Blazing Saddles: Music and Meaning in ‘The French Mistake’

Abstract

Many motion pictures challenge audiences with narratives and meanings that are not perfectly clear-cut, suggesting titillating alternative interpretations. Could Dune really be about dependency on oil from the Middle East? Could Borat really be about American ignorance and xenophobia? Could Avatar really be about global ecopolitics? If such interpretations are possible, then things are not as simple as they appear to be onscreen. These examples align with a leftist politic, but conservatives have made their own observations. Televangelist Jerry Falwell contended that purple, purse-toting Tinky Winky from the children’s television series Teletubbies represents a gay agenda, and a North Carolina pastor, Joseph Chambers, claimed that Sesame Street’s Ernie and Bert represent a gay male couple despite routine denials from Children’s Television Workshop (Zekas 1994).