"Blazing Saddles"
When the bad guys ride into the fake Rock Ridge, Slim Pickens kicks the doors on Johnson's Saddlery and it falls over revealing that the town is a fake. A few seconds later as the dynamite starts going off, it's upright again and an explosion blows the doors into the street.

I'm surprised no one else thought of
nitpicking this movie!

I need not describe it, I'm sure all of you have seen it at least once!

I think if this movie were released today,
it'd get a "PG-13" rating instead of rated "R"

Does anyone disagree with me? If so, why?

Aside from the racist remarks in this film, why do you feel the film board gave this movie the "R" rating? A lot of the language is pretty tame compared to some other rated "R" films.
Perhaps it's because it was released in the 70's... I dunno....you tell me

As South Park says: "Horrible and deplorable violence in movies is OK, as long as no one uses any naughty words!"

Don't forget that it's also ok for
the characters to shoot eachother, and
cause absolute mayhem as long as they
keep their pants up :)


(I read something simaler to the above a
while back).

Heck, just like this Discussion board.

I can describe a man shooting a 3inch diameter hole in the back of another man's head, but I can't say the "F" Word.

Just seen the movie on DVD, it's a riot.
Wonderfully restored.

I have to agree with a "PG-13" rating on this one
rather than "R".

Those closest they get to any nudity is when the bad guys knock over the public shower room and a man is in inside covered with suds....can't see anything "Private"

The "S" word is used rather frequently....not to mention the racial slur begining with "N"

Ya know, I was thinking of "Mrs. Doubtfire"...I think if that movie was done in the 70's rather than the 90's, it'd have an "R" rating too.

BEST SCENES: (From Blazing Saddles)

*Harvey Korman & the rubber frog scene..they way he panics is hilarious! It is quickly followed by
his sigh of relief when he finds the frog.
*The baked bean sequence.
*The toll booth sequence.
*the final fight (complete with pies)
*Harvey Korman leaving the studio and going to the Theater and stepping to see....."Blazing Saddles"
*Riding off into the sunset...in a limo!

*Harvey Korman leaving the studio and going to the Theater and stepping to see....."Blazing Saddles"

A scene that Mel Brooks revisited years later in Spaceballs... "Quick, get me the video of "Spaceballs: The Movie"!

Favorite Line... it's a toss up. Either:
"No, don't shoot him, you'll only make him mad."
Or:
"Where all the white women at?"
Favorite bit:
When mongo punches the horse. How'd they get the horse to do that?

H-Wood has a lot of animal trainers to do stunts
like this.

I know I'm going to be thrown off this board for this, but here goes...

Regarding the comments of the N-word: A recent survey in the UK found the N-word to be the fifth most offensive word in the English language, reflecting changes in social attitudes and the fact that racism is severely frowned upon here. (The other four were words describing self-adoration, wanton procreation, the Oedipus complex, and... well, you get the picture) Maybe if the film were re-released in the UK (currently it has a 15 certificate), on the basis of this they wouldn't alter the certificate at all.

And that's the end of *that* chapter (and my career).

From "Robin Hood: Men in Tights", in the announcement of the new Sheriff of Rottingham:
All: A *black* sherrif??!
Aachoo: Well, it worked on "Blazing Saddles"!

Chewwie: If you watch the horse punched over & over you'll see how they did it.

The rider pulls back on the rein when Mongo swings.

One station where I lived used this shot in the commercial for their airing of the film & showed the spot around 4000 times in 2 days. Kind of ruined the gag by the time I finally saw the film.

Mel Brooks does tell of one scene that was edited because they felt it was too explicit.
Madaline Kahn's character & the sheriff go to bed, she wonders if it is true what they say about black men, the lights go out, and she says "It's true! It's true!" & he says, "You're s-cking my arm."

I had heard years ago that Brooks ASKED the MPAA for the "R" rating, to keep the kiddies away. Now, the "R" attracts the kiddies. (See "Scary Movie.")

One of my favorite lines in the movie is when Hedly Lamar goes into Grauman's Chinese Theater, he immediately goes up to the concession stand and orders "Raisinets". This is something my wife cannot do without when watching a movie at a theater, and I found the juxtaposition hilarious!

Goopers or raisinets, goopers or raisinets... ain't that the eternal question? Guess I'll never know the eternal answer.

Spock: If you are referring to "Goobers", Doctor, you are correct.
McCoy: Well, however it’s pronounced, Mr. Spock, it’s the Vulcan ritual that’s supposed to purge all remaining emotion.

I believe I read in an article about this movie that when it was released there wasn't any PG-13 rating, so they had to pick either PG or R. And it was actually because of Blazing Saddles that they later invented PG-13.

BTW, did anyone notice that the movie's initials are B S?

They invented PG-13 because of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. PG-13 didn't come about until the mid-80s.

Favorite scene: Bart singing "I Get no Kick From Champaign" (whatever the song is...) then getting the cowboys to sing "Camptown Ladies."

Favorite Line: "Somebody's gotta go back for a s**tload of dimes!"

Oh, and by the way, the original title of the screenplay was "Tex X"

Black Bart was another possible title.

I believe Richard Pryor was to be the lead, but the studio didn't want him.

Favorite scene: Bart singing "I Get no Kick From Champaign" (whatever the song
is...) Merat

The correct title is "I Get a Kick Out of You".

About PG-13, it was not invented specifically for either Blazing Saddles or Temple of Doom. It was first put forth by the MPAA in the mid-1980's. I would guess it was created for movies like Blazing Saddles, which arguably have material too explicit for a child, but not a teenager. The first movie to get the rating was The Flamingo Kid, but Temple of Doom came out some months before it, and was the first movie shown with the rating.
I must say, my favorite part of the movie was when Bart put a gun to his own neck, and throws his voice to escape the angry people of Rock Ridge. "Do what he say! Do what he say!!" "Baby, you are so talented, and they are so Dumb."

