I think Blazing Saddles is an unusual case because it was written by Richard Pryor, who was funny enough to write something that contained overt racism but still be extremely funny since it was a mockery of it.
But I can think of more recent movies that are similar. It’s not that new, but still within the proper time frame I think, but Spike Lee’s Bamboozled comes to mind. I also think Get Out could have been turned into a really racist film if done by a white person.
All three of these films have a commonality which has nothing to do with the era in which they are made. The commonality is that they are movies that have highly offensive racism in them, which would be scandalous in the wrong hands, but since they are movies made by black people looking at the idea of racism, it works.
Pryor was one of the writers on Blazing Saddles, but he didn’t “write it.” His influence is clear and extremely visible in the script; but there’s more of Bergman in the script and dialogue than anyone else. I think the room that wrote Blazing Saddles may have been the only group of people who could have done it, and if not they’re the only ones who could have done it anywhere near that well.
I think Blazing Saddles is an unusual case because it was written by Richard Pryor, who was funny enough to write something that contained overt racism but still be extremely funny since it was a mockery of it.
But I can think of more recent movies that are similar. It’s not that new, but still within the proper time frame I think, but Spike Lee’s Bamboozled comes to mind. I also think Get Out could have been turned into a really racist film if done by a white person.
All three of these films have a commonality which has nothing to do with the era in which they are made. The commonality is that they are movies that have highly offensive racism in them, which would be scandalous in the wrong hands, but since they are movies made by black people looking at the idea of racism, it works.
Pryor was one of the writers on Blazing Saddles, but he didn’t “write it.” His influence is clear and extremely visible in the script; but there’s more of Bergman in the script and dialogue than anyone else. I think the room that wrote Blazing Saddles may have been the only group of people who could have done it, and if not they’re the only ones who could have done it anywhere near that well.
Even more recently, there’s Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman
I have not seen that yet. I forgot it even existed to be honest! I’m definitely putting that on a ‘watch soon’ list. Thanks!