Briscoe Western Art Museum launches Summer Film Series with 1999 blockbuster Wild Wild West

Every summer, the Briscoe Western Art Museum celebrates the season of long evenings and balmy nights with its Summer Film Series, a set of three Westerns shown on the third Sundays of June, July and August.

This year, though, the series has a twist: each of its movies blends the Western genre with science fiction.

The Briscoe kicks things off with the 1999 film Wild Wild West, which stars Will Smith and Kevin Kline as heroes pitted against Kenneth Branagh, an evil inventor of giant metal spiders.

Based on a cult ’60s TV series, the movie takes place in a steampunk Old West setting, where far-flung inventions such as massive iron tarantulas coexist with gunslingers and rugged canyons.

The plot, which takes a backseat to the dazzling, bank-breaking special effects, features Smith and Kline as Secret Service agents tasked with protecting President Ulysses S. Grant (also played by Kline) while also foiling the devious plot of ex-Confederate inventor Dr. Arliss Loveless (Branagh), who’s obsessed with spider-themed weaponry.

If nothing else, it’s silly, brainless fun — though arachnophobes may want to proceed with caution.

$8-$14, 1 p.m. Sunday, June 18, Briscoe Western Art Museum, 210 W. Market St., (210) 299-4499, briscoemuseum.org.

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This article appears in Jun 14-27, 2023.