Journalist Gerry Northam explores the history behindthecinematicversionsofourpast.
3: Blazing Saddles. Mel Brooks 's spoof western has all the classic ingredients of the Wild West movie, a handsome hero, an alcoholic gunslinger and a tart-with-a-heart. But how did the figure of the cowboy, a poorly paid, uneducated, itinerant labourer with no heroic traits at all, become a film star and a symbol of nobility and purity for all Americans? Producer John Byrne