Blazing Saddles: 30th Anniversary Special Edition (1974)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy Western	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Mel Brooks (Director) Featurette-Back In The Saddle Featurette-Intimate Portrait: Madeline Kahn Featurette-TV Pilot: Black Bart Additional Footage Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1974
Running Time	89:04
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (46:27)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Mel Brooks
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Cleavon Little Gene Wilder Slim Pickens David Huddleston Liam Dunn Alex Karras John Hillerman George Furth Jack Starrett Mel Brooks Harvey Korman Madeline Kahn Carol DeLuise
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	Mel Brooks Vernon Duke John Morris

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English German Italian Dutch Portuguese Danish Finnish Hebrew Icelandic Norwegian Swedish Croatian Slovenian Czech Greek Hungarian Turkish Arabic Bulgarian Romanian English for the Hearing Impaired German for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, including drugs
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Blazing Saddles is a classic American comedy. It has previously been released in Region 4 and was one of the earliest reviews here at MichaelDVD. This new version is a significant improvement in every respect, based upon Michael's rather scathing review.

    For those that have not seen it, Blazing Saddles is a take-off of every western you have seen but it is also a satire on racism generally and in westerns specifically. The central character is Bart (Cleavon Little), a black man whom we first meet as a badly treated railway worker. Through a variety of comic situations, he ends up being appointed as sheriff of a small town called Rock Ridge. Due to his colour, the townsfolk decide they will kill him rather than have him as sheriff. This leads to one of the many classic comedy sequences in this film, where Bart escapes the mob using a clever tactic. Once safely in the sheriff's office he meets up with a drunk inmate, Jim, who used to be known as The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder). With Jim's help Bart proceeds to save the town from the baddies who include the Lieutenant Governor, Hedley Lamaar (Harvey Korman), Taggett (Slim Pickens) the railroad overseer and the entertainer, Lili Von Shtupp (Madelaine Kahn in her Oscar nominated performance). Mel Brooks (who also directs) appears in a number of roles as the Governor, a Yiddish speaking Indian Chief and as a queuing baddy (This last one is a little harder to spot). In addition to these main characters there are some very amusing minor characters including Taggart's offsider, Lyle (Burton Gilliam), the huge Mongo (Alex Karras, ex NFL player), the hangman, Boris (Robert Ridgeley) & Gaby Johnson (Jack Starrett), frontiersman.

    In reality the plot is not particularly important here and is really just a way to get the comedic set pieces on to the screen. This film includes some justifiably famous comedy scenes such as the aforementioned scene of Bart escaping from the mob, the infamous campfire beans scene (the first farting scene in a major motion picture), Mongo punching a horse, Candygram for Mongo and the scene with Bart and Lili in a darkened room ('Oh, it's twue, it's twue'). There is also a funny cameo by Count Basie and his orchestra. The film also includes some great sight gags, and some funny songs such as I'm Tired by Lili Von Shtupp. Generally, it is very funny and very, very silly. Personally, I do not rate this film as highly as say Holy Grail, The Life of Brian or Young Frankenstein but it is a very funny film. The biggest issue I have with this film is that the ending is really lame, and more limps to the end rather than gallops.

    When first released, this film was quite controversial as it included words such as 'Niggers' and 'chinks', lots of dirty talk, sex, and the farting scene, which had to be edited for American television resulting in a bizarre ballet of standing up and sitting down cowboys without sound. These days, it is nowhere near as controversial.

    So, a classic comedy, finally given proper treatment on DVD.

Video

    The video quality is excellent for a film of this age especially when compared to the issues with the previous release.

    The feature is presented in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is very close to the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was some grain throughout, although still not terrible. The shadow detail was good for a film of this age, without having the detail which can be seen in modern films.

    The colour was very good for a film of this vintage, however it was a little washed out in places.

