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could Blazing Saddles be made today? (1 Viewer)

Nope.

On a related note, this is a movie that really hasn't aged well. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Mel Brooks to start with, but this happened to be on a couple of years ago and I sat through it, It just isn't funny any more aside from one or two scenes.

 
IvanKaramazov said:
Nope.

On a related note, this is a movie that really hasn't aged well. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Mel Brooks to start with, but this happened to be on a couple of years ago and I sat through it, It just isn't funny any more aside from one or two scenes.
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I still find it hilarious, but I think it's more because of the hundreds of quotes that come from the movie. If I was to watch for the first time today, I probably wouldn't find it that good. Though I'd probably have that same opinion for 95+% of the movies made in that era.

 
IvanKaramazov said:
Nope.

On a related note, this is a movie that really hasn't aged well. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Mel Brooks to start with, but this happened to be on a couple of years ago and I sat through it, It just isn't funny any more aside from one or two scenes.
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i think most movies haven't aged well. I saw like the 3rd Jurassic movie i think it was made in 2004 and the CGI was terrible compared to now, like watching Land of the Lost reruns with the shleestacks

 
IvanKaramazov said:
Nope.

On a related note, this is a movie that really hasn't aged well. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Mel Brooks to start with, but this happened to be on a couple of years ago and I sat through it, It just isn't funny any more aside from one or two scenes.
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I watched it a couple of years ago, and remarked as to just how funny I thought it still was. The other comment I made at the time was to say, that there was no way in hell that this movie could be made today.

 
IvanKaramazov said:
Nope.

On a related note, this is a movie that really hasn't aged well. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Mel Brooks to start with, but this happened to be on a couple of years ago and I sat through it, It just isn't funny any more aside from one or two scenes.
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:thumbup:

Comedy almost never ages well. Comedy has to live in that grey area between shocking and offensive, and that line moves a lot from generation to generation. Mel's stuff today is a lot less comedic shock, and a lot more uncomfortable stuff your grandpa would say too loud at the Golden Corral.

 
Not long ago I thought no way. But after seeing the success of "Blackish" using similar (yes much more lightweight) satire, I think it's possible.

Someone like the Wayans brothers could pull it off.

I think the movie is still funny.

 
I said the new sheriff is a n-

CLANG

He said the new sheriff is near!

No!! I said the new sheriff is a n-

CLANG
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That's still pretty funny and topical.

And "excuse me while I whip this out." will never not be funny.

 
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I showed my kids (12, 10, and 8) Bad News Bears the other night. I don't think I had ever seen it before, but they love those "group of kids who suck at a sport" type of movies so I figured this would be good. It was rated PG. Definitely some lines in there that wouldn't make it into a movie, much less a PG movie, today.

 
dgreen said:
I showed my kids (12, 10, and 8) Bad News Bears the other night. I don't think I had ever seen it before, but they love those "group of kids who suck at a sport" type of movies so I figured this would be good. It was rated PG. Definitely some lines in there that wouldn't make it into a movie, much less a PG movie, today.
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OK, I now see there was a remake a few years ago with Billy Bob Thornton? How did that compare to the original? Did they drop the n word a few times in the remake? I'm going to guess they didn't.

 
dgreen said:
I showed my kids (12, 10, and 8) Bad News Bears the other night. I don't think I had ever seen it before, but they love those "group of kids who suck at a sport" type of movies so I figured this would be good. It was rated PG. Definitely some lines in there that wouldn't make it into a movie, much less a PG movie, today.
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Had a talk with my wife about PG movies from my childhood that wouldn't make it as PG today. Amazing how much stricter we've become as a society when compared to the 70s/80s. More vulgar language and innuendos from the older movies that just wouldn't make it as PG today.

 
tommyboy said:
IvanKaramazov said:
Nope.

On a related note, this is a movie that really hasn't aged well. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Mel Brooks to start with, but this happened to be on a couple of years ago and I sat through it, It just isn't funny any more aside from one or two scenes.
Click to expand...
i think most movies haven't aged well. I saw like the 3rd Jurassic movie i think it was made in 2004 and the CGI was terrible compared to now, like watching Land of the Lost reruns with the shleestacks BILL LAMBEER.
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dgreen said:
I showed my kids (12, 10, and 8) Bad News Bears the other night. I don't think I had ever seen it before, but they love those "group of kids who suck at a sport" type of movies so I figured this would be good. It was rated PG. Definitely some lines in there that wouldn't make it into a movie, much less a PG movie, today.
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Great we got a noise picking loser, a ######, a **** and a jew on this team.

It was just how it was back then. Times have changed. And looking back some things were pretty racial. But they still are now in different ways.

I love that movie BTW. An all time classic kids baseball flick despite the obvious politically incorrect lines. Whatever. Good parents talk to their kids and tell them..."back then it was how some kids spoke, but times have changed, and we don't say things like that". But yet kids still say re***d, , .....it still is alive and well.

Teach your kids.

 
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Peak said:
dgreen said:
I showed my kids (12, 10, and 8) Bad News Bears the other night. I don't think I had ever seen it before, but they love those "group of kids who suck at a sport" type of movies so I figured this would be good. It was rated PG. Definitely some lines in there that wouldn't make it into a movie, much less a PG movie, today.
Click to expand...
Had a talk with my wife about PG movies from my childhood that wouldn't make it as PG today. Amazing how much stricter we've become as a society when compared to the 70s/80s. More vulgar language and innuendos from the older movies that just wouldn't make it as PG today.
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There was no PG 13 back then.

 
Just chiming in with another vote for Bad News Bears. And Freelove is right, but some of the lines and sketch portions of the comedy within Blazing Saddles are hilarious.

 
Blazing Saddles

Jive scenes and basketball scene from Airplane!

Long Duck Dong

Opening and closing of The Jerk

All gone the way of the dodo.

Seemingly safe targets for some curious reason :

Jews

Indians (dot not feather)

Flamboyant gays

Asian store owners

Rednecks/white trash

Other stupid white people

 
Yes I think it could be made. It would just depend on who made it. It was a biting social satire that skewered racism and politicians along with some of the inane tropes from westerns. It really wasn't about the fart jokes.

 
I would expect that the drunken gold mine prospector community would be up in arms at the way they are depicted if Saddles were to be released today.

 
LAUNCH said:
Loan Sharks said:
ClownCausedChaos2 said:
Brony said:
Since Slim Pickens and Alex Karras died, I'm going to say no.
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Mongo no longer pawn in game of life.
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Mongo is a banned on Playstation Network. My brother lost his PSN ID as it is now considered offensive.
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Unless there is profit?

https://store.playstation.com/#!/en-us/tv/series/mongo-wrestling-alliance/cid=UV0006-NPVA40993_CN-0000000000078932
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Lol, at least someone named Mongo won't be disrupting the pleasant and cordial Call of Duty Lobbies with his offensive gamer tag. He actually called and anything with Mongo in it was put on the offensive gamertag list.

 
tommyboy said:
i personally don't think so, but lets hear it.
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Even Mel Brooks has said he couldn't make it today.

Here is part of a commentary (which I posted in another thread) with some of the reasons why it couldn't be made in the present:

http://commentaramafilms.blogspot.com/2013/07/why-they-couldnt-make-blazing-saddles.html

Why They Couldn't Make Blazing Saddles Today [...]

Three things made this film work, but they wouldnt work today

● Mel Brooks: "Piss on you! I work for Mel Brooks!" Thats the most telling line in this film. Brooks was known as an irreverent comedic genius who could parody anything, even taboo subjects, and make it funny. That made Brooks the perfect man to make this film because he had the clout to do what he wanted and the reputation that people would know to accept outrageous ideas without being offended. There's no one with that kind of public trust today. To the contrary, all the people who would touch such a project are either hard-core ideologues like Michael Moore, scared light-weights like Judd Apatow, or people who use shock as a substitute for skill like Seth McFarlane or Sasha Cohen. Thus, the film would generate enemies before it even hit theaters.

● Timing: The timing was perfect on this film. By the 1970s, the age of the great western was over and we had entered the cynical period of deconstructionist westerns. This was the era where John Waynes hero gave way to Robert Redfords sniveling bank robber. And because of that, Blazing Saddles fit right in as it essentially deconstructed and parodied the tropes of the 1940s and 1950s westerns. Had Blazing Saddles been released in the 1950s, it probably would have felt like a nasty attack on a beloved genres. But coming out in the 1970s, amidst so many malicious westerns, it came across more as a loving summation of the now-dead western era.

