by Julian Spivey

Mel Brooks is widely known for spoofing movie genres.

His most celebrated movie spoof would arguably be 1974's Blazing Saddles. Blazing Saddles essentially mocks, and at the same time pays tribute, to the entire Western genre, which was one of the biggest genres in film during its early decades.

The first noticeable thing about Blazing Saddles is the movie's theme song, "Blazing Saddles," sung by Frankie Lane. The song can be seen as a spoof of any Western theme song, but it most likely was a mocking of Tex Ritter's theme for Fred Zinnemann's classic, High Noon.

Another concept that is quickly seen in the movie is its racist attitudes. However, unlike many Westerns that held racist attitudes toward Native Americans, most notably John Ford's directed The Searchers, in which John Wayne's Ethan Edwards holds a deep-down hatred for "savage Indians," Blazing Saddles mocks the racist views of the time toward black people. The movie's main character, Bart, played by Cleavon Little, is a black man who is sent to be the sheriff of an all-white town.

The scene in the movie when Madeline Kahn's dancehall singer, Lili Von Shtupp, sings and dances to the song "I'm Tired" is a parody of a similar sequence from the 1939 movie, Destry Rides Again, directed by George Marshall, when Marlene Dietrich performs "Falling In Love Again."

Another direct parody of the Western genre can be noticed in the scene when the bad guys are lining up to help take over the town.

A Mexican proclaims, "Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!" This is mocking John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in which actor Alfonso Bedoya says, "Badges? We ain't got no badges! We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!"

Finally, at the very end of Blazing Saddles, in one of the truly funny movie moments of all time, Bart and Jim can be seen riding on horseback into the sunset, but suddenly both men climb down from their horses and enter a black limousine that drives them off into the sunset.

This is a definite mocking of the way many Westerns end, with the main hero or character riding on horseback off into the unknown future and sunset.

The final scene is also a great way to end the film because Blazing Saddles is essentially a film within a film, which is made obvious during the final scenes.

Brooks' Blazing Saddles is a great send-up and parody of the Western genre, one of the most celebrated genres in movie history.

Blazing Saddles is a film that comedy fans and Western fans alike should find hilarious. Some movie parodies go too far in making fun of the movies or genres they satirize, but Brooks has shown uniqueness in mocking films while also showing a major amount of respect for them.

Few films, if any, ride into the sunset like Blazing Saddles, which is what makes the movie such a timeless classic.