Blazing Saddles

"The West was never this funny—or this unhinged." Join the Lonesome Dove in this special Christmas (ish) screening of Mel Brooks's 1974 comic classic Blazing Saddles. Westerns can be serious affairs, so thank goodness for Brooks, who skewers all the sacred cows including racism, violence, misogyny, corruption and baked beans. All delivered with gusto by a brilliant cast led by Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder and the inimitable Madeline Kahn. Rock Ridge, 1874. Determined to run a new railroad through the dusty American frontier town, conniving land speculator Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman) has the nerve to uproot its peaceful inhabitants. With law and order being the last thing the ruthless land-grabber wants, Lamarr convinces debauched Governor William J. Le Petomane to do something dangerously unprecedented. As a result, hoping for disorder and a hasty exodus, they appoint an unsuspecting nobody named Bart (Cleavon Little) as the community’s first sheriff. But there’s no such thing as a foolproof plan. And when Sheriff Bart signs up the Waco Kid (Gene Wilder), a washed-up gunslinger with an obscure past, as his deputy and right-hand man, change is afoot. Now, for the first time in a long while, the townspeople can make a stand. However, can they foil Hedley’s ludicrous money-making scheme? Join us for a Christmas show and laugh along with the Lonesome Dove.