Review: "Blazing Saddles" Still Rides Hard and Funny (Happy B'day, Darby)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blazing Saddles (1974)
Running time: 93 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR: Mel Brooks
WRITERS: Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, Alan Uger, and Mel Brooks, from a story by Andrew Bergman
PRODUCER: Michael Hertzberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Joseph Biroc (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Danford Greene and John C. Howard
Academy Award nominee

COMEDY/WESTERN

Starring: Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Khan, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, Mel Brooks, Claude Ennis Starrett, Jr., Liam Dunn, Dom DeLuise, David Huddleston, John Hillerman, George Furth, and Carol DeLuise

Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman), a corrupt political boss, wants to run a railroad through the small western town of Rock Ridge, but he has to ruin the town so its citizens will want to leave. Lamarr appoints a black sheriff named Bart (Cleavon Little), thinking that will certainly demoralize them and make them leave Rock Ridge. Bart, however, joins forces with a washed-up gunfighter Jim (Gene Wilder), also known as The Waco Kid, and becomes Lamarr’s formidable adversary. Lamarr then concocts a plan to have a collection of the vilest criminals, cutthroats, and thieves ravage Rock Ridge. Bart, however, rallies the townspeople (who initially hated having a black sheriff) to a grand stand off against their would be destroyers.

Blazing Saddles is one of the great film comedies (it would certainly make my Top 10), and is still the all-time best parody of movie westerns. Actually, the film takes on a western sub-genre, the horse opera, in which a beleaguered sheriff, all but abandoned by the townsfolk he’s sworn to protect, must stand alone against corrupt, greedy, and murderous men. What really makes Blazing Saddles work as a parody of westerns is that the film really works like a western. It looks and feels like a classic western flick from Hollywood’s golden era of Technicolor westerns. In order for a spoof to work, the spoof has to fell like the thing it’s parodying.

Unlike a lot of parodies, Blazing Saddles also has a plot and solid story structure – a clear beginning, middle, and end, and the characters are excellent. A fine group of character actors also play the parts. Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder are excellent comedians, both fun with a kind of likeable slyness, but Madeline Kahn and Slim Pickens also give bravura performances in small roles that help to define the movie.

Blazing Saddles is funny and brilliant, heavy with belly laughs. Although I’ve encountered many people who don’t like it for various reasons, the is one of the films that firmly established director Mel Brooks as a great American comic, a funny man in any medium.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
1975 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Actress in a Supporting Role” (Madeline Kahn), “Best Film Editing” (John C. Howard and Danford B. Greene), and “Best Music, Original Song” (John Morris-music and Mel Brooks-lyrics for the song "Blazing Saddles")

1975 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Screenplay” (Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, and Alan Uger) and “Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles” (Cleavon Little)

2006 National Film Preservation Board, USA: National Film Registry

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Review: "Jonah Hex" is Not Really THAT Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 93 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Jonah Hex (2010)
Running time: 81 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, disturbing images and sexual
DIRECTOR: Jimmy Hayward
WRITERS: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor; from a story by William Farmer and Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (based upon the characters appearing in magazines published by DC Comics created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga)
PRODUCERS: Akiva Goldsman and Andrew Lazar
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mitchell Amundsen (D.o.P)
EDITORS: Kent Beyda, Dan Hanley, Tom Lewis, and Fernando Villena
COMPOSERS: Marco Beltrami and Mastodon

WESTERN/ACTION with elements of horror

Starring: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Aidan Quinn, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, John Gallagher, Jr., Tom Wopat, Michael Shannon, Wes Bentley, John McConnell, and Lance Reddick with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (no screen credit)

Jonah Hex is a recent Western, released by Warner Bros. Pictures this past June. The title character, Jonah Hex, is one of DC Comics’ Western characters, and this anti-hero type is a bounty hunter whose face is horribly scarred on the right side. Created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga, Jonah Hex made his first appearance in the early 1970s.

During the American Civil War, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) fought for the Confederacy. However, Hex turned against his commanding officer, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich), after Turnbull ordered him to burn down a hospital. After the war, a vengeful Turnbull killed Hex’s wife and son and branded his initials into Hex’s face.

