Comparison of the Westerns: Shane and Blazing Saddles Through The Three Historical Frameworks of Industry, Gender and Technology.

By Sarah Minazzo

INTRODUCTION:

In this essay, the Classic Western Shane will be compared to the Revisionist Western Comedy Blazing Saddles through discussions on why they are Westerns, why they should be compared and are compared through three historical frameworks.

1. WHY ARE THE FILMS SHANE AND BLAZING SADDLES CONSIDERED WESTERNS?

Shane (George Stevens, 1952) is considered a Classic Western by several authors of the study of Westerns including Jane Tompkins (who praises the film) and Pauline Kael (who criticizes the film). Tompkins claims that the continuously repeated line from Shane, “Come back, Shane. Come back” has become part of the “permanent repertoire” of American culture and is the one of the most quoted lines from Western films (1992, p. 5). Kael claims that Shane is “the rather ponderous “classic” version of the Western, good and evil were white and black” and continues to criticize it for it’s simplicity of narrative and it’s “soft romantic focus [of] the Westerner as played by… Alan Ladd”(Kael, 1974 p. 418). In the Encyclopedia of Westerns Shane is referred to as being “considered by many to be the greatest Western ever made” and as a Western, “it goes directly to the legend [of the West]” (Fagen, 2003 pp. 384-5). Also Shane was recently voted the Best Western of the Century by the Western Writers of America Association (Fagen, 2003 p. 386).

Shane has several elements of the Western. According to Buscombe, the elements of the Western are: plot structures (the reformed gun-fighter who comes into town as a stranger and has a change of heart), imagery (deserts, mountains, ranches), clothing and accessories as a means of defining the characters (bad guys in black), “tools of the trade” (Colt 45s usually for the stranger in town) and transportation (white horses for good, horse and carriage for respectable folk) (1986, pp. 13-15).

In terms of plot structures, Shane (Alan Ladd) is a reformed gun fighter who comes to a ranch run by a small family, which is surrounded by other family ranches and bad guys who want to control all the ranches. In the end, he is able to fight them and saves the day only to ride off into the sunset. There are plenty of images of prairies and mountains in the distance. In terms of clothing, Shane wears a light tan outfit and the design seems to replicate costumes worn by Indians. He also wears a white hat to represent his goodness. The bad guys wear black. The ranchers wear well-weathered clothes and Marian wears tomboyish clothes to work on the ranch. Shane carries a pair of revolvers whereas the ranchers own rifles to shoot game. As for transportation, all characters ride on horses. There are wagons as well which are used for transport when the ranchers decide to confront the bad guys and go to town.

Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974) is like all films from Brooks’ oeuvre, it’s a spoof, a film of combined genre. The title itself is a typical Classic Western title. A number of Westerns have the word “blazing” in the title such as Blazing Across the Pecos (Nazarro, 1948), Blazing Arrows aka Fighting Caravans (Brower & Burton, 1931), Billy the Kid in Blazing Frontier (Newfield, 1943), The Blazing Sun (English, 1950) and Blazing Guns (Tansey, 1943) (Fagen, 2003 pp. 46-47).

Blazing Saddles despite being a satire, it can also be applied to Buscombe’s elements of the Western. Firstly, Blazing Saddles has a stranger riding into town  - (Black Bart played by Cleavon Little) and the bad guys want to destroy a town that is in the way of a railroad and Bart with the help of the townspeople fights and saves the day. Secondly, the film has deserts, the railroad and interior settings such as the church, the saloon and jail. In terms of clothes, Bart wears clothes similar to Shane and his deputy The Waco Kid in contrast wears black and is white. The villain Hedley Lamarr works in the government and is dressed in what would usually be considered the garb of a gambler. Guns are all revolvers mostly Colts however explosives such as TNT are also used in the final fight scene and in building the railroad. Transportation is mostly on horses and carriages for respectable people such as the dim wit Governor.

