“Blazing Saddles” now has an introduction to allow the film to be put into a “proper social context.”
It’s not clear when the introduction first appeared on HBO Max, according to a report published Thursday by The Hollywood Reporter. “Blazing Saddles” first began streaming on HBO Max in July. “Blazing Saddles” was originally released in 1974.
In order to warn and educate viewers of its outdated ideas https://t.co/8BHlrZiqwz
— NME (@NME) August 14, 2020
“The intro was added to ensure that the film was put into the proper social context,” a spokesperson for HBO Max told The Hollywood Reporter.
The appearance of the introduction comes after “Gone With The Wind” was removed from the streaming site in June of 2020. The film was added back to the list of movies available to stream with a similar introduction adding social context. (RELATED: ‘Gone With The Wind’ To Return To HBO Max With Disclaimer And More)
“The film presents the Antebellum South as a world of grace and beauty, without acknowledging the brutalities of the system of chattel slavery, upon which this world is based,” Black scholar Jacqueline Stewart said in the video introducing the film.
“The film represents enslaved Black people in accordance with long-standing stereotypes: as servants, notable for their devotion to their white masters, or for their ineptitude,” she said. “And the film’s treatment of this world through a lens of nostalgia, denies the horrors of slavery, as well as its legacies of racial inequality.”