Blazing Saddles (1974)

One of the greatest comedies of all time and one of Mel Brooks’ greatest films, Blazing Saddles uncompromisingly lampoons the living daylights out of the Western genre.

In order to complete a railroad, a corrupt politician decides to scare a whole town into moving. When gangs and thugs don’t work, they try sending a black sheriff to town and get people to leave based on their unabashed racism. That doesn’t quite work either, as the sheriff is a hit and he gets a zany gunslinger of a partner (Gene Wilder) in defending the town.

Blazing Saddles pretty much covers the entire gamut of all things crude, rude and lewd. Cheap shots are made at all kinds of prejudiced beliefs and the absurdities of Westerns in general. Mel Brooks creates one gut-buster of a comedy that is a must-see, no matter how prudish you may be. Unless you’re a super stick in the mud, you’ll find plenty to laugh at here.

RATING: 4.5 out of 5

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb* (1964)

This is about as black as black comedy can get. Only Stanley Kubrick could make the annihilation of mankind via nuclear weapons funny. This film blows by pretty quickly at 96 minutes, but it’s got a lot of meat to it.

So what would happen if a paranoid high ranking general went off the deep end and decided to make it his personal mission to win the Cold War? What failsafe measures are there to prevent such a thing from happening? Dr. Strangelove examines the fragile balance that could very well be going on with our stockpiled nuclear arsenal. While some would say it’s dated because the Cold War is over, this movie is still very poignant today. There are some rather loose cannon dictators in the global community with itchy trigger fingers. It’s really not too hard to envision such a situation.

Peter Sellers is delicious, playing three different characters with three wildly differing personalities. The entire cast is excellent, in fact, creating a rousing film with many famous scenes and memorable quotes. Definitely worth seeing.

I will warn you though, if you aren’t very receptive to dark comedy, you’ll find this movie either boring, silly in a bad way, or very depressing.

RATING: 4 out of 5