Sweet 16 - New York Region - #5 vs. #8

New York Region

#5 12 Monkeys
vs.
#8 Blazing Saddles

Criteria

• Number of Times Seen
• Music
• Timelessness
• (12 Monkeys) Actors/Actresses 
• (Blazing Saddles) Plot

Number of Times Seen
I've seen 12 Monkeys perhaps 5 times. I've seen Blazing Saddles many, many times.

ADVANTAGE: Blazing Saddles

Music
12 Monkeys has one piece of music that I can recall, which is "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. This piece comes up in Cole's dream, and it much more haunting than any other time I've ever heard it.

Blazing Saddles has great music, starting with the opening credits. The music is western-tinged but with a goofball flavor. Beyond all of it, though, is the masterful rendition of "I'm So Tired" sung by Lili Von Shtupp (Madeline Kahn) who actively channelled Marlene Dietrich throughout.

ADVANTAGE: Blazing Saddles

Timelessness
12 Monkeys is a time-travel film which identifies both the "future" date and the "present" date (which happens to be the released year...1995). This places the "present-day" at 1995, so it places the film in that year. This is necessary for the plot to really work, but in 30 years, seeing the year 1995 might be a bit of a turnoff.

Blazing Saddlesis a Western, and is already dated because of that. At the same time, the film frequently breaks out of the Western setting, sometimes subtly (a tollbooth in the middle of nowhere...motorcyclists queueing to fight for Hedley Lamarr)...sometimes violently (the ending fight). Because of this, it's hard to really get ahold of WHEN the film was made. 

ADVANTAGE: Blazing Saddles

Actors/Actresses (12 Monkeys)
The shining stars of this film are Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. I truly believe this is Willis's best-acted film...his range is excellent throughout as James Cole, bouncing from past, present, and future. The only one better than him is Pitt, who manically buzzes his way through the film, cock-eyed and disheveled, flicking his index finger at anyone and everyone. 

Plot (Blazing Saddles)
The film follows Bart (Cleavon Little) who is installed as the sheriff of the little frontier town of Rock Ridge. Big problem is that Bart is black and the townspeople don't care for it. But with the help of The Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), Bart goes about winning over the people by protecting them against the land-snatching Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman).

ADVANTAGE: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys - 77
Blazing Saddles - 88

Blazing Saddles wins, and advances to the Elite Eight!