So glad I have a copy of the unbleeped pre-snowflake film on DVD.
Opinion
Ridiculous trigger warning for ‘Blazing Saddles’ shows how far culture has gone off rails
By Kyle Smith
August 14, 2020 | 4:06pm
Say, kids, did you know “Blazing Saddles†is “an overt and audacious spoof on classic Westerns� Well, now you do, thanks to the trigger warning that has just been slapped on the movie by HBO Max, which hired University of Chicago professor Jacqueline Stewart to set things up for anyone who might be clicking on the Mel Brooks comedy thinking they’re in for Swedish drama about the lingonberry harvest.
Stewart informs us that the movie features “racist language and attitudes†but “Those attitudes are espoused by characters who are explicitly portrayed here as narrow-minded, ignorant bigots. The film’s real and much more enlightened perspective is represented by the two main characters.â€
You don’t say. Stewart’s intro should be called “Blazing Obviousness†since everyone already knew all of that, and always has, for the 46 years the movie has been in release. ...
When director Mel Brooks brought in a hot young black comic named Richard Pryor to help punch up the script, Pryor vigorously added in more uses of the N-word to make the movie sharper as well as funnier. Pryor may be more responsible than any other person for neutralizing the slur’s power to wound. We’d probably all be better off if the word were restored to its place in the 1970s, when it was largely robbed of its mystical properties. Now that it’s unsayable, it’s become scary again. ...
More at New York PostMy mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives!