If you tell someone to watch one of Mel Brooks’ early films, chances are you’ll likely also issue a warning to this neophyte. These films don’t hold your hand and don’t let you be shocked into laughter before moving onto the next gag. There’s a point in The Producers when the titular duo played by Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder finally put on their show and we are treated to the title song of their new musical, “Springtime for Hitler.” What follows is an incredible, Broadway-style number with ludicrous, audacious, tasteless silliness that is a full commitment to the bit on a scale you think couldn’t have been easy to convince anyone would be a good idea. That’s what Mel Brooks’ career became, a chance to shock us into laughter.
Brooks’ first four films are all comedies, but as broad as his films became, these films were staunchly stamping on the toes and blowing a raspberry in the face of the establishment. The Producers, a tale of Broadway producers who discover a loophole that they could make more money with a flop than a hit. The Twelve Chairs, set in the early years of Soviet Russia as greed brings a fallen aristocrat, a con artist, and a priest into competition for a rumored treasure hidden inside twelve ornate chairs. Blazing Saddles, a blistering commentary on race and the myths of the “Wild West.” Young Frankenstein, an audacious, silly take on the classic “Frankenstein” story shot in black and white and using the original set pieces from Frankenstein (1931).
Of these four, Brooks is best known for Blazing Saddles. It’s the kind of film that people typically say, “They couldn’t make this today.” That’s true for a number of reasons, but one of the most apparent is because Brooks and his co-writers Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Alan Uger, and Richard Pryor found ways to challenge the audience of their time. With Brooks in the director’s seat, Blazing Saddles beat a path toward ripping the blindfolds from the eyes of Americans by showing them how idiotic racial bias is.
Blazing Saddles isn’t a film that can solve or even does a perfect job at pointing out America’s racial problems, but it is a film that could start conversations and provoke thought. It’s a film that sometimes goes too far and comes back around on its message, stifling its effect. It’s a film that fails the racial group, Native peoples and tribes, that were most affected by negative depictions in Hollywood’s version of the “Old West.” It’s a film that has a Black lead who is the smartest man in every room he enters without being a “Marty Stu.” It’s a film that shows that working together, in spite of ignorance and hatred, can be beneficial to all involved.
What Blazing Saddles never does is let down its comedic guard. Mel Brooks didn’t do that until his film Life Stinks. This film is a very broad comedy concept. Goddard Bolt (Mel Brooks), a wealthy man, bets with his wealthy colleague, Vance Crasswell (Jeffrey Tambor), that he can last for a month on the streets without any creature comforts. While Brooks and co-writers Steve Haberman and Rudy De Luca bring many gags and bits to the fore, there’s a dark cloud hanging over the film. There are aspects that dive into the real darkness of the lives of the poor and unhoused. There’s a particularly poignant scene when Bolt comes across Sailor (Howard Morris), a man he’s befriended, lying in the street. The scene plays out without comedy and is in stark comparison to Brooks’ other films. It’s a serious scene and it lands. It’s of course then surrounded by more gags, but it shows a side of Brooks he’s never shown before or since. Had Life Stinks been a success, it’s possible Brooks could have mined darker subject matter in the future, but as it failed, Brooks went back to what he knows best, finishing out his directing career with Robin Hood Men in Tights and Dracula Dead and Loving It.
Mel Brooks is a singular comedic talent. He’s one of the rare non-musicians to have an EGOT (A win at the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tonys) to his name. He has with the eleven feature films he directed created a body of work that has been ranked, debated, and ranked again. His films will stand the test of time because his films, while hitting differently today, can still make you laugh until you cry. His parodies are sharp and his barbs have always dug just a little deeper under the skin to make you laugh that much harder. Mel Brooks is the greatest American comedian of the 20th Century.
