Earlier this year, WarnerMedia made the choice to pull GONE WITH THE WIND from the HBO Max streaming service, with a spokesperson saying that the film was "a product of its time and depicts some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that have, unfortunately, been commonplace in American society." The film later returned to the streaming service with a new disclaimer, and it seems that WarnerMedia has now done something similar with BLAZING SADDLES.
The 1974 Mel Brooks film starred Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder and is widely considered to be one of best comedies of all-time, but HBO Max has added a new introduction which will automatically play before the film. "The intro was added to ensure that the film was put into the proper social context," an HBO Max spokeswoman told THR. The new introduction is provided by TCM host and University of Chicago cinema and media studies professor Jacqueline Stewart, who also supplied the introduction for GONE WITH THE WIND. In the intro, Stewart says, "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."