| Westworld | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Michael Crichton |
| Produced by | Paul Lazarus III |
| Written by | Michael Crichton |
| Starring | Yul Brynner Richard Benjamin James Brolin |
| Music by | Fred Karlin |
| Cinematography | Gene Polito |
| Editing by | David Bretherton |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | November 21, 1973 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Westworld is a 1973 science fiction-thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and produced by Paul Lazarus III. It stars Yul Brynner as a lifelike robot in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park and also Majel Barrett as Miss Carrie - the propriator of the brothel in the WestWorld themed area of the park.
Westworld was the last movie MGM produced before dissolving its releasing company, and was the first theatrical feature directed by Crichton.[1] It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view.[2] The film was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Golden Scroll (a.k.a. Saturn) awards, and was followed by a sequel film, Futureworld, and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld.
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Sometime in the near future a high-tech, highly realistic adult amusement park called Delos features androids that are almost indistinguishable from human beings. For $1,000 per day, guests may indulge in any fantasy, including killing or having sex with the androids. Delos' tagline in its advertising promises "Have we got a vacation for you!" The androids are programmed to act in character for each of the park's three themed "worlds" — WestWorld (the American Old West), MedievalWorld (medieval Europe), and RomanWorld (pre-Christian Rome). One of the attractions in WestWorld is the Gunslinger (Brynner), a robot programmed to start duels. Thanks to its programming, humans can always outdraw the Gunslinger and kill it. The guns issued to the guests also have temperature sensors that prevent them from shooting each other or anything else living, but allow them to "kill" the room-temperature androids.
Peter Martin (Benjamin), a first-timer, and his friend John Blane (Brolin), who has visited previously, visit WestWorld. Gradually, the technicians running Delos begin to notice problems spreading like an infection among the androids: the robots in MedievalWorld begin suffering an inexplicable number of systemic failures, a robot rattlesnake bites Blane, and against its programming, an android refuses a guest's sexual advances. The failures increase until the robotic Black Knight kills a guest in a sword fight in MedievalWorld. The resort's supervisors, in increasing desperation, try to regain control by shutting down power to the entire park, but this traps them in the control rooms, unable to turn the power back on while the robots run amok on stored power.
Martin and Blane, passed out drunk after a bar-room brawl, wake up in the WestWorld bordello, unaware of the breakdown. When the Gunslinger challenges the two men to a showdown, Blane treats the confrontation as a typical amusement until the robot shoots and kills him. Martin runs for his life as the robot implacably follows him.
Martin flees to the other areas of the park, but finds only a panicky fleeing technician, dead guests and damaged robots. He climbs down through a manhole to the underground control area, where the resort's technicians have suffocated since the ventilation shut down. As the Gunslinger stalks Martin through the corridors, he throws acid into its face and sets fire to it with a torch. He also finds a woman chained up in the dungeon, but she turns out to be an android. Finally, the burned hulk of the Gunslinger attacks him one last time before succumbing to its damage. The film ends as Martin, apparently the sole human survivor, sits down on the dungeon steps in a state of near-exhaustion and shock, as the irony of Delos' slogan resonates: "Have we got a vacation for you!"
Westworld was filmed in several locations, including the Mojave Desert, the gardens of the Harold Lloyd Estate, and several sound stages at MGM.[1] It was shot with Panavision anamorphic lenses by Gene Polito, A.S.C.
The Gunslinger's appearance is based on Chris Adams, Brynner's character from The Magnificent Seven. The two characters' costumes are nearly identical.[3]
In the scene when Richard Benjamin's character splashes The Gunslinger in the face with acid, Brynner's face was covered with an oil-based makeup mixed with ground Alka-Seltzer. A splash of water then produced the fizzing effect.
The score for Westworld was composed by American composer Fred Karlin. It combines ersatz western scoring, source cues, and electronic music.[4]
Westworld was the first feature film to use digital image processing. John Whitney, Jr. and Gary Demos at Information International, Inc. digitally processed motion picture photography to appear pixelized in order to portray the Gunslinger android's point of view.[2] The approximately 2 minutes and 31 seconds worth of cinegraphic block portraiture was accomplished by color-separating (three basic color separations plus black mask) each frame of source 70 mm film images, scanning each of these elements to convert into rectangular blocks, then adding basic color according to the tone values developed.[5] The resulting coarse pixel matrix was output back to film.[6] The process was covered in the American Cinematographer article Behind the scenes of Westworld.[7]
Crichton's original screenplay was released as a mass-market paperback in conjunction with the film.[8]
Westworld was first aired on NBC television in 1975. The network aired a slightly longer version of the film than was shown theatrically or subsequently released on home video. One added scene shows a brief fly-by shot of the hovercraft zooming just a few feet above the desert floor. Previously, all scenes involving the hovercraft were interior shots only. Another additional scene later in the film features a guest in MedievalWorld being subjected to a torture rack.
Variety magazine described the film as excellent and that it "combines solid entertainment, chilling topicality, and superbly intelligent serio-comic story values".[9]
The film has a rating of 87% at Rotten Tomatoes.[10] Reviewing the DVD release in September 2008, The Daily Telegraph reviewer Philip Horne described the film as a "richly suggestive, bleakly terrifying fable — and Brynner's performance is chillingly pitch-perfect."[11]
American Film Institute Lists
A sequel to Westworld, Futureworld, was filmed in 1976, with only Brynner returning from the original cast to reprise his Gunslinger character. Four years later, in 1980, the CBS television network aired a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld, expanding on the concepts and plot of the first film with new characters. Its poor ratings caused it to be canceled after only three of the five episodes aired.
A remake was speculated to star Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Tarsem Singh directing and Terminator 3 screenwriters Michael Ferris and John Bracanto to write the script.[15][16]
The remake was still in development as of 2007,[17] but a director was not attached to the film. Quentin Tarantino was approached, but turned it down.[18]
On January 19, 2011, Warner Bros announced that a Westworld remake was still happening.[19]