Analyzing Satire and Parody in Blazing Saddles Essay

Satire is the strongest tool of revealing the truth. But it becomes sharper in the hands of very clever people or genius such as Benjamin Franklin. Taking into consideration literature analysis, satire is a very strong and sharp display of comic art, which is based on a humiliating rebuke of poetic phenomena using different comic funds such as irony, sarcasm. Satire is both a literary genre and a particular technique that ridicules or condemns individuals or society for having a lower standard of values, attitudes, and behavior. The satirist exposes popular views in order to bring about intellectual or social reform (Rasenber).

There is more than enough proof that we are not born racist but are rather taught to be racist. It could be intentionally or unintentionally passed on to a generation by innocent parents and through the day-to-day social interaction in our society. “Race is a sociohistorical concept that has been defined by a rigidly enforced color line.

Blazing Saddles, a Mel Brooks film, is a perfect example of satire. The main object of the movie is to make fun of the western genre of films. Mel Brooks is notorious for his satires of many different films and film genres, and Blazing Saddles follows true to form. Many of the film’s ideas and problems are common in most westerns, although Mel Brooks has added a twist. In addition, the movie pokes fun at a more modern theme, racism.

American western movies were a thing of the 1950’s but they were no longer captivating in the 1970’s. It was apparent that guns, cowboys, and American heroes were no longer seen as a point of interest for the viewing public. Mel Gibson’s film entitled, Blazing Saddles, debuted in 1974 and seemed to fit the bill of the post-1960’s western. Blazing Saddles is a film that is able to take on racism and utilize it as an important reflection of the time. The film goes where no film has gone before in terms of discussing race and Hollywood. Blazing Saddles was able to seemingly integrate elements of Blaxploitation and introduce the film industry’s first interracial buddy comedy.

Are we born racist or have we learnt it? Children grow up heavily influenced by the values and beliefs of their family. If these attitudes are racist then innocent pick up these traits when usually they don’t see these differences.

In the fourth chapter of The Cultures of American Film, author Robert Kolker, indulges into the legacy of one of the most well-known writers, producers, and directors in early cinema – D.W. Griffith. Kolker dissects the cultural and racial implications of Griffiths most successful film, The Birth of a Nation, as well as, how Griffith impacted film. Griffith’s use of naturalism, parallel editing, and formal methods separated himself from other’s in the film business. We also get a look at how Oscar Micheaux responded to The Birth of a Nation, and became one of the first African-American filmmakers.

What contributes to people becoming racist? Numerous factors contribute to the construction of people’s beliefs and ideologies. First, childhood environment plays a fundamental part in creating one’s identity, such as, residing in a monoracial neighbourhood, and family and friends’ sociopolitical view. Second, academic curriculum determines what information one receives. As each curriculum emphasizes varying aspects of historical background. For example, religious schools and racially homogeneous schools tend to have different academic curriculum. All of these components ultimately contribute to finalizing people’s mindsets: ignorance, religious belief, hereditary beliefs, and spatial and social isolation.

Satire is defined as the use of a variety of elements such as sarcasm, irony, ridicule and humour to mock and criticise a subject by bringing its flaws to light as means to encourage change. In Gulliver’s travels human vice and folly are held up to ridicule, scorn and deride in an attempt to "shame men out of their vices" (Bullitt., 14).

“Racism is taught in our society; it is not automatic. It is learned behaviour toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.” (Alex Haley) The quote shows that racism is not a thing that you are born with, it is something that comes to you through the language that is used around children. Harper Lee in her book To Kill a Mockingbird explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. In this book you can see that racism is taught it is not inherited. Racism is a believe that inherent differences amongst the different racial human groups, which determine their respective cultures, usually involving the idea of that one’s race is more superior

Is racism genetically inbred a child when they are born, or rather a learned behavior based off of his or her environment? Studied by many psychologists, this debate continually leans toward the idea that children learn racial differences and racism through their surroundings. In Mark Twain's

The dictionary definition of satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices. Particularly, in the context of contemporary politics or other topical issues. If one were to examine contemporary culture today they would notice that it is becoming more and more satirized. One could argue this by turning on any program and listening for hidden messages alluding to some cause or political reference. Satire appears in many forms and may be used to shock the reader or targets into changing their behavior.

Mel Brooks’ satirical western comedy Blazing Saddles is the movie that changes a genre, by heavily making fun of it. From the start there is that initial good guy and bad guy mentality, with the hero ultimately saving the day. A wealthy white man wants to grab a spot of land to build his railroad through, however there is a town in the way. He sets forth to taking the town until two unlikely heroes come to the rescue and wittingly save the day. Ultimately throughout the plot there are hilarious commentaries on things that just don’t make sense.

“Stagecoach was the most critically acclaimed of several major studios 1939 Westerns that historians credit with raising the genre into big-budget production from the rut of B-studio, B-movie status” (Bernstein 300). Unlike the other classical Hollywood cinema, Ford chose western frontier as the open landscape for shooting. What’s more, Ford tried to cut dialogues to the minimum and focused on actions, showing how actors react to one another. Certainly, as a classical Hollywood film, Stagecoach reflects Ford’s appreciation of America’s westward expansion by showing chances for democratic life on the frontier. With the aim of specification contradictory beliefs, Ford made fully use of mise-en-scène and cinematography, such as setting and composition.

And there is absolutely no scientific basis to state that racial traits are somehow connected with norms of behavior or with certain abilities. It must be borne in mind that, in general, the group psychic characteristics and norms of human behavior always represent a complex system of interrelated reactions, socially conditioned, and, unlike animals, by people themselves. There is every reason to assert that for the Homo-Sapiens, from the moment of its final separation from the animal world, group psychology has always been in-herent and has never been and cannot be racial, only social. It is also worthy to pay attention that racial prejudices are by no means congenital - it is an acquired social quality. (Alden T. Vaughan 1995)

Usually, the central plot of the western film is the classic, simple goal of maintaining law and order on the frontier in a fast-paced action story. It is normally rooted in archetypal conflict - good vs. bad, virtue vs. evil, white hat vs. black hat, man vs. man, new arrivals vs. Native Americans (in those days were depicted as savages), settlers vs. Indians, lawman or sheriff vs. gunslinger, the rugged individualist vs. the community, the cultivated East vs. West to name a few. Often the hero of a western meets his opposite "double," a mirror of his own evil side that he must destroy. Typical elements in westerns include hostile elements (often Native Americans), guns and gun fights (sometimes on horseback), violence and human massacres, horses, trains (and train robberies), bank robberies and holdups, runaway stagecoaches, shoot-outs and showdowns, outlaws and sheriffs, cattle drives and cattle rustling, stampedes, posses in pursuit, barroom brawls, 'search and destroy' plots, breathtaking settings and open landscapes (the Tetons and Monument Valley, to name only a few), and distinctive western clothing (denim, jeans, boots,