Blazing Saddles (30th Anniversary Special Edition)

Amazon.com essential video

Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humor is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from the lunkheaded Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon

Description

The railroad's got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land? Send in the toughest gang you've got...and name a new sheriff who'll last about 24 hours. But that's not really the plot of Blazing Saddles, just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film many call his best gets started, logic is lost in a blizzard of gags, jokes, quips, puns, howlers, growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman, Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid, Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can't contain itself at the finale, it just proves the Old West will never be the same!

Customer Reviews:

Still Funny after all these years.......2007-09-04

I think I've become Cleavon Little's number one fan. He and Gene Wilder are as funny as ever in this classic... good humor never stops making you laugh and it is especially true in this case.

Blazing Saddles.......2007-08-27

A must have for any movie buff. This is truly one of the classics!

They don't make movies like this anymore!.......2007-08-24

This movie is a comedy classic! I love how Mel Brooks makes an hysterical mockery of the Wild West. His role as an equally corrupt and incompetent governor, under the sway of Harvey Korman's Attorney General is hilarious. Also, the whole business with Rock Ridge is a side splitter, with Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, posing as social outcasts, end up winning over the hostile locals and shutting down the corrupt designs of Korman's character (Headly "Heddy" Lamar). Many other great scenes are found throughout the movie. A must for all fans of "intelligent comedy." Unfortunately, this movie is so non-PC that it will most likely never be re-released in theaters.

I don't find this movie funny at all........2007-08-18

I don't find this movie funny at all. It's so boring thatI did not finish the DVD. I regret buying it even though it cost me only 10 dollars.

One of the funniest movies ever made.......2007-07-07

I dont know why but I cant get enough of this movie. The humour is really funny and there are so many scenes I enjoy, but none I can type down. If you enjoy comedy, then this movie is for you.

The Mel Brooks Collection (Blazing Saddles / Young Frankenstein / Silent Movie / Robin Hood: Men in Tights / To Be or Not to Be / History of the World, Part 1 / The Twelve Chairs / High Anxiety)

Average customer rating:

Mel...Mel...Mel
Surprisingly good
mel brooks
Classic Comedy
Gotta have it!

The Mel Brooks Collection (Blazing Saddles / Young Frankenstein / Silent Movie / Robin Hood: Men in Tights / To Be or Not to Be / History of the World, Part 1 / The Twelve Chairs / High Anxiety)
Starring: Mel Brooks
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( M ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Comedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

ASIN: B000E6ESIK
Release Date: 2006-04-04

Description

This 8 disc boxset includes Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, History of the World Part I, Robinhood Men in Tights, Silent Movie, To Be or Not to Be, Twelve Chairs, Young Frankenstein.

Amazon.com

There are plenty of belly laughs in The Mel Brooks Collection, an eight-disc set of most of the director-writer-actor's best-known films. Four of them--Silent Movie, High Anxiety, To Be or Not to Be, and Robin Hood: Men with Tights--are making their debut on DVD, while a fifth, The Twelve Chairs, was briefly available as a non-anamorphic DVD from Image Entertainment (all the DVDs in this set are anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs). That means you can sample a 23-year stretch of Brooks's outrageous and affectionate spoofing of everything from movies to popular legends to movies to historical figures to, hey! more movies.

The earliest film, The Twelve Chairs (1970), is the least known, but is one of the funniest, helped greatly by a good story (adapted from a 1920s Russian tale) and the casting of Ron Moody and Frank Langella as treasure hunters. Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles followed in 1974. The former, a spoof of horror films, is easily one of the top two or three funniest movies of all time, and the latter is justly famous for its often-tasteless send-up of Western cliches. Silent Movie (1976) is just what the title describes, with its only word of dialogue spoken from the least-likely source, and High Anxiety (1977) pays tribute to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. History of the World, Part 1 (1981) mocks historical events and epics, and To Be or Not to Be (1983) is a remake of Ernst Lubitsch's 1942 classic of the same name (it's also the only film in the set for which Brooks didn't receive writing and directing credit). By this time, Brooks was more actively taking the leading roles himself (rather than the bit parts), and unfortunately relying less on his topnotch ensemble of recurring players, which included Gene Wilder, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Korman, and Dom Deluise. But he does use a new ensemble (including Cary Elwes and, in his film debut, Dave Chappelle), for Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), the feature-length spin on the same hero Brooks had spoofed in his short-lived 1975 television series When Things Were Rotten.