2. WHY COMPARE SHANE WITH BLAZING SADDLES? WHAT RELATIONSHIP DO THEY HAVE WITH EACH OTHER?

It has been established that both films are Westerns and definitely have the elements needed to qualify as Westerns. Both Shane and Blazing Saddles were produced in different periods and by different studios. Shane was produced during the Westerns Classic period (hence why it is called a “Classic” by all authors cited in the previous section) and was produced by Paramount Pictures whereas Blazing Saddles was produced in the Revisionist Period and was produced by Warner Bros (Fagen, 2003 pp. 46- 47, 384 – 386). The seventies, the decade that Blazing Saddles was made, was a time when the conventional Western was undergoing change, a revision (Lloyd, 1984, p. 97). A period, which could be considered a “phase of irony and self-criticism” (Lloyd, 1984, p. 97). Since the seventies was such a time, differences between these two films of the same genre need to be look at to see what changes that have occurred in the Western. Blazing Saddles is a spoof of Westerns, a combined genre film in which we can see what the audience and filmmakers of that time (and that film) loved about the Classic Western (in the case of this essay, Shane).

The next three sections are the three historical approaches, which explore and compare both Shane and Blazing Saddles. These three approaches are: Industry, Gender and Technology.

3. THE INDUSTRY APPROACH

Shane was based on the novel by Jack Schaefer (Fagen, 2003 p. 384). Alan Ladd was personal choice for Shane (Fagen, 2003 p. 385). Stevens claimed that Ladd “had the capacity to convey to audiences a large measure of reserve, dignity and decency” (Fagen, 2003 p.385). Originally, William Holden was to play Joe Starrett (father of Joey) but dropped out at last minute and was replaced by Van Heflin (American Film Institute, 2006).

A.B. Guthrie wrote the screenplay of Shane and was a first time scriptwriter. Howard Hawks recommended Guthrie to Stevens because Guthrie had written the novel that Hawk’s film; The Big Sky was based on (American Film Institute, 2006). Most of Shane was shot in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (Baker in Cameron et al, 1996 p. 215). The location was a change from the Classic Western because many Westerns up to that point were shot in California (Baker in Cameron et al, 1996 p. 215).

When Shane was released, it did well at the Box Office, ranking third that year. The critics applauded Shane, the New York Times claimed that, “[Shane] had the quality of a fine album of paintings of the frontier” (Fagen, 2003 p. 385). Funnily enough, Stevens researched hard into the “real” West that he even look to inspiration in paintings of the frontier (American Film Institute, 2006). Ladd was in the running for Oscar nomination but was not supported in his campaign by Paramount, because he broke away from the studio system to become a freelance actor (Fagen 2003, p.385) however Shane did win the Best Colour Cinematography Oscar (British Film Institute, 2006).

Blazing Saddles was originally called Black Bart (Wilder, 2005 p. 142) and unlike Shane it started life as a script written by Andrew Bergman in 1971. Warner Bros bought the script and had Alan Arkin directing and James Earl Jones as Black Bart (Back in the Saddle, 2001). This arrangement fell apart and Warner Bros then asked Bergman (never would happen in the fifties) if Mel Brooks would suffice as director. Bergman was pleased, as Brooks was his hero. Brooks came on board provided he could rewrite the script with Bergman and other comedy writers (Back in the Saddle, 2001). “The concept was simple. Play 1974 in 1874” said Brooks retrospectively in Back in the Saddle (2001). Brooks got a little known comedian named Richard Pryor to write with him (British Film Institute, 2006).

There were many problems with censorship of the dialogue, particularly because of the use of the word, “nigger”. Censorship believed that such a word should be handled more seriously, but the concept of the film was all about racism. Gene Wilder puts the argument the best: “It was smashing racism in the face and its nose was bleeding but you were laughing and you didn’t realize it” (Back in the Saddle, 2001).

Closer to production, Brooks tried to convince Warner Bros to cast Pryor as Bart, however Warner would not relent due to Pryor’s controversial stand up comedy routines (Fagen, 2003 p. 47). Brooks then hired Cleavon Little. The Waco Kid ended up being played by Gene Wilder after Dan Daley got cold feet and Gig Young was ill (Wilder, 2005 p. 145) much like Heflin had been picked up at last minute. As far as inspiration went, it was Classic Western traits being exposed to 1974 (Wlaschin & Sinyard in Lloyd 1984, p. 98). The seventies Westerns were short of conventional heroes like Shane (Wlaschin & Sinyard in Lloyd 1984, p. 98). Bart is far from conventional because he’s black and hip.

After it’s release, Blazing Saddles was the highest grossing Western of the seventies (Fagen, 2003 p. 47). It claims to be the first feature film that has characters breaking wind and was so controversial that it was the first film that had sound censored on television. Horses snorting replaced the original sound (Back in the Saddle, 2001). Like Shane, Blazing Saddles was nominated for Oscars, including the Best Song and Best Actress (Fagen, 2003 p. 47) however unlike Shane, it didn’t win any of the categories.
 

4. THE GENDER APPROACH

The Gender Approach and psychoanalytical references first started with Laura Mulvey’s essay Visual Pleasures and later gender works are based on its principles. Mulvey pointed out that cinema allows woman to be seen as the fetish object of the male gaze as a result of Freud’s patriarchal unconscious where woman is proof that a human can exist without a penis thus causing a castration anxiety in man (2003, pp. 133-135). Westerns however are different in the way they approach gender representation and the male gaze because Westerns are a genre driven by action, about struggle and conflict between individual men and groups of men (Neale, 2000 p. 261). Man becomes spectacle rather than the usual female spectacle in other genres and blood lust rather than sexual pleasure. According to psychoanalysis, violence occurs in the Western because it shows masculinity (Mitchell, 2001 p. 177) and gives the male heterosexual gaze a way to see the male body in a non-sexual way (Neale, 2000 pp. 253-254).

According to Mitchell, “the Western is invariably pitched toward an exhibition of manly restraint, thereby requiring the proof of generic excess in the form of repeated violence” (2001, p. 177). This is true in both films. Shane keeps going back and fighting the bad guys in the bar, whenever he goes into town and there is more than one conflict between the ranchers and the villains in the film. Blazing Saddles however has comical violence particularly in the way Bart fights Mongo with Looney Tunes like devices and doesn’t get killed and there is no blood, just black smudges and fainting from explosives.

Mitchell argues, “there is an almost obsessive recurrence of scenes of men being beaten—or knifed and whipped…and tortured into unconsciousness…offering a vast panorama of sado-masochism that leads to even more protracted displays of the hero’s convalescence” (2001 p.181). Basically, the hero’s body is celebrated at the beginning only to be punished (Mitchell 2001 p.181). We see Shane get bashed up badly throughout the film however Bart doesn’t take a punch, only a very bad assassination attempt by Lilli (who doesn’t really try because of her attraction to him). There is no physical abuse done to Bart, however he does suffers from the racism of Rock Ridge.

Usually, when the stranger rides into town, he tends to be exhibitionist in such a way that it displays masculinity (Bingham, 1994 p. 163). Bingham’s observation is evident in both films. Shane rides through the plains, with an air of being a wanderer and at the same time, a strength that tames the horse that has no saddle and because there isn’t much going on in the scenery, we are drawn to looking at Shane. Once he is in close range to Starrett’s ranch, we see that he is direct and even scares Joey. When Bart rides into Rock Ridge, he rides with a Gucci saddle, clean clothes (similar to the design of Shane’s costume), white hat and shiny badge; looking hip. Of course the reaction is more exaggerated than Joey’s because of the town’s racism but there’s fear and shock nevertheless.

The representations of women in both films are minimal, mostly because there are very few women central to the film. In Shane, there’s Marian Starrett and in Blazing Saddles there’s Lilli Von Shtup both as Buscombe puts it, “forced to stay at home or become the equivalents of men” (1986, p. 16). Therefore, Marian wears tomboyish clothes to work on the ranch and it is also her home so she does both of the above functions. As quoted by Baker, two lines from the film define the attitudes towards Marian:

JOE: You heard what my little woman said…

Later in the film:
RYKER:Pretty wife, Starrett’s got…
SHANE:Why, you dirty stinking old man!

Shane reacts violently to Ryker’s remark fulfilling the traditional hero’s violent reaction to men who speak about women disrespectfully (Baker in Cameron et al, 1996). Lilli however is more complicated. She is deep down an equivalent of men (notice her clothes when they blow up the fake Rock Ridge) and talks the talk with men but she is also made to be a fetish object as an entertainer, wearing intimates in front of a rough audience of cowboys, functioning as Mulvey puts it, “on two levels: as erotic object for the character’s within the screen story and as an erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium” (2003, p. 137).
 

5. THE TECHNOLOGY APPROACH

Technology, particularly cinema-going in the twenty or so years between Shane and Blazing Saddles had undergone several transformations in its use. Shane was produced during the early years of cinema audience decline due to television, surburbanisation and more youth in the population (Belton, 1990 p. 187). Therefore the studios had to find a way to bring back audiences to the cinema thus making it different to television. After all, going to the movies is made out to be somewhat of an ‘event’, a notion of ‘escapism’ (Turner, 2006 p. 146).

