Highly Overrated But Still Good

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The humour of this film is way beyond what you'd think was possible for the 70's. Even in the modern age if this film was produced now it'd still be considered a work of genius

Even though this is one of Mel Brooks' more acclaimed and respected movies, I felt like he found his beat more later in Spaceballs and Men in Tights. There were parts of this that made me smile, but very few that actually made me laugh. I wasn't surprised that there was some off color humor, because it wouldn't be a Mel Brooks movie if it weren't. But I was surprised that he did as many racial jokes as he did. Some of it is making fun of racism itself, but some of it actually is racist. So that was another tick down. On the upside, it gives a lot of attention to a lot of characters, which added some variety to the style of comedy. I can see how some people might love it, but it just didn't work for me. Overall Rating: 6.6/10.

They got me on the floor when Slim Pickens came riding up to that toll booth and turned around so he could get a load of quarters. Sometimes, this is a hit and miss movie, but when it's on, it is incredibly funny. Harvey Korman could make me laugh by looking at me. The fact that his name was Henley Lamar is enough right there. And there is Gabby Johnson speaking typical Western gibberish. Cleavon Little and that little old lady (Up yours). While the ending totally disappointed me, it really doesn't matter because there never was a coherent whole to it anyway. Mel Brooks continues to be insane. Where else do you have person who has the cred to do the insanity that he does? Oh, Gene Wilder and Mongo and whatever other stuff you can strut on the screen.

I was mentioning this movie a while back to a co-worker, and she said, "Oh, that movie is terrible, it's so racist..." She didn't get it. There is a lot of politically incorrect language, a lot of use of the "N" word. But you have to pay attention to the context. All the racial slurs are done in such a way that the object of ridicule is the racist whites, not African Americans. In that sense, it's just brilliant. In one scene, when the black sheriff greets an old white woman on the street, she responds with "Outta my way, n****r! Later, after he has proved his worthiness as sheriff, she brings him a pie she baked for him as a token of appreciation "for saving our town from that horrible "Mongo..." Then, before departing, she says, "Oh, and, sorry about the "outta my way n****er..." Some 40+ years later, whenever I hear that line, I find myself rolling on the floor laughing... Pure genius!