IIRC, Temple of Doom was one of the movies cited as a need for the PG-13 rating. There were other films out at the time that also contributed to the controversy leading to the creation of the rating. I think Gremlins was either another movie that helped instigate the PG-13 rating or the first to receive the rating. I don't remember off hand.

Gremlins came out the same summer as Temple of Doom and also had a controversial scene of violence. Poltergeist a few years before also contended with some controversy.

Neither Gremlins nor Temple of Doom were PG-13.

I thought I read that Red Dawn was the first movie to be released with the PG-13 rating.

I think you're right. It was Red Dawn. I don't know where my head was at.

I did some checking. Red Dawn was released in August of 1984 and Flamingo Kid was not released until December of the same year--so it was Red Dawn.
Gremlins and Temple of Doom were the two movies that did instigate the new PG-13 rating. They were released in June and May of 1984, respectively. Also through some checking, PG-13 started on July 1, 1984.
Also, for a bit of interesting information, for a long time, PG-13's, on average, did the worst in movie returns. That did not turn around until the mid 1990's. Still, as of this date, there are only 24 PG-13 and 4 R's on the 50 All-Time Grossing Movies List. The rest are either PG or G.
If you go by the list that adjusts for inflation, a majority of the movies are PG, G, and a huge number were made before the instigation of the MPAA code which occurred in 1968.
Another interesting bit of trivia: more American's went to the movies in 1948 than any other year. It still has not been topped. While there was television, t.v.'s were still very rare, and only two channels existed with very few shows. The next big invention to deter movie-going was the VCR.

Also if you look at certan old PG-13 movies they get away with stuff that no current movie could get away with and still be PG-13 (Just one of the Guy's anyone?)

Still, as of this date, there are only 24 PG-13 and 4 R's on the 50 All-Time Grossing Movies List. - SaintSteven

ONLY 24? That's almost 50 percent of the list! And a larger number than any other classification. For a ratings classification that has existed for less than 20 years, I'd say that's statistically relevant.

Good, point, Darth.
But remember that PG-13's did not have a significant break-through until recently. That has coincided with an astronomical jump in ticket prices. The mid 1990's to present has seen the highest rate of inflation of movies.
Many of the best money-makers actually came out from about 1982 and earlier - when movies were quite a bit cheaper.
And if you go by the list that adjusts for inflation, there are only 6 PG-13 in the Top 50, and only 19 in the top 100! Also, there are only 3 and 7 R's on the lists, respectively. That means, nearly 75 per cent are either PG or G (and quite a few were made before the instigation of the rating system).

Exactly, before the instigation of the rating system. Movies will never have the same attendance as they did before Home Video, cable TV, the internet and computer games began fighting for everyone's media dollars.

But remember... - SaintSteven

But remember yourself, I did not attempt to counter that particular point, since I did not have that information readily available. I only addressed your first assertion that there were only 24 PG-13-rated films in the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, which I felt underplayed the significance of that number.

But... to address the point now, I doubt studios today are very concerned with how much older films would have made had admission prices been higher. Their concern is how well movies do today.

If you eliminate all the films in the Top 50 that pre-date the formation of the PG-13 classification, you're left with:

9 PG-rated films
5 G-rated films
3 R-rated films
24 PG13-rated films

To narrow it down further, there are 21 films on the list that have been released since 2000. Of those:

6 PG-rated films
2 G-rated films
1 R-rated film
12 PG13-rated films

With these numbers, it's hard to dispute the notion that PG13 films tend to be bigger money-makers.

Darth,
Touche!

Family Channel showed this. Not only did they bleep the N-word, and the various scatological and sexual references, but they bleeped "Shtupp"!!! Shtupp? Nobody who knows what it means would be offended, and those who would be offended wouldn't know what it meant!

And after bleeping such words as @ss, etc..., the very next show was "Who's Line Is It Anyways?", with lots of coarse language. Very inconsistent.

Nits posted separately from the rant.

Non-nit, good scene. Hedley takes a cab from Warner Bros. to Grauman's (now Mann's) Chinese Theatre. Well done. WB is in Burbank (at the 134 and Hollywood Way), The Chinese is in Hollywood (on Hollywood Blvd near Highland). This however, does lead to a nit.

When Hedley leaves WB (with Bart in close pursuit), it's clearly afternoon -- the sun is bright, etc...

Yet by the time he reaches the Chinese, it's night and very dark. Even with traffic, it wouldn't take more than half an hour (probably less) to get there. There is no way it should be so dark when they get there.

Most likely Scott, the cut you saw of Blazing Saddles was one made back in the '70s. As I'm sure you remember, Standards and Practices (the Censors) were more strict back then than they are today. It does make you wonder why a more modern edit hasn't been created for 21^st Century sensibilities, though.

"You use yore tongue perttier than a twenty-doller whore."

The only censoring I could find on the AMC cut is the "N word".

This film absolutely could *NOT* be made today.

Disclaimer: Nothing to do with Obama, I've been saying that for at least 10 years.

"All in the Family" couldn't get on the air today, either. And I've been saying that for years.

During the chess game, when Jim is convincing Bart he's the Waco Kid, he holds up his right hand, rock solid. Then he holds up his left, which is flailing all over, and says "but this is my shooting hand". However, during the remainder of the movie, he shoots with his right hand -- in particular, when he's setting of the explosives at the fake Rock Ridge.