6) Blazing Saddles
As famous as Blazing Saddles is for THAT scene around a camp fire (stop giggling at the back), Mel Brooks’ anarchic, groundbreaking comedy has so much to recommend in it that it is almost a shame to have to limit oneself to the bare minimum.
To begin with, the script is much funnier and much cleverer than you remember. It isn’t all fart gags and trousers around ankles stuff. Although, that is very funny. It’s clear that the film has a point to make about Hollywood’s treatment of the black community, and anyone else considered outsiders.
Cleavon Little as Bart and Gene Wilder as Jim (a gunfighter who can barely hold a gun) share such wonderful chemistry that every scene between them is a comedic joy to behold. Meanwhile, Madeline Kahn gets to sing one of the funniest songs of all time and Mel Brooks has more fun than should be permissible in his dual roles.
It is a smart, funny, ambitious film that sets out to entertain and appal in equal measure, and it makes no bones about doing so. The ending is pure spoof gold, and it remains one of Brooks’ finest works.