Written and Directed by Michael Crichton
Director of Photography Gene Polito
Edited by David Bretherton
Special Effects by Charles Schulthies
Visual Effects Coordinator Brent Sellstrom
Automated Image Processing (Robo-Vision) by Information International, INC. and John Whitney, Jr.
Make-Up by Frank Griffin and Irving Pringle
Art Director Herman Blumenthal
Produced by Paul N. Lazarus III
Music by Fred Karlin
Wild West Saloon Brawls and Shootouts by Dick Ziker
Starring
Yul Brynner
Richard Benjamin
James Brolin
Norman Bartold
Alan Oppenheimer
…
This is the problem of the way we get into and out of the play or game . . . what are the codes which govern these entries and exits?
-Brian Sutton-Smith, Child’s Play (1971) (by way of Rules of Play(2003) by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman)
Those who had not destroyed themselves had sought oblivion in ever more feverish activities, in fierce and suicidal sports that were often indistinguishable from minor wars.
-Arthur C. Clarke, Childhood's End(1953).
“Central mechanism psychosis?”
-an actual question posed by some tech support nerd in Westworld (1973)
…
Review by William D. Tucker.
Delos is a futuristic amusement park that allows you to inhabit three different kinds of mythologized pasts: the American Wild West, debauched Roman Times, and a Chivalric European Medievalism Trip.
So, you can be a gunslinger or a sheriff or an outlaw or a knight errant or a king or a queen or a Roman emperor or empress in an elaborate live action role-playing game (LARP in today’s terminology) facilitated by full-size authentic environments populated by interactive robots that you can pretty much treat however you want.
You want to shoot ‘em, stab ‘em, burn ‘em, torture ‘em-you got it. There are robotic prostitutes, concubines, slaves, gladiators-you can make ‘em do whatever you desire.
You want ‘em to fight to the death in a guilt-free spectacle slaughter? Done.
You want to stage a big robo-orgy? Hey, no risk of STDs, so toss all the robo-salad you please.
Maybe you want a robot to whip your ass? It can be done, friend, and you don’t even have to tell your significant other.
They’re just robots.
Fuck ‘em, right?
Except . . . hey, can I ask you a question?
You ever watch a movie or read a story or comic book with robots . . . and not want ‘em to go berserk and rise up and wreck all the shit?
I know, I know, I know-it’s stupid.
WE build the robots. WE program ‘em. Why would WE allow them to go off the rails? Asimov resolved all this decades ago.
But . . . maybe I don’t want Asimov. Maybe I want a dumb robot rebellion story. Maybe that’s my desire, okay?
You set up the pins. And then you want to see them all get knocked down.
You build the Lego castle, and then you demolish it with your Godzilla action figure.
You spend months meticulously composing a mandala out of different colored sands only to ritually obliterate it when the time comes.
All in good fun.
That’s Westworld. It was a movie written and directed by Michael Crichton ten thousand goddamn years ago-same guy who wrote the novel Jurassic Park.
You want a version of Jurassic Park where the dinosaurs don’t go on the rampage?
Whaaat?
Seriously?
Why bother, then-just, umm, here . . . read these stereo instructions. You’ll have a ball.
We good?
Okay . . .
. . . what was I talking about again?
Westworld. 1973. About a place called Delos that uses future robot technology to allow you to live in a historically questionable version of the past that really only existed in dumb western flicks and boring-ass costume pictures-I mean, how many layers of phony nostalgia are we getting wrapped up in here? We’re gonna be a goddamn Nostalgia Mummy-and just as fragrant-by the time we get to the end of this thing.
Westworld is amusing to watch because it’s not a million miles away from immersive time-suck video games like Fallout 4 or World of Warcraft or Red Dead Redemption or Evercrack. And this is back in ‘73, well before video games existed in the way they do, now; and yet this film has so many elements that have become cliches of gaming:
You have the boring Whiteman Protagonist who goes from innocence to experience while being handheld by a tutorial expositional character.
(But I gotta give lead actor Richard Benjamin credit: his epic porn-stache could probably deflect both bullets and the clap.)
You have superfluous sex with robo-babes to restore the Whiteman’s health bar just like in a Grand Theft Auto game.
Yul Brynner plays a creepy recurring boss battle gunslinger reminiscent of, say, Nemesis from Resident Evil: Nemesis. There’s even a protracted multi-stage final boss battle where the Whiteman has to navigate an unfamiliar environment and figure out the final boss’s weaknesses and implement a counterintuitive strategy to win.
(Yul Brynner’s robo-gunslinger even anticipates later ruthlessly stalking, nigh-unkillable movie villains such as Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, the T-800, the T-1000, and Agent Smith.)
You even get to play both sides of the law in the Wild West simulation. One day you’re the sheriff and the next day you’re a desperado. It can all be done, amigo!
Now, there is some fun expositional techno-babble to explain why everything is going off-program. It’s not badly done for what it is. I especially appreciated the line about how many of the more advanced robots are designed wholly by other robots, and, therefore, the project is very definitely getting away from total human control.
It even gets eerie, and just a touch philosophical, in the final scenes. Nothing too overbearing. This movie knows it’s mostly having fun with you. But it still has enough creepiness to allow it to stick in your memory. Maybe you’ll even create your own tabletop role-playing campaign with your friends based off of Westworld. For all I know there might have been an actual officially licensed rules set or GURPS worldbook or something like that back in the day. That would be pretty cool.
So have fun with all that.
Just don’t actually shoot or stab or torture or enslave or oppress each other, okay? We got enough of that shit in real life.
Ya’ll play purdy, now!
(Horrifying scream choking off to a wet, squelching, cracking, crunching set of noises as powerful robo-hands crush William’s skull.)
BONUS: If you watch Westworld with the French soundtrack it plays like an extremely quirky sequel to Alphaville.
