*The 1974 comedy “Blazing Saddles,” starring the late actors Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, is available on HBO’s new streaming arm HBO Max, but with a disclaimer added to put the film’s satirical racism in its “proper social context.”
The new introduction, from TCM host and University of Chicago cinema and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart, will play before the Mel Brooks classic begins. “The intro was added to ensure that the film was put into the proper social context,” an HBO Max spokeswoman told The Hollywood Reporter.
Stewart says in her three-minute long intro, “As the storyline implies the issue of race is front and center in Blazing Saddles. And racist language and attitudes pervade the film. But those attitudes are espoused by characters who are portrayed here as explicitly small-minded, ignorant bigots. The real, and much more enlightened perspective, is provided by the main characters played by Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder.”
Watch one of the film’s controversial scenes below.
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