Westworld

Rating:
Summary: Terrific Film!
Review: Michael Chricton's Westworld is an amazing, unforgettable picture and is one of the best sci-fi films ever made. It is interesting to note that the writer and director of this tanalizing movie is Michael Chricton, the author of such popular film adaptions as Jurassic Park and Congo. Yul Brynner is superb as the evil robot bent on revenge against two of Westworld's countless customers: John Blaine(James Brolin) and Peter Martin(Richard Benjamin). At first, Martin sees this funpark as a waste of time and money, but Blaine convinces him otherwise when he takes Martin to a brothel. The two lawyers take as much advantage as they can of the park and gun down Brynner several times throughout their vacation. But one morning, something goes wrong. After getting drunk in the middle of a saloon brawl, Martin and Blaine want to spend the entire day in their beds. But the robot gunslinger in black(Brynner)with a genuine look of evil in its eyes, goes on a warpath that sends one of the men on a desperate run for survival. Westworld is a terrific film with enough suspence in the last half hour to save it from extinction.

Rating:
Summary: DRAW!!
Review: Mixing in the Hollywood idea of the Old West with the typical sci-fi theme of Man-versus-technology, WESTWORLD, the directing debut of noted sci-fi writer Michael Crichton, is hampered to an extent by its low budget and somewhat stilted dialogue. Its premise, however, accurately described as a dry run for the author's later JURASSIC PARK, clearly makes up for whatever holes there are.

Richard Benjamin and James Brolin are the two businessmen who pay $1000 each to visit Delos, a futuristic theme park divided up into three sections, each depicting a different time in history: Roman World, Medieval World, and Westworld. The two men choose the latter, which is basically a recreation of an Old West setting circa the 19th century. They enjoy nights with hookers, get to play local marshals; and every so often at the bar, they'll get to shoot a robot gunslinger (Yul Brynner, in a malevolent take on his role in the 1960 classic THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN).

But when a malfunction of unknown origin hits Delos, everything goes haywire. Brynner, who once was programmed to lose every gunfight he ever instigated, instead turns life into a hair-raising ordeal for our two protagonists. Brolin is shot and killed, for REAL this time, on Westworld's main street; and then the film develops into an elongated chase for Benjamin, who, despite running as fast as he can, still cannot totally outwit or outshoot Brynner. Only when Benjamin finally pours corrosive acid onto Brynner does the robot gunslinger disintegrate into a jumbled, burning mass of wiring and metal.

Crichton's approach to some of the action scenes involving Brolin, Benjamin, and Brynner early on invoke similar gunfights in Sam Peckinpah's 1969 western epic THE WILD BUNCH, complete with slow motion and bloodshed (indeed, WESTWORLD almost got an 'R' rating from the MPAA ratings board). Then, when Brynner urges Benjamin to "Draw!!", the film takes a terrifying turn. The chase sequence through Delos' underground corridor is well worked-out by Crichton and, albeit unintentionally, was paid a loose homage in the final part of HALLOWEEN II.

WESTWORLD joins the ranks of such technologically-minded films as 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT, and indeed JURASSIC PARK and A.I., in asking us to consider the possible implications of Man becoming dangerously hypnotised by his own creative ambitions. On that score, this is an extremely effective and frightening film.

Rating:
Summary: It's all fun and games until the robots malfunction.
Review: Eleven years before THE TERMINATOR and twenty years before Crichton's own JURRASSIC PARK, Mike wrote and directed this film about a futuristic theme park, Delos, based on three different historical periods staffed by robots who look human and are controlled by a central computer where guests can come and role play. The company tries to assure everyone that "Nothing can go wrong", almost as if they thought that if they felt everyone needed reassuring or that if they insisted everything would run smoothly, it would. (Say, when's the last time you ever heard of a real life amusement park promoting a tagline like,"Nothing can go wrong", or,"Customers NEVER die on any of our rides!"?) It's since become a cliche' where in movies a scientist tells every one nothing can go wrong with his creation and then inevitably, as with the Titanic, the ship that everyone said was unsinkable, something goes wrong. (See CHOPPING MALL, for example.)

Anyway...as for the film's story, it focuses on two tourists in particular, two chums, one who has been to Delos before, to it's Westernworld section, and who is taking his pal Richard, who was just in a messy divorce, to Westernworld in an effort to help his friend forget his toubles. For the first couple of days, everything's well and good. Richard wins a gun duel against Westernworld's resident villain, a robot gunslinger dressed, of course, in black. (The guns have sensors built in them so as not to fire if they detect the heat humans give out.) The two friends get involved in a staged barfight, they get to have sex with some of the local female 'bots, and then at one point Richard get put in the town jail and it's up to his friend James and a female android to bust him out. Oh, and by the way, every once in a while we switch to Medievalworld where another guest is staying and we see some of his experiences as well. Meanwhile in the control room problems are arrising. Malfuncions are occuring in the computer and the techs are really worried, to the point where they decide not to let in any new guests, at least until they can get the problems fixed. (But they don't send anyone who's already come to the park home early.) James and Richard are startled when one of them is bitten by a snake while just outside of town. The snake is artificial and so is not poisonous, but it's not supposed to bite people, ethier. The guy in Medievalworld is refused sex by a female droid, even though the robots are supposed to provide sex whenever the request is made. Then James and Richard meet up with the gunslinger in black again. Except this time his malfunctioning has made him forget he's supposed to let the tourists win. And the heat sensor in his gun is apparently also malfunctioning
...

I suspect Crichton might have been inspired by some of the problems the makers of Disneyland experienced early on with mechanical malfunctions. Another really noteworthy thing about this one is that even though it's set in the future, the characters are average Joe types. They're not a bunch of astronaughts or science intellectuals or philosophers. They're people just like you and me, people who marry and divorce. They aren't here to unlock the secrets of the universe or explore new worlds, they're just a bunch of everymen who happen to live in (presumably) the mid-21st. century, who just want to go on vacation. The world they live in looks like one we might live in now if only technology were a lot more advanced, the news report and the Delos advertisements look and feel like something you might see today. A true classic.

Rating:
Summary: Robots Gone Bad!
Review: Yul Brynner, James Brolin, and Richard Benjamin star in this outstanding Sci-Fi piece by genre uberlord Michael Crichton ("Jurassic Park," "The Andromeda Strain") about DELOS, a futuristic theme park where you can spend a week in Medieval World, Roman World, or Westworld, living as the folks from those periods did, including much rape, murder, and various other saucy vacation mayhem. Yul, in a role that obviously inspired Arnold's Terminator character, decides that being the guy (or robot in this case) who always loses the gunfight, ain't really the way to go, and sets off on a gunslinging rampage through ALL of the various period worlds, this time with a REAL gun shooting REAL bullets, where he now always WINS! Pic actually spawned a nifty sequel starring Gwenny Paltrow's mom, Blythe Danner, called "Futureworld."

Rating:
Summary: Nothing Can Go Wrong (With This Movie, Anyway)
Review: I don't think a lot of sci-fi fans today appreciate the really thought-provoking material of much of the sci-fi movies that were made between '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Star Wars'. Then again, this WAS a cycle in the genre when everyone was apparently convinced Charlton Heston would be the last surviving human on planet Earth, but that's another can of worms entirely. My point being, it took someone with the kind of courage Michael Crichton had to be pitching a script like 'Westworld' to movie audiences. And it worked. While Crichton is known for his literary pursuits rather than his directorial efforts, he was no slouch in the area of the latter, and 'Westworld' definitely proves that. The premise is a little hokey, almost left over from 1957, but in the age of Disney World it's terribly effective; even after all these years 'Westworld' is laced with as taut a level of suspense as you can possibly hope for from a film of its time.
'Westworld' basically is the story of Delos, a dazzling theme-park of the not-too-distant future, which, like its counterpart created by Uncle Walt, charges insane admission fees in order to cater to its guests' every whim and perverted pleasure. Like Disney World, Delos has separate themed 'worlds' - Romanworld, Medievalworld, and of course, Westworld. And just as with Disney World, much of the park's starring 'cast' are robots - only these are true androids who are willing to go as far as their programming allows to please the customers. Of course, as ancient Rome and the Old West practically beg for bloodshed, park administrators can't simply let the guests up and take their chances; the robots, therefore, can't kill anything that gives off body heat. A clever idea. For about fifteen minutes.
Then swanky singles Jim Brolin and Dick Benjamin walk into the saloon, rub black-clad Yul Brynner the wrong way and pop a cap in'im. And everything just goes downhill from there.
Needless to say, Yul Brynner owns this movie, even with as little screen time as he's allowed. Put his Gunslinger character up against Ah-nuld's cyborg from the future, and I could guarantee the Gunslinger would win the fight just by staring the Terminator down. Brolin and Benjamin do their best to offer some humanity to the film (and distract from some of its more glaring discrepancies), as does Dick Van Patten in a comical role as a nerdy guest and Majel Barrett of 'Star Trek' fame (and Gene Roddenberry's wife) in a small but delicious role as the owner of Westworld's brothel. The acting in the film is pretty good, which takes some of the dating off of this technology-gone-wrong tale.
There are some touches of wry humor, but in the end 'Westworld' goes for the gut by steadily building toward a harrowing climax when the park finally goes completely haywire and the blood starts pouring. Crichton's guiding hand and Brynner's wickedly icy performance offer all the credentials needed to ensure that, where enjoying this movie is concerned, 'nothing can go wrong'.

Rating:
Summary: An Entertaining Film
Review: In 1973, the well-known sci-fi author Michael Crichton made his big-screen directorial debut with a futuristic story that he also wrote entitled "Westworld". With special effects initially reminiscent of (but not as good as) the 1968 classic "2001: A Space Odyssey", Michael Crichton created a fictional, futuristic resort populated with human-appearing androids that are managed by a human staff of engineers, computer programmers and technicians. Operated by the fictional corporation named Delos, the resort features three "worlds" set in historical contexts as their names imply: "Westworld", "Medievalworld" and "Romanworld". Each guest paid $1000 per day for the privilege of experiencing what it may have been like to live during one of those time periods. Rather than pay a human staff to act out roles in the various worlds, the Delos Corporation decided to use realistic androids to portray wild-west gunslingers, medieval knights and various people who would have lived in Roman times. The wonderful actor Yul Brynner (1915-1985) played one of the robotic wild-west gunslingers, and the guests included Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin), John Blane (James Brolin) and a banker (Dick Van Patten). Alan Oppenheimer played the Delos staff supervisor.

Though "Westworld" was one of the more popular films in 1973 and is still loved today by many sci-fi fans (as well as fans of Michael Crichton), thirty years later the film comes across as being rather dated, in large part due to various flaws within its plot. The most obvious flaws include the following:

1. Any computer-programming bug can be traced to its source and eliminated, but the Delos staff appeared incompetent.
2. The construction of an inescapable, airtight room would never have been allowed by building inspectors.
3. Acting in the film was mediocre at best, with the exception of Yul Brynner who did an excellent job portraying an android.
4. The exterior of the transport used to take guests to the resort is never shown. Instead, only the interior is shown, probably due to an inadequate film budget.

What makes "Westworld" still an entertaining film to watch thirty years later is that Michael Crichton's premise was good, but I can only rate the film now with 3.5 out of 5 stars rounded to 4 stars because of its flaws. Yul Brynner's portrayal of the emotionless robotic gunslinger may have been the archetype for Arnold Schwarzenegger's portrayal of the terminator android eleven years later in the 1984 film "The Terminator". Michael Crichton was far more successful with some of his other films that include "The Andromeda Strain", (1971), "Coma" (1978, which he also directed) and "Jurassic Park" (1993). An attempt to create a sci-fi TV series based upon "Westworld" in 1980 failed after only five episodes.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but outdated
Review: This film was quite intriguing back in the day, but sadly doesn't hold up too well for todays standards. The film's idea of a place to go and act out a fantasy is a great one but the film is simply too old school to have any impact on me anymore. I saw this as a kid and it was mildly frightening.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic
Review: 'Westworld' is a fantastic metaphorical film about how human beings love to exploit and take advantage of other human beings. There is not much of a story, but it is likely to keep you entertained for about two hours. They don't make them like they used to!

Rating:
Summary: Draw!
Review: I am not ashamed in the least to admit that the 1973 science fiction thriller "Westworld" is one of my all time favorite movies. I first saw it about twenty years ago and never forgot it, so when I had the opportunity to watch it again recently I jumped at the chance. I can easily say that I still found this picture still compelling with its mixture of futuristic elements and chilling suspense. Directed by big shot novelist Michael Crichton, the creator of "Jurassic Park," "The Andromeda Strain," and "Congo," "Westworld" may constitute his most compelling work to date in either print or on the big screen. Why? Because even at this early date Crichton effectively displays his concerns over technology and how mankind adapts to technical innovations. Not surprisingly, at least to anyone familiar with Crichton, man suffers plenty in "Westworld." It is important to remember that this writer/director is not the only creative talent dealing with the seeming incompatibility of man and machine: writer J.G. Ballard and director David Cronenberg have been exploring these vistas for decades now. Crichton holds his own with both of these visionaries, and "Westworld" resoundingly proves it.

"Westworld" begins with a lengthy commercial touting the benefits of vacationing at Delos, a company that runs a most unusual theme park. For only one thousand dollars a day (in 1973 dollars!), the curious can star in their own version of the Wild West (Westworld), Medieval Europe (Medievalworld), or in the decadent splendor of Rome (Romanworld). A steep price to play for such diversions, to be sure, but Delos employs amazingly realistic robots and stylish props to completely recreate these eras. A visitor to the Delos amusement park can fight a knight to win the hand of a queen, gun down outlaws in the streets, or take part in a Roman banquet. The robot characters look so real that it is difficult to tell them apart from the other guests, a fact that adds a real dimension of excitement to the experience when you stand down someone at the end of a gun barrel. Obviously, Delos cannot have guests dying violently left and right, so they engineered the props, like guns, to only fire at "cold" machines. An enormous army of technicians runs the show from an underground control center where the worlds undergo constant scrutiny and where employees repair robots "killed" or "injured" in the day's activities. Despite a few worrisome problems, mainly regarding some sort of emerging computer "virus" that mystifies the techies, Delos operates without many serious hitches.

Enter the main characters of the film, two business types looking for fun played by Richard Benjamin and James Brolin. Both decide to go to Westworld, and after donning western style clothing complete with firearms, they start their adventure. What follows is every western film cliché imaginable. The two take part in a bar brawl, share special relationships with the local ladies, and orchestrate a jailbreak. Moreover, the two soon earn the enmity of the local gunslinger, a sinister, shining eyed figure clad in black played with frosty efficiency by Yul Brynner. The shootouts involving the gunslinger look as though Crichton lifted them from a Sam Peckinpah movie, with blood spraying in slow motion splendor. "Westworld" even includes a nicely done "guy on fire scene," one of the best in cinematic history. The movie occasionally shifts to Medievalworld to follow the exploits of one of the park visitors there, but most of the action involves what is going on in Westworld. Look for Dick Van Patten in a smaller role as a white bread businessman who soon learns a thing or two about manhood at the theme park.

The last part of the film, after the computer virus causes the robots to rebel against their human masters, shifts the focus of the film from science fiction fare to a harrowing thriller. I think one of the grimmest, chilliest sequences in film history involves Brynner's single-minded pursuit of Richard Benjamin through the desert and mountains surrounding Delos. I can still hear the sound of the gunslinger's boots clicking down the long hallways of Delos's control center as he marches to the final showdown with his prey. Who will win in the battle between technology and man? Benjamin's character must apply the lessons he learned about being a man during his stay at Westworld to save his own life at the conclusion of the film, but it won't be easy triumphing over an unthinking killing machine.

Flaws do abound in this movie. How does Delos insure that swords and similar weaponry in Medievalworld won't hurt real guests? Why do the hands on two immobile robots change position in various shots? How can the gunslinger detect the heat patterns from Benjamin's feet on a sunny day, especially considering Benjamin was wearing boots and had left the tracks at least ten minutes before the gunslinger saw them? These are minor problems, but they are noticeable after repeated viewings. Overall, "Westworld" is a grand slam homerun that every science fiction fan must watch at some point. Regrettably, the movie did not receive a worthy DVD release. The film's transfer quality isn't bad, but it isn't great, either. A trailer is the only extra, so forget about listening to a commentary or seeing any production stills, cast bios, behind the scenes footage, or deleted scenes. Oh well, at least "Westworld" made it to DVD. For that, we can all be thankful.

Rating:
Summary: A Disneyland Nightmare!
Review: Michael Crichton had the vision in this story that would return for Jurassic Park 20 years later. This movie would lay the foundation for it. It still packs a wallop! The suspense still lingers after its over. An enjoyable ride in to the future.