    The main issue noted in the review of the previous version was aliasing and thankfully this is virtually gone this time around. I did notice one or two camera pans that showed a little shimmering, but this was not major and I only noticed one point of actual aliasing, albeit minor, at 65:11 on Hedley Lamar's vest. There were also a few film artefacts, both positive and negative, here and there. I also noticed some minor edge enhancement but this was not widespread.

    There are 23 subtitle streams in a multitude of languages including English & English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

    The layer change occurs somewhere in Chapter 13 but is extremely well hidden. It is probably in the black frames at 46:27.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains three main audio options (plus a commentary); an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384 Kb/s and Dolby Digital 1.0 tracks in German & Italian. The 5.1 track is a nice effort, remastered from the original mono. It does not overdo the surround effects but certainly adds some minor effects and generally makes this a good listen. Some people will be annoyed that the original mono is not included, however, I for one will not miss it especially considering the review we gave it last time around.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The score of this film by John Morris suits the film well and sounds really good on this transfer as do the songs, including the Academy Award nominated theme song sung by Frankie Laine. The music by Count Basie comes across very well indeed.

    The surround speakers were used for directional effects such as the whip cracking in the opening credits, singing and gunshots. These were nicely integrated but used all the channels.

     The subwoofer was used sparingly, mostly to support the music and the occasional explosion.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included a still from the film and a scene selection function. It used a nice little motif of guns and whisky bottles, with the bottles emptying when selected.

Commentary - Mel Brooks

    There is something slightly strange about this commentary - as it really isn't one! This is actually just Mel Brooks talking about the making of Blazing Saddles recorded in the mid-1990s. It only runs until approximately 50 minutes into the film and is not even vaguely scene specific. This would seem to be the same commentary which appeared on the previous release although I understand it has been redone to make it easier to hear. It is interesting and covers aspects such as the writing, Richard Pryor's involvement, casting, his favourite scenes and the complaints received at the time of its release. Some of this material is covered again in the featurette.

Back in the Saddle (28:23)

    This is a short making-of style featurette featuring interviews snippets with Mel Brooks, Andrew Bergman, the original writer, Michael Herzberg, the producer, actors Harvey Korman, Gene Wilder (who's had a bit of work done!) & Burton Gilliam. Includes some outtakes used in the TV version to replace scenes deemed too risqué and one funny joke which Mel Brooks said the studio would not allow. Nothing too exciting here and Mel's comments are also in the commentary. This was produced in 2001.

Intimate Portrait - Madelaine Kahn (3:42)

    This was quite disappointing. What we get is a three minute section of a much longer show about Madelaine Kahn. I am sure it would have been interesting but just as you get interested, it's over. Includes Mel Brooks, Lily Tomlin & Dom Deluise. 

TV Pilot - Black Bart (24:28)

    Now, this is the highlight of the extras. This is the pilot episode of a proposed spin-off television series featuring the black sheriff from Blazing Saddles, Bart, this time played by Lou Gossett Jnr. Ok, it's not particularly funny and you can understand why they never made the series but it is certainly an interesting extra.

Additional Scenes (9:41)

    There are a number of alternate and extended scenes here strung together. Some of them are also included in the featurette. They are presented in non-16x9 enhanced widescreen. They include:

• The TV version of the farting scene without the fart noises
• A scene involving Mongo and a mechanized sheriff
• A scene involving Mongo diving for Treasure
• An extended version of Lili Von Shtupp singing
• An extended scene of Bart & Jim escaping
• Edited TV version of night building scene removing naughty words
• Extended fake town sequence featuring the governor (This is the best new bit)
• Extended scene of blowing up the fake town

Theatrical Trailer (2:12)

    This is a good trailer well presented including 16x9 enhancement.

    This thirtieth Anniversary edition is being released in the same format in Region 2 and Region 1 except for minor language and PAL/NTSC differences. Let's call it a draw.

    The video quality is excellent for a film of this age and a big improvement on the previous release.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has a reasonable selection of extras but nothing spectacular.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall