed in standard amaray packaging with a digital code included. The disc boots up to a standard menu screen with options to play the film, set up audio and video, plus explore bonus features. 

Blazing Saddles was captured on 35mm and in anamorphic Panavision using a Panavision PSR-200 camera rig and Panavision C-Series lenses. Brooks and cinematographer Joseph Biroc (Ulzana’s Raid) wanted the film to have this big, sweeping scope like a John Ford movie, utilizing wide angle exterior shots to showcase the gorgeous shooting locations. They succeeded by mimicking that look and even in weaponizing it, choosing to use the camera as a resource for sight gags. At the end of the day, though, this is a stunner of a film shot in anamorphic Panavision and Technicolor, and this new 2160p presentation aided by HDR10 is a faithful recreation of how the film looked in theaters. This new HDR-enabled presentation makes those strong primaries caused by Technicolor really pop. And even when the anamorphic format blurs some details or provides a thinner image than most, the HEVC encode handles it all remarkably well and with bitrates that hover between 80-85 mbps for the majority of the presentation. The lack of Dolby Vision is a bit disappointing as I feel a nice DV grade could help compression, but this is still a great presentation that I’ll be revisiting frequently.

As for audio, we’re provided with a Dolby Atmos track that revels in separating out sound effects and giving them added height and depth. The musical numbers in particular sound so much more robust than the mono track, and that gorgeous John Morris score gains added dimension with the deep bass and active surround channels. Source looks to be in great condition as I didn’t notice any damage throughout.

As for supplements, Warner Bros. provides a few legacy supplements from previous releases (but not all) and has a new 21-minute featurette where a few modern comic actors reflect on the impact of the film and speak to its legacy. A lot of fluff in the featurette but it’s still nice to hear how the film has influenced all of these people to this day. 

Supplements include:

• Audio commentary with director Mel Brooks
• Inappropriate Inspiration: The Blazing Saddles Effect (HD 21:09)
• Blaze of Glory: Mel Brooks’ Wild Wild West (HD 29:41)
• Back in the Saddle (SD 28:21)
• Deleted scenes (SD 9:41)

Candygram for Mongo! Candygram for Mongo! I’m here to report that the new 4K Blu-ray release of Blazing Saddles from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is a wonderful edition of the film that comes with a stellar new 2160p presentation aided by HDR10. Although supplements are a bit thin, the new Dolby Atmos track is anything but. Pick up this Recommended release with confidence!