MovieChat Forums > Blazing Saddles (1974) Discussion > Who saw it in 1974? What did you think ...

Who saw it in 1974? What did you think then?

posted 11 years ago by desierra2003
32 replies | jump to latest

I was 15 in 1974 and saw this movie with my parents and 14 years old brother. We all loved it and laughed like crazy. My Dad is a fan of westerns but I'm sure this was like nothing he had seen before or was even expecting. I remember the theater was full as it was probably a Saturday. The whole audience seemed to be enjoying it. I'll admit my brother and I preferred Young Frankenstein when it came out a year or so later. We're bigger fans of horror movies, even now after 40 years. One thing is certain, BS and YF set the tone for my love of comedies.

[–] siltom1962 8 years ago

Thought it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen then, when I was 12. Now, not so much...Young Frankenstein definitely holds up a lot better. RIP Gene Wilder. :(

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

I was a nearly less than new 21-year-old airman in language school at the Presidio of Monterey in 1976. Having heard of the controversy over the profanity and racial insensitivity, I had avoided the movie when it first came out. But I went to see it when it played on a double bill in the big theater downtown. I laughed my butt off and it has stayed funny for me ever since. No matter how many times I watch it, it is still funny. I don't remember what the other movie on the double bill was.

The whole point of the movie, its source of humor, is openly displaying all of the intolerance that looked under the surface of our society. We have progressed wonderfully since then, but as in modern Germany where it is illegal to display a swastika, even to ridicule the Nazis of WW2, we are so embarrassed at how we were that we can no longer laugh at it. We have lost something in the process of improving things and it shows at the decay in racial relations.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] coldturkey30 8 years ago

I took my 5 year old son to see it when it came out . I had no idea it was going to be a comedy---- I had NO idea other than I thought we were going to see a Western movie. BOY were we surprised, and rolled with laughter through the whole show. He's 48 now and still laughs when I bring it up. You can guess his Favorite scene ?? The campfire beans of course !!!!!