Only 1900 years more to go!
(Die-hard fans will get the joke ;-)
And he's still going nonstop! Coming next year is the long awaited Spaceballs sequel. It wouldn't surprise me if Mel Brooks has more up his sleeve for after that. The man has been a comedic force of nature for most of his life, what else might he entertain us with?
There is no doubting what I'm doing this afternoon to celebrate Brooks's centennial. I'm going to watch Blazing Saddles for the hunnerd zillionth time.
It was on this date in 1974 that filmmaker Mel Brooks released his western spoof upon an unsuspecting world. And comedy was never the same again...
It's probably the number-one movie that has been said "it could never be made today." Which makes it all the more special. Blazing Saddles is unadulterated political incorrectness as only Brooks and his crew could have made it.
How much does this movie mean to me? I have owned a copy of it on every home media format going back to VHS. It was the very first DVD that I bought. Later on I bought it on Blu-ray and today I keep it loaded on my iPad Pro (along with the complete Star Wars saga, The Thing, and Airplane! among others).
There are two movies that I distinctly remember from early childhood and each of them was run on CBS (the network our family's television was almost always tuned to) every year: The Wizard of Oz and Blazing Saddles. Try finding a broadcast network that would show it today though! Even HBO Max is now carrying a "trigger warning" when you watch Blazing Saddles on it.
Well, so much that could be said about this film. I think I'll celebrate today by watching it again for the hunnerd zillionth time.