Bonus features are minor. In addition to an HBO featurette on Men in Tights, there's a featurette and interviews on To Be or Not to Be and all the features (Brooks commentary, deleted scenes, interviews, etc.) that were on the original release of Young Frankenstein. Note that while rights issues kept The Producers, Spaceballs, and other films out of this set, 20th Century Fox was able to use Warner Bros.' Blazing Saddles. The features on that disc, however, are the ones that were on the 1997 DVD release, not the 2004 anniversary reissue. Regardless, the set's price for this many films is low, and because it has so many films new to DVD, Brooks fans will want to pick this up faster than they can say... "Frau Blücher!" --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews:

Mel...Mel...Mel.......2007-08-29

Includes 8 of Mel Brooks Classics in this Collection. Each Movie is a true classic and is a good addition to anyones DVD Movie collection. We purchased these for our Homeowners Association Library so that we can show them on the weekly movie night by the pool or in the clubhouse. Everyone enjoys them too.

Surprisingly good.......2007-08-14

I acquired this collection in order to acquaint the kids with the Mel Brooks style of humor. His ideas hold up to the test of time remarkably well. We were especially surprised by To Be or Not to Be - a film we were not aware of, and one which every theatre lover will enjoy. Mel is particularly good in this story about a couple of Polish actors surviving the Nazi occupation. In other films, Mel's subversive ironies still sound fresh. Ignore the puerile jokes and the way the pacing drags at times. In the history of cinematic comedy, Mel ranks way up there.

mel brooks.......2007-07-13

I found that some of the scenes were missing from some of the movies...seem like a cheap bootleg copy...very disappointed.

Classic Comedy.......2007-06-15

These movies are non-stop fun. If you like classic, musical style comedy then these are the films for you. I have seen quite a few of the Mel Brooks movies before I bought this set, but what surprised me were the entertainment value of the movies that I hadn't watched before. High Anxiety and To Be or Not to Be are more coherent than the famous Mel Brooks movies and that makes them great films if you want some light comedy. Enjoy!

Gotta have it!.......2007-05-14

I bought this for my husband but it, in fact, was a treat for myself as well. This is a collection any fan of Mel Brooks should have and the discs are in small, individual cases which house in a single, thin box. In other words, you get eight films that take up very little space. If you or anyone you know enjoys Mel Brooks' films, this is a must-have.

Average customer rating:

Amazing transfer
Classic Mel Brooks film gets great Blu-ray transfer!
Love this Movie and one of my first blu-ray movies
Great Blu-ray print
So Funny

Blazing Saddles [Blu-ray]
Starring: Carol Arthur , Richard Collier , Liam Dunn , George Furth , and Burton Gilliam
Director: Mel Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: Blu-ray

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Blu-ray | Formats | DVD | Video

Comedy | Blu-ray | Formats | DVD | Video

Westerns | Blu-ray | Formats | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000HWXEUE
Release Date: 2006-09-05

Description

The railroad's got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land? Send in the toughest gang you've got...and name a new sheriff who'll last about 24 hours. But that's not really the plot of Blazing Saddles, just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film - many call it his best - gets started, logic is lost in a blizzard of gags, jokes, quips, puns, howlers, growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman, Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid, Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can't contain itself at the finale, it just proves the Old West will never be the same!

Customer Reviews:

Amazing transfer.......2007-09-07

I have been consistantly impressed by the quality of transfers from old films, especially "The Searchers" and "Blazing Saddles". Anyone who contends that an identical VC-1 transfer looks differently on either of the two HD formats is looking at the world through format skewed glasses. The same encode looks the same in either format, unless some of the bits are getting lost in the blu ray data transfer because the bandwidth available is SO much greater than the low bitrate VC-1 transfer needs :)

The only disapointment I see in this transfer is that Warner chose to remain constrained by the size limitations of HD-DVD when using the VC-1 transfer for the Blu-Ray release, notice that because there was no space on the HD-DVD version for "extras" the Blu version didn't get extras either.

I can appreciate Warner staying format neutral, but the customer who chooses a technically better format deserves software that takes advantage of that superiority, not software that is simply warmed over and dumbed down to the least common denominator.

All that said, Blazing Saddles is a worthwhile addition to your Blu library.

Classic Mel Brooks film gets great Blu-ray transfer!.......2007-09-07

After watching this film for years on cable tv, one truly looses the real essence of the film. My wife and I watched this recently wondering how a High Definition Blu-ray conversion of a 30 year old film would look, we were awe-struck! This film simply looks amazing! It is perhaps one of the best older film transfers to any HD format I have seen to date.
The colors are brilliant, the detail is sharp, and the movie is laugh-out-loud funny!
Definitely a must for any PS3 or Blu-ray owner!

Love this Movie and one of my first blu-ray movies.......2007-07-12

I love this movie from Mel Brooks it's one of his best!
Also this was one of the first blu-ray movies I bought for my Playstation 3, I have experienced watching this movie in so many different ways, first I watched it on my SDTV looked great, then latter on I boutght my first LCD HDTV and watched the movie again. The Blu-ray and HDTV brought out so many things that SDTV would not such as a sharper color and super nice resolution of 1080 i, their were time's the colors were off but I'm guessing it's the age of the movie. The last big improvement was the addition of 5.1 Surround Sound system I bought, It gave the movie a more life like fell.

Great Blu-ray print.......2007-04-22

I have to believe that many of people that are reviewing the Blu-ray discs have a mind set that HD is better than Blu-ray. DVDtalk said the following about the Blu-ray version of Blazing Saddles; "Now that Warner has taken to using the same VC-1 encodings on Blu-ray that they originally prepared for HD DVD, the same movie released on both formats should be virtually identical from one to the other. In this case, the video transfer given to Blazing Saddles is nothing short of remarkable and belies its 30+ year age." And yet no matter what the experts say, there are people reviewing Blu-ray and comparing it to HD, with little or no objectivity and with the sole purpose of making HD look better. It's funny how politics creeps into everything.

So Funny.......2007-03-11

This is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I'm not a big Mel Brooks fan (indifferent usually) but this film was top notch. Richard Pryor is listed as one of the screenplay writers, which I didn't know until now. I though Pryor was hilarious (rest his soul) so perhaps it was his insight that helped me like this movie so much, or maybe not-I have no idea. I don't know what it is, but I just finished watching it in HD and this movie is just plain funny. Oh, and the Blu Ray transfer was better than I expected for such an old movie!

Average customer rating:

Still Funny after all these years
Blazing Saddles
They don't make movies like this anymore!
I don't find this movie funny at all.
One of the funniest movies ever made

Blazing Saddles
Starring: Richard Collier , Carol DeLuise , Dom DeLuise , Liam Dunn , and George Furth
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

Comedy | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: 0790731487
Release Date: 1997-06-25

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Still Funny after all these years.......2007-09-04

I think I've become Cleavon Little's number one fan. He and Gene Wilder are as funny as ever in this classic... good humor never stops making you laugh and it is especially true in this case.

Blazing Saddles.......2007-08-27

A must have for any movie buff. This is truly one of the classics!

They don't make movies like this anymore!.......2007-08-24

I don't find this movie funny at all........2007-08-18

I don't find this movie funny at all. It's so boring thatI did not finish the DVD. I regret buying it even though it cost me only 10 dollars.

One of the funniest movies ever made.......2007-07-07

I dont know why but I cant get enough of this movie. The humour is really funny and there are so many scenes I enjoy, but none I can type down. If you enjoy comedy, then this movie is for you.

Average customer rating:

Wow!
Classic Comedy in HD!
Reference HD-DVD Picture & Sound Quality!
Blazing Saddles HD-DVD
Excellent contrast, excellent color, great menu and extras.

Blazing Saddles [HD DVD]
Starring: Carol Arthur , Richard Collier , Liam Dunn , George Furth , and Burton Gilliam
Director: Mel Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

General | Westerns | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

General | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video

Comedy | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video

Westerns | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000E5KJFW
Release Date: 2006-05-23

Product Description

The railroad's got to run through the town of Rock Ridge. How do you drive out the townfolk in order to steal their land? Send in the toughest gang you've got...and name a new sheriff who'll last about 24 hours. But that's not really the plot of Blazing Saddles, just the pretext. Once Mel Brooks' lunatic film - many call it his best - gets started, logic is lost in a blizzard of gags, jokes, quips, puns, howlers, growlers and outrageous assaults upon good taste or any taste at all. Cleavon Little as the new lawman, Gene Wilder as the wacko Waco Kid, Brooks himself as a dim-witted politico and Madeline Kahn in her Marlene Dietrich send-up that earned an Academy Award nomination all give this sagebrush saga their lunatic best. And when Blazing Saddles can't contain itself at the finale, it just proves the Old West will never be the same!

System Requirements:
Run Time: 93 minutes

Format: HD DVD

Customer Reviews:

Wow!.......2007-09-03

The HD transfer of this movie is just outstanding. It restores a number of details that were barely visible in previous transfers - like the horses flying up in the air when the fake town is blown up toward the end of the movie. Color balance, contrast, and so on, are also better than any previous transfer of Blazing Saddles that I've seen. It really has terrific zip to it.

Classic Comedy in HD!.......2007-08-07

Great film, great images! Mel Brooks' style of comedy, similar to modern films like Airplane, is irreverent and thought-provoking but it's also fun to see an HD image that's as good as the original film. Let's hear it for the fart scene in Dolby digtal, and the jokes will never let us see racism without laughing at our own silliness.

Reference HD-DVD Picture & Sound Quality!.......2007-06-25

This is my most prized HD-DVD title. It's a great movie to begin with, but the HD-DVD mastering process is exceptional. PQ is better than the original theatrical release!

This title is highly recommended!

Blazing Saddles HD-DVD.......2007-05-07

Super picture, Super sound ! This movie is always good for a few laughs!

Excellent contrast, excellent color, great menu and extras. .......2007-02-19

Note: this is my HD review of the movie, not on the movie itself. [...]
Just watched this last night, my second HD DVD. My first reference disc was Chronos. Blazing Saddles is similar in that there is a lot scenery to judge objects by (although a lot of it might not be real). What was missing in the Hi-Def experience was a narrative consisting of people in action, so I looked to Blazing Saddles to provide that.

It as immediatley apparent to my guests that Blazing Saddles was not normal definition. Although the minute natural details were not as precise as in Chronos (this was after all filmed on a movie set with artificial backdrops) the dimensionality was still there. The sky was a natural blue, with realistic cloud formation. Rocks and trees along with man-made objects had definite dimensionality, almost jumping out of the screen. Like Chronos, those natural objects take on a life of their own on the screen that is not apparent in normal def.

And of course there were the people. Faces and body shapes actually seem to possess mass so that the experience is more like 3-d than watching a two dimensional image. This is due to the additional contrast between foreground and background provided by the hi-def image. Skin tones were natural with perceptible sweat and a warmth that draws the viewer into the character.

Downsides: The movie is supposed to have a 5.1 soundtrack, but I never caught anything out of the rear speakers although there was a definite centre channel for spoken dialoue, so its not mere stereo. There were times that I thought 5.1 would have been nice such as choir, crowd, and explosion scenes, but despite that the sound was excellent. And I thought there could have been more precise detail in places, however it is an older movie. Anyway, these two points take away a star.

What we do have is a classic made more enjoyable by the better resolution, and a host of extras sometimes omitted on hi-def discs. You can skip the openings and go straight to the movie by hitting 'next' on the remote. Good menu bar that pops up which allows for continued watching of the movie while making your selection. "Stop" however takes you back to the beginning of movie which is annoying so another reason to omit a star.

In conclusion, a definite keeper in my library as it is one of my favourite movies. If its yours, you will be happy with this purchase.

