A highly imaginative and skillfully constructed fantasy which follows the trials and tribulations of two young social activists as they confront the destructive greed and rampant commercialism that threaten to subvert the Old West of romantic legend into an ugly parody of "progress and prosperity."
Aaron Weiss, a young activist lawyer, and his feminist classmate, Ava Jean Pollard, have come to the Southwest to help the Apache Indians in protecting their land from exploitation by monied interests from the East, who are looking for a site to use as a toxic waste dump. They quickly run afoul of a redneck judge, William S. Hart Finlay, who is the most powerful man in the territory (and who stands to profit from the land deal), and his erstwhile sweetheart, Lisa Belmondo, who is beginning to tire of Judge Finlay's boorishness and possessive ways. As the battle lines are drawn, Aaron, who in childhood had often fantasized that he was really "The Majestic Kid," a two-gunned hero devoted to fighting injustice, is joined by the model for his imagined persona—a former movie idol named "The Laredo Kid," who now reappears (to Aaron only) to goad and counsel his disciple. But Aaron, his resolve weakening (and especially so when he falls in love with Lisa Belmondo), is a disappointment to his mentor, who fumes and fusses (unseen by the others) while Aaron wishes he were back in Brooklyn. In the long run Aaron recovers his sense of purpose—and backbone—but not before he realizes that to be of useful service to others he must first discover himself. And this he does in a series of warm-hearted and very funny scenes, which are infused with a poignancy and gentle humor all too rare in the modern theatre.
