Westworld

(1973)

"Boy, have we got a vacation for you..."

Westworld is set in the future (as visualized back in 1973 when the film was made; apparently the computers of the future are really, really big, and the monitors are really, really small), where the pampered rich can go to a vacation resort named Delos, and choose one of three worlds to visit and play make-believe-for-grownups in: Medievalworld, Romanworld, and Westworld. Protagonists John Blaine and Peter Martin (James Brolin and Richard Benjamin, respectively) choose Westworld.

John is a Westworld veteran who displays a sauntering confidence; Peter is his friend and first-timer at the resort who, upon getting outfitted for the adventure, utters childlike statements such as "Do we get a real gun? Wow!"



In the various worlds, the guests interact with each other and with anatomically-correct, extremely realistic robots. They are able to *ahem* interact very closely with the female robots, and shoot the gunslinger robots for fun if they wish (the guns they are supplied with will not work on real people). Romanworld is promoted as something of a sex resort, and Medievalworld seems geared towards the romantics.

The film begins with quite a lot of intentional comedy and satire, and starts out very much like it could have been a 1970's TV Movie of the Week, complete with goofy music, but once the robots start to malfunction the rest of the film is a truly creepy western/sci-fi film. It's a western, albeit a sci-fi western. The last half-hour of the film is also essentially a silent movie, as Crichton said he wanted, save for the great soundtrack that kicks in at this point that sounds something like a bow being drawn against piano strings, or a cello. It has the same unsettling effect as the out-of-tune piano in another favorite film of mine, Wait Until Dark (1967).

There have been many films with robots/androids that I have seen and loved. Examples of what I consider to be truly frightening robots in film, besides Westworld, are: The Stepford Wives (1974), Alien (1979), Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), and The Companion (1995).

Westworld was the first scary robot film I ever experienced, and I have still seen nothing that quite equals Yul Brynner in his role as the robot gunslinger in Westworld.



His performance really makes the movie; Brynner was a very accomplished actor, and used his skill to great effect to bring a frightening and chilling subtlety of expression to this role. When Brynner's robot gunslinger commands "Draw" to Peter at the moment when it's become obvious to him that the robot has malfunctioned, with the slightest twist of a smile at the corner of his mouth, I invariably get chills. The chase is on, with Peter running as the gunslinger robot methodically hunts him down. Even the way Brynner walks and moves has an element to it that is hard to define and very unnerving. When Peter first meets him at the saloon we see that the robot gunslinger's movements are very fluid in a way one doesn't usually see an actor portray a robot, yet the smooth mannerisms somehow serve to further the effect.

What's also interesting about this film is the evolving of the Peter Martin character. He starts out as the inexperienced nerdy sidekick to Brolin's John Blaine, and ends up showing his true mettle as the going gets rough. The formerly milquetoast Peter quickly learns how to survive and fight back, and Richard Benjamin is very sympathetic, likeable, and effective in his portrayal.

This was Sci-Fi writer/director Michael Crichton's first foray into big-screen filmmaking. Crichton has said he made the film in thirty days, under schedule and within the budget. I would expect that finding pre-made sets was fairly easy; there was bound to be at least one western set sitting around the studio lots. Several locations were utilized for the filming of Westworld: the Mojave Desert, part of the gardens of the Harold Lloyd Estate, and various available studio stages.

If you find a DVD of this to rent, and you've never seen the film before, I recommend that you do not watch the trailer first! It's a real spoiler.

Note: Look for Majel Barrett (of Star Trek - Generation, and she was also Gene Roddenberrys' wife) as the whorehouse Madam.

Brynner's part, and his clothing, was a take on his role in the classic 1960 western The Magnificent Seven.

Photo credits: MGM