Equipment: Toshiba HD-A2 DVD player, Denon AVR-4306 amp/receiver, Bose Acoustimass® 16 speaker system, Hitachi 55HDX99 Plasma HDTV

The Best of Blu-Ray, Volume Three (Blazing Saddles / The Departed / GoodFellas / Superman - The Movie) [Blu-ray]

Average customer rating:

The Best of Blu-Ray, Volume Three (Blazing Saddles / The Departed / GoodFellas / Superman - The Movie) [Blu-ray]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio , and Christopher Reeve
Director: Mel Brooks , and Martin Scorsese
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: Blu-ray

Action & Adventure | Blu-ray | Formats | DVD | Video

General | Blu-ray | Formats | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000RGX0K4
Release Date: 2007-09-18

The Best of HD DVD, Volume Three (Blazing Saddles / The Departed / GoodFellas / Superman - The Movie) [HD DVD]

Average customer rating:

The Best of HD DVD, Volume Three (Blazing Saddles / The Departed / GoodFellas / Superman - The Movie) [HD DVD]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio , and Christopher Reeve
Director: Mel Brooks , and Martin Scorsese
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: HD DVD

Action & Adventure | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video

General | HD DVD | Formats | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000RGX0MC
Release Date: 2007-09-18

Average customer rating:

Caddyshack/Blazing Saddles [2 Discs]

Caddyshack/Blazing Saddles
Starring: Mel Brooks , Richard Collier , Carol DeLuise , Dom DeLuise , and Liam Dunn
Director: Mel Brooks
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B0000E6FQZ
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Customer Reviews:

Caddyshack/Blazing Saddles [2 Discs].......2003-12-16

Two outstanding films, however the DVD packaging is made of cardboard and cheap plastic instead of the standard plastic DVD case we have grown accustomed to. I would suggest you purchase a couple of DVD cases if you want to protect your investment.
I deducted 2 stars because of poor packaging.

Frankie Laine: An American Dreamer, Director's Cut

Average customer rating:

Amazing Frankie Laine DVD!
frankie Laine the greatest
A life story that's full of life!

Frankie Laine: An American Dreamer, Director's Cut

Manufacturer: CustomFlix
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

( F ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B000FZEN4E
Release Date: 2006-05-31

Description

"Frankie Laine: An American Dreamer" is a feature-length documentary. In this entertaining look at the legendary singer's life, hosted by two-time Grammy award singer Lou Rawls, Frankie tells his own story. Classic archive footage of the great performances of the past has been painstakingly collected, and new interview material shot with distinguished guests such as Clint Eastwood,Tom Jones, Frank Sinatra, Dick Clark, Ringo Starr, Patti Page, Pat Boone, Maria Cole, Mitch Miller, Michel Legrand, John Williams, Kay Starr, Jack Jones, Herb Jeffries, Peter Marshall, Howard Keel, Terry Moore, Lucy Marlow, Sammy Nestico, and A.C. Lyles. From Dick Clark's American Bandstand to The Bob Hope Show, from Rawhide to Blazing Saddles, from the Ed Sullivan Show to Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, audiences will journey through the life of one of the most popular male vocalists of all time

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Frankie Laine DVD!.......2007-01-21

My mother adores Frankie Laine so when i surprised her with this DVD on Christmas, she was so happy! She loves it and wanted me to get more!
Thank You for having this DVD and for such a wide selection on music.
Linda

frankie Laine the greatest.......2006-11-06

I am a good friend of Frankie. The show was great and seeing the man talking about his past touched me. We have to realize that in the 50th he was the greatest singer in the world.

A life story that's full of life!.......2006-06-08

Well produced film on the life and music of Frankie Laine. Lots of rare footage, wonderful interviews with many stars including Clint Eastwood, Tom Jones, Johnny Williams. It is great to see Frankie Laine himself being interviewed! I'm thrilled with this project. A must for music fans!

Caddyshack / Blazing Saddles (Anniversary Edition 2-Pack)

Average customer rating:

Caddyshack / Blazing Saddles (Anniversary Edition 2-Pack)

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

ASIN: B0002KQK4S
Release Date: 2004-08-31

DVD:

DVD

DVD