PMA Films: “Eve Biddle Selects”: Blazing Saddles (1974)

Directed by Mel Brooks. 93 minutes. Rated R. In English.

Screens as part of "Eve Biddle Selects: Beautiful People Doing Impossible Things," a companion to the exhibition "Eve Biddle: Wonderlands."

Ribald, tasteless and hilarious ... this classic spoof of the Western genre by director Mel Brooks pokes fun at everyone and everything. A corrupt governor grants a reprieve to an African American convict if the condemned man agrees to serve as sheriff of a small Western town, believing that new sheriff will only live long enough to serve the needs of the governor and his nefarious railroad-baron backer. Academy Award nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Madeline Kahn); Best Music, Original Song; and Best Film Editing.

Beautiful People Doing Impossible Things

I watch movies to be transported to another world. Because I play with scale and color in my art practice, I think a lot about how my images are kind of impossible. No human has a hand 24 inches long. No landscape is cyan blue. These images exist in a kind of Wonderland of my own imagining — much like the fantastical plots of the movies in this series.

Each feature is paired with a short film by my partner, Joshua Frankel — another beautiful person doing impossible things.

—Eve Biddle

Blazing Saddles paired with 

Joshua Frankel’s Bicycle Messengers (2006, 5 minutes)

The fastest gun in the west and the fastest way to get crosstown.

For Frankel’s first short film, he captured consumer DV footage of Midtown Manhattan and animated bicycle messengers weaving between live action traffic.

This work was created amidst a cultural moment centering bicycles in the early 2000’s, including film, fashion, alleycat races, underground modified bicycle jousting, and activism that ultimately lead to the proliferation of bike lanes in American cities. 

Blazing Saddles is also art that changed history. Some say its satire cut so deep that after its release, Hollywood never made a Western genre film in its classic style — with rose-tinted lenses — ever again.

Revolution has never been more side-splittingly funny.

Saddle up!