Most of the movie takes place in 1876. As the country prepares for the Centennial celebration, Turnbull plots a July 4th terrorist attack using a devastating super weapon, an attack he believes will topple the American government and destroy the nation. President Grant (Aidan Quinn) orders the U.S. military to find Jonah Hex, who has many warrants on his head, and make him an offer he can’t refuse. In exchange for his freedom (and some cash), Hex must stop Turnbull. Hex, who can temporarily resurrect and communicate with the dead, uses all his talents and an array of firearms to fight his way through Turnbull’s men. Hex also gets help from Lilah (Megan Fox), a gun-wielding prostitute in love with him.

Jonah Hex was a critical and commercial flop during its theatrical release. I initially avoided the movie because the trailers looked dumb, and I thought that the movie was probably even dumber. When the opportunity to see it came around again, the first thing I thought was, I bet I’ll like this movie. And I did.

Jonah Hex is not really all that bad a movie. First, it really isn’t a Western. It is more a weird faux-Western like Will Smith’s 1999 flick, Wild Wild West. Also, a lot of this is clearly tongue-in-cheek. The director, Jimmy Hayward, tries too hard to make this film different. The film really doesn’t have much in the way of familiar Hollywood Western iconography, visual cues, or symbolism. The creators dress this movie to look like a Western, then, do everything to make it not a Western. Still, the film, at times, manages to have some good, Western-style action sequences.

The film’s writers, William Farmer and the team of (Mark) Neveldine and (Brian) Taylor, pack the story with a lot of ideas to ponder, including weird occult stuff, the character of revenge, and nature of war. There are also many scenes that are extraneous and/or badly staged, such as the motion comic-like origin story early in the film. In a comic book, this heap of weird ideas and scenes would likely not be a problem. In a film, it just makes the narrative move awkwardly.

Ultimately, the cast does right by this movie. Megan Fox makes the best of a poorly designed character. John Malkovich is, as always, superb in menacing, villainous role. Michael Fassbender is a scene-stealer as Turnbull’s homicidal right-hand man, Burke. Of course, Josh Brolin continues to prove himself as an exciting movie star and high-quality actor. It is remarkable what he does with the cheesy dialogue here. Brolin makes me wish for a sequel that may likely never come. For all its faults, Jonah Hex is so weird and is such kooky fun that it is not actually that bad.

5 of 10
C+

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

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Review: "Desperado" Both Beautiful and Brutal

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 65 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Desperado (1995)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, a strong sex sequence, and language
DIRECTOR/WRITER/EDITOR: Robert Rodriguez
PRODUCERS: Bill Borden and Robert Rodriguez
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Guillermo Navarro

ACTION/WESTERN with elements of crime

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Joaquim de Almeida, Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Carlos Gomez, Quentin Tarantino, Tito Larriva, Carlos Gallardo, Albert Michel, Jr., and Danny Trejo

Robert Rodriguez followed up his ultra-low budget independent thriller, El Mariachi, with the larger-budgeted ($7 million, which is low by Hollywood standards) Desperado. The film is a slightly re-imagined sequel. El Mariachi is now played by Antonio Banderas, replacing Carlos Gallardo, who played the character in the original film and who does make a cameo appearance here. This time the no-named musician (we do learn his name by the end of the film) is stalking Bucho (Joaquim de Almeida), the last Mexican drug lord with connections to the death of his girlfriend (as seen in the first film). He meets Carolina (Salma Hayek), a beautiful bookstore owner and falls in love with her while also taking on a small army of Bucho’s henchmen in a small, dusty border town. El Mariachi learns, however, that Bucho has a strong link to his past.

Some described Robert Rodriguez’s poetic way of presenting violence in this movie to the cinematic styles of John Woo and Sam Peckinpah, and the shoot-‘em-ups in Desperado are indeed eye candy, especially the violence in the first hour of this film. This first half of the film sparkles with black comedy, acerbic wit, and violent slapstick, but as the film goes on, it begins to list. The romantic scenes are dry and are only road bumps in the narrative. Whereas El Mariachi was short and tightly efficient, Desperado is a bit long and a little padded. Still, the combination of Guillermo Navarro’s warmly hued photography and Rodriguez’s visual acumen make for a beautiful, brutal, ballet of film violence, proving that violence does indeed look good on film, if the director knows what he’s doing. And with each movie, Rodriguez proves to be a natural born moviemaker.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, May 16, 2005

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