This Kirk Douglas Western Was a Major Inspiration for ‘Blazing Saddles’

Mel Brooks‘ 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles, one of the funniest Westerns ever made, ripped the Wild West a new one upon release. Its impact earned it a top spot on the American Film Institute’s list of the funniest movies in American cinema. This postmodernist dark comedy parodies just about every aspect of life, with no topic or timeline limitations. Its satirical look at life and its eccentric performances crack you up, even when you know the situation is ludicrously absurd. That Cecil DeMille pops up in a conversation happening in 1874 or an Indigenous American chief speaks Yiddish in the Old West are just some of the comedic tools Brooks uses to relieve you of the discomfort that his film is intended to cause. Nothing is off the table.

Notably, in Blazing Saddle, it is not violence that buys you heroism in the Old West. The film’s violence begs the question, « What for? » A departure from your typical Western, Blazing Saddles isn’t a film about stoic cowboys and damsels in distress, it is a slap in the face of the idealized frontier. However, this comedic genius of a film spoofs other cinematic pieces of work. One particular one that it is indebted to is John Sturges‘ 1957 Western Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, starring Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday and Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

Lawman Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday form an unlikely alliance which culminates in their participation in the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Actors

Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas

Director

John Sturges

Release Date

May 29, 1957

Run Time

122 mins

Studio

Paramount Pictures

‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ Tells the Story of Famous Outlaw Doc Holliday and Lawman Wyatt Earp

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is one among many films depicting the mythical Old West relationship between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. The film takes creative liberties with the duo’s camaraderie, opting to represent a complex bromance (though these cowboys wouldn’t be caught dead saying that word!). The narrative begins in Port Griffin, Texas, where Marshal Wyatt Earp has just horse-landed and is keen to rid the town of notorious outlaws Ike Clanton (played by Lyle Bettger) and Johnny Ringo (portrayed by John Ireland) who have been causing havoc. Wyatt learns that the town’s sheriff has released them. Meanwhile, Ed Bailey (played by Lee Van Cleef), the brother of a man Doc Holliday killed, has come to avenge his late brother. Wyatt Earp, learning of the revenge mission, goes to warn Doc Holliday about the revenge in exchange for information to help him catch the released outlaws he is chasing. Doc Holliday, who already knows about it from his girlfriend Kate Fisher aka Big Nose Kate (Jo Van Fleet), refuses to help Wyatt. After Doc Holliday kills the bloodthirsty brother seeking revenge, he is nonetheless helped by Wyatt to escape when a lynch mob strikes to kill him. Wyatt ironically claims that he only helped Doc because he hates « avenging ».

The two men cross paths once more in Dodge City, where Doc Holliday saves Wyatt from the Clantons. As their silent bromance blossoms, both gunslingers grapple with personal challenges. Doc Holliday battles severe tuberculosis and his girlfriend Kate becomes entangled with his adversary Ringo. Meanwhile, Wyatt faces a dilemma as he harbors feelings for Laura (played by Rhonda Fleming), a woman who desires a life free from the dangers of his profession. When Wyatt is summoned by his elder brother Virgil (John Hudson), a lawman in Tombstone, to help him fend off the Clantons, Doc Holliday joins him, and they reunite once more for the famed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Also featured in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is Dennis Hopper, who plays the young Billy Clanton, a conflicted character stuck between following his path and staying loyal to his family of criminals. This portrayal of the two renowned gunslingers builds on the more tragic 1939 Frontier Marshal, which was the first successful movie about the duo.

‘Blazing Saddles’ Parodies Life in the Old West

While Gunfight at the O.K. Corral maintains a realistic but grittier portrayal of the frontier, Blazing Saddles completely blows the doors off of the genre. Set in the railroad era of the Wild West, like Sergio Leone‘s Once Upon a Time in the West and the star-studded multi-directed How the West Was Won, Blazing Saddles is satirical about the portrayal of life of the era. The film begins with Cleavon Little‘s character Bart, alongside other recently freed Black men and Asian immigrants working on the railroad under the supervision of a whip-wielding white man. Coming after the abolition of slavery, the white supervisor, citing the Black men’s « glorious-singing » slavery days, asks them to sing. Instead of singing spiritual songs that the supervisor expects, they are led by Bart to an anachronistic performance of Cole Porter’s « I Get a Kick Out of You, » recorded in the 1934 Broadway musical Anything Goes, long after the period the film is set in. Bart’s choices represent a new era of free men, while the presence of the whip-wielding white supervisor pokes holes at how things remain the same even though they appear to have changed. Unlike the much straighter-laced Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, this wild-ride beginning sets the comedic tone for the entire film.

