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Since 06/09/00
But the comedy in Blazing Saddles is hit or miss, and less of the same can be said for Support Your Local Sheriff!. Although made by people who based their careers on the traditional western (Burt Kennedy was a veteran oater writer and director, and Garner's career was jump-started with "Maverick."), the humor depends too much upon appreciation of what is being satirized, rather than from the situations themselves.
For example, a jailbreak is attempted with horses and ropes. But rather than bringing down the walls, as witnessed in endless westerns, the riders land hard on their behinds. It's the best gag in the film, but it isn't funny, perhaps because it would hurt, or perhaps because the rope would be tied to the horses and not the saddles.
Another scene has the film's tomboy heroine (Joan Hackett) swinging a 2x4 at a man. In real life, we would terrified, as she would likely kill him. But instead, the moment is intended to be hilarious. Another gag has a cannonball levelling a whorehouse. Is it funny that the town elders flee from it in their undershirts, or is it more likely that there are wounded people inside?
Of course, the viewer is not encouraged to take a realist approach to slapstick comedy. Enjoy the atmosphere, that is, take the road of entertainment and not of quality.
Under this path, a killer can be held in a jail without bars. A man can shoot a hole through a Silver Dollar tossed two feet into the air, and an outlaw can be stopped by putting a finger into a gun barrel. And a man 'on his way to Australia' who wants to raise money by prospecting gold will instead be the world's most self-assured sheriff.
Walter Brennan effectively parodies his similar role in My Darling Clementine, but he is no more menacing than an elderly wino you'd encounter in a bus station.
Support Your Local Sheriff! was followed two years later by Support Your Local Gunfighter, in which Garner parodies A Fistful of Dollars. The sequel was not successful, and Garner's career treaded water until "The Rockford Files" restored it.