‘Blazing Saddles’: HBO Max Includes TCM Notice To Provide Context For Mel Brooks’ Western Spoof


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HBO Max has added yet another informative introduction to one of its titles. When Blazing Saddles hit the network’s new platform on July 28, the Mel Brooks film kicks off not with its opening sequence, but rather an introduction by University of Chicago professor and TCM host Jacqueline Stewart.

 

The intro, in which the Silent Sunday Nights host provides social context to the 1974 Cleavon Little-Gene Wilder comedy, is similar to the disclaimer in front of Gone with the Wind.

 

“This movie is an overt and audacious spoof on classic Westerns,” Stewart says in the newly added intro. “It’s as provocative today as it was when it premiered back in 1974.”

 

The TCM notice not only provides context to some of Brooks’ characters but also informs audiences about the director’s spoofing ways. Stewart highlights the director’s later genre satires, including Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety and Spaceballs. She continues the prelude saying that the race-centered comedy features “racist language and attitudes” throughout.

 

“Those attitudes are espoused by characters who are explicitly portrayed here as narrow-minded, ignorant bigots,” Stewart adds. “The film’s real and much more enlightened perspective is represented by the two main characters.”

 

https://deadline.com/2020/08/blazing-saddles-hbo-tcm-notice-context-to-western-spoof-1203013011/

 

Here we go again....Sure glad I have this on Blue-ray. 

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2 hours ago, techbeck said:

 

https://deadline.com/2020/08/blazing-saddles-hbo-tcm-notice-context-to-western-spoof-1203013011/

 

Here we go again....Sure glad I have this on Blue-ray. 

I don't mind this, sure a simple text disclaimer would've been enough IMO, but I don't see the negative in this.  Unless you'd rather they butcher older films by editing them or flat out not showing them?  

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7 minutes ago, George P said:

I don't mind this, sure a simple text disclaimer would've been enough IMO, but I don't see the negative in this.  Unless you'd rather they butcher older films by editing them or flat out not showing them?  

Fact that this has to happen shows how ignorant and ill informed people are.  Growing up, I never had to be told anything like this.  I knew it as it was taught to me how to properly  treat people and what the stereotypes were.   And if anyone cannot see a movie like this or Gone With The Wind for what is, then they need  help IMO.  People get way to offended these days.

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2 hours ago, techbeck said:

 

https://deadline.com/2020/08/blazing-saddles-hbo-tcm-notice-context-to-western-spoof-1203013011/

 

Here we go again....Sure glad I have this on Blue-ray. 

There's nothing wrong with mentioning context before a movie, which your comment seems to imply.

 

As for owning the Blu-Ray, neither HBO or TCM is editing the movie itself.

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4 minutes ago, timster said:

There's nothing wrong with mentioning context before a movie, which your comment seems to imply.

I guess, but was this even asked for or is the network so worried now to offend someone.  What about Django Unchained?  That going to be next?

 

I just remember a time that this was not needed.  Seems the  world is getting dumber by the day if they need to be told what to think before a movie is shown.

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4 minutes ago, techbeck said:

Fact that this has to happen shows how ignorant and ill informed people are.  Growing up, I never had to be told anything like this.  I knew it as it was taught to me how to properly  treat people and what the stereotypes were.   And if anyone cannot see a movie like this or Gone With The Wind for what is, then they need  help IMO.  People get way to offended these days.

I agree with you, I think it's crazy that people need to be told such things but HBO/TCM etc are just covering their backs legal wise.  It's a sign of the times.  Remember when you had commercials for medicine that didn't ramble off all the possible side effects?   It's the nature of the legal world we live in now where any idiot who's managed to escape Darwin so far, can just sue for anything dumb they can think of.

 

I'd rather get the content with the disclaimer unedited than not get it at all though.

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Just now, George P said:

I'd rather get the content with the disclaimer unedited than not get it at all though.

Way things are going, the edits will come next and there will be more targets.   Like the Boondocks, Django Unchained, and any other movie depicting slave times or the discrimination of a race. 

 

Pretty soon, grief counselors will be made available for those who are traumatized by what they saw.  Yes, I am exaggerating but I am just little frustrated on how backwards the education of the public is going.

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Satire has gone from: Take something real and relatable to it's most ludicrous extreme for comedic effect so we can laugh together

To:  Funny is bad, so let's get bitter and hateful so people keep turning on each other.

 

Case-in-Point: Saturday Night Live. Some of us remember Eddie Murphy doing White Face, or Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor trading

racial slurs during a job interview, and laughing our asses off the whole time. Now... almost every "joke" has venom in it-- it's bitter,

and lacks any feeling of Fun the old shows had. And if you want to see for yourself how out-of-touch they are now, go watch the

recent Special where Eddie Murphy came back. Jesus Christ... just watch the rest of the cast. It's like they're just not used to 

actually having fun doing the show. Eddie Murphy shows up, does his thing, and you can actually feel the cast responding to

the change in the environment. They're relaxed, instead of stiff, cardboard cutouts.

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It was a movie of its time. Different time, different social norms. I have no problem with it. As said above, its better than having the movie edited. 

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