Bart then becomes Sheriff Bart, in charge of Rock Ridge, after the cunning territorial attorney general Hedley Lamarr (played by Harvey Korman) convinces the buffoonish governor (one of the many parts played by Mel Brooks in the film) to appoint him. Lamarr intends to defraud the residents of their land in anticipation of the railroad boon. His plan is pegged on Rock Ridge locals refusing a Black sheriff and deserting the town as a result. However, much like Marshal Wyatt Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Sheriff Bart is a man determined to restore order and win over his constituents. While this seems impossible, Sheriff Bart forms an unlikely partnership with the perpetually drunk Jim the Waco Kid (played by Gene Wilder), a former renowned gunslinger depressed from a damaged reputation after he was « shot in the butt » by a child. It is worth mentioning that John Wayne turned down this role. Sheriff Bart and Jim the Waco Kid, together, like Marshal Wyatt Earp and outlaw Doc Holliday, embark on the arduous task of fighting corruption and restoring law and order in their town. Blazing Saddles, picking up from where Gunfight at the O.K. Corral left, goes beyond the duo’s relationship, turning the corruption, incompetence, and deep racial tension of the time into a laugh riot.

How Does ‘Gunfight at the O.K. Corral’ Inspire ‘Blazing Saddles’?

At face value, John Sturges’ Gunfight at the O.K. Corral might seem worlds apart from the anarchic humor of Blazing Saddles, but a closer look reveals a fascinating connection. The bromance between Sheriff Bart and the perpetually drunk, former gunslinger Jim the Waco Kid was inpsired by that of outlaw Doc Holliday and lawman Wyatt Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. This Doc-Wyatt partnership constructed the foundation of a chipped-away romanticized view of the Wild West, presenting flawed characters entangled in messy conflicts. In Blazing Saddles, this became a springboard for comedic deconstruction. Though Marshal Wyatt Earp occasionally uses the gun to maintain law and order, Sheriff Bart is the uptight but innovative sheriff who attempts to govern without slinging his gun — partly for survival, as he is not a skilled gunslinger.

Mel Brooks turns the silent bromance between Earp and Holliday in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral into a wacky one between Sheriff Bart and Jim the Waco Kid in Blazing Saddles. Scenes like Blazing Saddles‘ railroad gun attack on Sheriff Bart, where Jim the Waco Kid hilariously uses his bare-hand magic powers to stop the attackers, resemble the tense scene where the Clantons direct their guns at Wyatt Earp, only for the gun-wielding Doc Holliday to intervene and have them disarmed in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. While addressing similar situations, Blazing Saddles dresses down the much more serious Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, providing a quirky look at life in the Old West.

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Beyond mocking the glorification of the Old West, Blazing Saddles, like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, delves into the complexities of frontier life — its racial segregation, the ever-present threat of violence, and the clash between law and disorder. While paying homage to several pop culture icons and events, Blazing Saddles reminds viewers that it is a film, diffusing tensions that its satirical barbs seek to address. For instance, just after a character shouts that « even the Blacks hate the Irish, » referencing discrimination on the frontier, another character states, « I am working for Mel Brooks, » reminding viewers that it is a film. In Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the conflict metamorphoses into a tense showdown that puts the respectable Marshal Wyatt Earp into a moral quandary, eventually climaxing into the showdown. Blazing Saddles seems to reimagine this as a slapstick brawl, where an old woman at the receiving end of blows breaks the fourth wall to ask the audience, « Have you ever seen such cruelty? » The seriousness of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral shootout is replaced by a sequence of pratfalls, exploding beans, and a climactic « whoopie cushion » finale in Blazing Saddles.

While Gunfight at the O.K. Corral successfully demystifies the bromance between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, it also laid a revisionist foundation for how the Old West is depicted in future pictures. Its nuanced portrayal of characters with depth and its realism paved the way for the making of the absurdly eccentric Blazing Saddles, one of the most rib-breaking black comedies ever made. It comes as no surprise that both films earned Academy Awards recognition.

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral is currently streaming on Prime Video in the U.S.

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