Colour was used in genres such as Westerns and musicals in the late 40s and early 50s because those genres were considered in the realms of imagination (Neale, 1985 p. 139). Colour began to appear in all genres in the fifties due to the belief set by Variety, that colour would add twenty-five percent to the film’s earnings despite it’s expense and since television was black and white, colour cinema would be a different spectacle (Neale, 1985 p. 139). The company that provided the service of coloured film at the time, was Technicolor, which had the monopoly of the colour processing industry mostly due to the studios financial stakes in Technicolor and it’s secrecy surrounding it’s processes (Neale, 1985 p. 141). Shane is coloured by Technicolor and just like all other feature films being coloured in the 1950s, the crew even included a Technicolor Colour Consultant (British Film Institute Catalog Database, 2006). Blazing Saddles was also coloured by Technicolor, however in the 1970s, Technicolor had competition and television was in colour. Also colour processes had changed and no need for a Technicolor Colour Consultant (British Film Institute, 2006).

Another change in the viewing of films that had occurred was the format and size of the big screen. The fifties had experimented with various widescreen formats, most notably Cinerama and Cinemascope, which offered a new experience in watching movies that gave greater audience participation (Belton, 1990 p. 186). Cinemascope was the widescreen format largely used by the studios as Cinerama had problems with telling narrative (Belton, 1990 p. 193). This new type of viewing experience led to the popularity of Westerns, since it was a low budget genre, which had wide spread landscapes that could draw the audience in (Belton, 1990 p. 192).

Shane was filmed in 1951, prior to the new viewing formats so it was roadshown for several months and was projected as an ersatz widescreen because it was filmed too early to have taken into account the new widescreen experience (American Film Institute, 2006). It was projected at a 1.66:1 aspect ratio at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and at Radio City Music Hall (American Film Institute, 2006). Blazing Saddles was released in a time when every film was in colour and cinema had more local theatres and wide screens. High concept films were the centre of development in the seventies (Wyatt, 1994 p. 8) rather than audience participation. Television was now a medium for exhibition once a film had finished it’s run in theatres and had involvement in the censorship processes during the production. Blazing Saddles was one such film (Back in the Saddle, 2001). Cinema was now a place for the youth of the population (Robinson in Lloyd, 1984 p. 7).
 

6. CONCLUSION

So through the three historical frameworks we can see differences in the periods in which both films were made and how different the films themselves, proof that film history contains those changes that we see in today’s cinema.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

American Film Institute 2003-2006, AFI Catalog.

Back in the Saddle 2001, retrospective interviews and behind the scenes documentary, Warner Home Video, Producer Jonathan Gaines.

Baker, Bob 1993, ‘Shane through five decades’, in Cameron, Ian & Pye, Douglas (eds.) 1996 The Movie Book of the Western, Studio Vista, London.

Blazing Saddles 1975, motion picture, Crossbow Productions and Warner Bros, United States of America, Director Mel Brooks.

Belton, John ‘Glorious Technicolor, Breathtaking Cinemascope, and Stereophonic Sound’ in Balio, Tino (ed.) 1990 Hollywood in the Age of Television, Unwin, Boston in Dossier of Readings 1005AMC Screen Research and History, 2006, School of Arts, Media and Culture, Griffith University, Brisbane.

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Mulvey, Laura 1981, ‘Afterthoughts on ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ inspired by King Vidor’s Duel in the Sun (1946)’ in Mulvey, Laura 1989 Visual and Other Pleasures, Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Mitchell, Lee Clark ‘Violence in the Film Western’ in Slocumb, J. David (ed.) 2001 Violence and the American Cinema, Routledge, New York in Dossier of Readings 1005AMC Screen Research and History, 2006, School of Arts, Media and Culture, Griffith University, Brisbane.

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Neale, Steve ‘Masculinity as a Spectacle’ in Kaplan, E. Anne (ed.) 2000 Feminism and Film, Oxford University Press, Oxford in Dossier of Readings 1005AMC Screen Research and History, 2006, School of Arts, Media and Culture, Griffith University, Brisbane.

Robinson, David, ‘Introduction’ in Lloyd, Ann (ed.) 1984 Movies of the Seventies, Orbis Publishing Limited, London.

Shane 1952, motion picture, Paramount Pictures Corporation, United States of America, Producer and Director George Stevens.

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