Remaking Blazing Saddles today would run into a timing problem. The tropes of the 1940s and 1950s westerns are largely unknown today. Instead, the westerns that are known today are films like Unforgiven and Cowboys & Aliens. These films never exhibit casual racism. To the contrary, when they talk about race, and they always do, they make racism a cause worth fighting for the heroes and only the villains will display racism. Thus, to modern audiences, the idea that average locals would treat a black character in a racist manner doesnt make sense because its not something they see on film anymore.

Further, in the 1970s, the idea of a black sheriff was a novel idea. It wasnt that there hadnt been such people, they just werent part of the popular culture. In fact, films like Smokey and the Bandit made a point of having an old school character run into just such a black person and then struggle with how to reconcile that with their worldview. In that regard, Blazing Saddles was very much on the edge of the culture when it made Little the Sheriff of Rock Ridge, i.e. the idea itself was shocking to audiences. Making it the old West was the joke.

Today, no one thinks anything of seeing black cops. So a story about a black man being appointed a sheriff wouldnt strike the public as novel, or edgy, or outrageous. Even the historical aspect of making him a sheriff in the old West wouldnt shock people because we regularly see black heroes injected into westerns now: Will Smith, David Keith, Danny Glover, Jamie Foxx, Morgan Freeman, Mario Peebles, and more have all been accepted with open arms by westerns as if they were white, with only the villains themselves making a point of them being black. So making a black character into a sheriff in the old West just doesnt shock anyone anymore. Hence, the very foundation of Blazing Saddles would fall flat on its face today.

● The Perception of Racism Has Changed: Finally, we come to the big one: the changing perception of racism. Despite the use of racist words, Blazing Saddles is not a racist film. Consider this line: I extend a laurel and hardy handshake to our new... ######. Is that racist? Well, it depends on the context, doesnt it? Its certainly meant to show that the speaker is racist. But the film never agrees with those sentiments. To the contrary, the film shows Cleavon Little to be by far a superior person to the racist townsfolk and they quickly come to love and respect him. The message of this is that racism is the product of ignorance and once the ignorance is overcome, the racism vanishes. The film also suggests that racism isn't as deeply ingrained as people think. Indeed, these people flip pretty easily from being racists to loving their black sheriff. It also softens the racism in a way by showing how it was not just anti-black racism, but anti-everything-different-ism: Well take the ######s and the chinks, but not the Irish!

In the end, what this film suggests is really positive. It suggests that racism isn't an inherent personal feeling akin to hate, but is really only fear of the unknown. And it mocks racists not as evil, but as just stupid. And it suggests that if we all get to know each other, then our racism will vanish and our better instincts will prevail. That is a very optimistic view of racism and it fit the era, when people thought racism was being put behind us. But this view of racism is no longer accepted by the public. Once the next few decades after the 1970s, the racism industry became particularly vile.

Starting in the 1970s, black race hustlers began to spew victimization and to claim that all whites were secretly racist. Things that had nothing to do with race were called racist and demands were made for a special set of rules that would apply only to blacks. Meanwhile, their opposite numbers in the white race baiter ranks spewed their own victimization and claimed that blacks wanted to oppress whites. These two groups poisoned the issued so that no one wants to talk about it. And because of them, if Blazing Saddles were made today, average people would not go see it because they simply don't want to deal with the issue of race. In the 1970s, people did want to deal with it because there was a moral basis to the discussion and good will among the participants. Today, there is neither, there are just screams of racism and victimization. No one wants to deal with that. And that is why this film simply could not be made today: there is no audience for it.

This is the key. Whereas 1974 Mel Brooks tapped into an issue people wanted to discuss and he offered something they wanted to believe that we could end racism by getting to know each other, Mel Brooks 2013 would find himself smeared as a propagandist by both sides and ignored by the public. Thats why this film simply could not be made today. Not because its politically incorrect to make such a film, but because theres no audience left for these ideas. And since the rest of the film wouldn't speak to audiences either, this film could not be made today.
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We have people in rectangle fabric threads calling for rectangular pieces of fabric to be digitally excised from old TV shows.

 
Hell no....and shows like "All in the Family" wouldn't sniff network television. People are wound waaaaaaaaaay too tight today.

 
Jack White said:
We have people in rectangle fabric threads calling for rectangular pieces of fabric to be digitally excised from old TV shows.
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Yep, this would not get made today. Well, it could get made, but the PC mob would swarm in on social media and it wouldn't see the light of day.

 
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