Westworld: Encyclopedia - Westworld

Westworld

Westworld, written and directed by Dr. Michael Crichton and released in 1973, was a seminal science fiction movie starring Yul Brynner as a malfunctioning robotic Western movie-style gunslinger in a futuristic amusement park (called Delos) where wealthy patrons vacation to role-play their fantasies. Richard Benjamin and James Brolin starred as amusement park guests that were hunted down by the Gunslinger. Because of the way it blends genres, Westworld may be described as a science fiction Western.

The title refers to the name of one of the three themed areas of the Delos amusement park. Westworld provided a simulation the environment of mid 19th-century western gambling town, while the two other themed areas of Delos, MedievalWorld and RomanWorld, provided ambiance of the time of King Arthur, and of decadent Rome during the pagan eras, respectively.

The entertainment (in all three areas) consisted primarily of interaction by the guests with androids in the particular setting, e.g. the old west, medieval Europe and pre-Christian Rome. The use of the term android refers to the fact that (with one exception, which is a critical point in the film) the robots are indistinguishable from human beings. This provides for great fun for the guests as they can indulge virtually any fantasy, including killing the androids in gory and gruesome ways, such as by sword or six-gun. The androids in general are programmed to respond positively to guest requests, specifically including requests for sex. Delos guests paid $1,000 a day (1970s dollars) for their experience.

The main premise, that the general technology will fail catastrophically, is a common premise running througout several of Dr. Crichton's stories, including Andromeda Strain, the Jurassic Park series, Prey, and Timeline.

In Westworld, Brynner's character, a relentless, emotionless, uncompromising android known only as "Gunslinger," is bent on the pursuit and destruction of his target, resembles his previous role of Chris in The Magnificent Seven and foreshadows Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters in The Terminator series of movies.

An important point of the film is that the androids are virtually indistinguishable from human beings; early in the film, one of the guests (Benjamin) shoots and kills the gunslinger (who actually bleeds, just as a human would) and is worried he might actually kill a guest. The other guest (Brolin) shows him (by having him try to shoot him) where he discovers that the guns cannot fire at anything warm, only "something cold, like a machine."

Later, we discover the only differentiating characteristic between the humans and the androids is that the finger joints in the palms of androids are obviously unnatural, in order that it is possible for staff (and guests) to tell the difference between the guests and the robot actors at the resort. We also (indirectly) discover one other weakness of robots, their inability to withstand moisture.

The problems of the resort start to become apparent when technicians notice certain anomalies in the behavior of the robotic actors including a strange increase in systemic failures of some of the dog robots. When a female servant android refuses a guest's request for sex, this causes a supervisor to suspect something is seriously wrong.

When a robot rattlesnake makes an actual strike upon one of the guests, the supervisor realizes that there is a potential disaster on their hands, as the androids and other robotic actors are not supposed to injure a guest under any circumstances. Failures eventually cascade until the (now reincarnated) Gunslinger kills the guest played by Brolin. Technicians watch, horrified, through television monitors, and discover they cannot shut down the androids, and the Gunslinger begins stalking the guest played by Benjamin, demanding he "draw," whereupon the gunslinger would, (if the other guest was to do so) then kill him as well. The movie follows Benjamin as he attempts to outrun or escape the inexorable pursuit by the Gunslinger, and find a way to stop him (or die trying).

Along the way, Benjamin runs across a technician who is trying to escape the resort, and informs him that Gunslinger can react faster and think faster than he can, and that "you haven't got a chance." The Gunslinger kills the technician from a distance with a high-powered rifle as he is talking to Benjamin, who confidently states "Oh yes I do."

Westworld was followed by a sequel, Futureworld, in 1976, and by a short-lived sequel television series, Beyond Westworld in 1980.

Westworld was the first major feature film to use 2D computer generated images (CGI) during scenes showing the point-of-view of the robotic gunslinger. The world's first use of 3D CGI in a feature film is Futureworld of 1976.

Currently, a remake of Westworld is in development and slated for release in 2007. However, no real details are known about the film or even if it will come to fruition.

Categories: 1973 films | Science fiction films

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Westworld", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki