It’s now summer, which is probably as as good a time as any to delve into the wild and wacky mind of Mel Brooks. As part of its popular monthly Classic Film Series, Coronado Island Film Festival will present “Blazing Saddles,” Brooks’ 1974 black comedy Western satire, on Wednesday, June 26 at Coronado’s Village Theatre, 620 Orange Avenue.
Doors open at 5 pm for complimentary refreshments, followed by a vintage Roadrunner cartoon and feature presentation at 5:30. Tickets are $15 and are on sale now at coronadofilmfest.com.
Brooks, who turns 97 on June 29, is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, songwriter, and playwright whose career spans an amazing seven decades. This year he added to his long list of accolades (which includes the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for “The Producers” in 1969) when he accepted an honorary Oscar at the 14th annual Governors Awards dinner, hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
“Blazing Saddles” was directed and co-written (with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger) by Brooks, and stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. The supporting cast is a Who’s Who of comedy craziness, including Brooks himself in two roles, Dom Deluise, Madeline Kahn, Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, Alex Karras, and David Huddleston. Kahn received an Oscar nomination for her role as the Marlene Dietrich-type cabaret singer Lili Von Shtupp. The film was also nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Song (co-written by Brooks and sung by Frankie Laine).
Mel Brooks is clearly the reigning king of movie satire, consistently testing our limits of tacky taste, bordering on the outrageous. In one year, 1974, he managed to bring two of the all-time greats to the screen, “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein,” respectively sending up the Westerns of the ’60s and the horror movies of the ’30s.
To quote the late, great film critic Roger Ebert here, “There are some people who can literally get away with anything – say anything, do anything – and people will let them. Other people attempt a mildly dirty joke and bring total silence down on a party. Mel Brooks is not only a member of the first group, he is its lifetime president. At its best, his comedy operates so far from taste that (to coin his own expression) it rises below vulgarity. ‘Blazing Saddles’ is like that. It’s a crazed grab-bag of a movie that does everything to keep us laughing except hit us over the head with a rubber chicken.”
Next month: Join us as Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor electrify the screen in the 1958 sizzler, “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on July 31. Tickets are available now at coronadofilmfest.com.
Meantime, don’t miss “Gidget Weekend” July 13-14, and get excited for CIFF 2024, Wed. Nov. 6 – Sunday Nov. 10. Get your passes now!
