Westworld (1973)

'Westworld' is a strange film - a complete mish-mash of genres blending Sci-Fi, action, comedy, Western and supposedly adventure, though there isn't much of the latter at all. The storyline is unusual at best, plain silly at worst, lacking any real coherence or depth and containing some very obvious plot holes. The idea itself isn't such a bad one, and I'm always pro fresh ideas and mixing things up a little, but 'Westworld' never really decides what it wants to be.As a result, the film is sloppy, muddled and never captured my interest fully. It's not helped at all by the characters and their total lack of personality, and the dated special effects, which may have been impressive back in the 70s but will probably make modern day audiences cringe. 'Westworld' tries something different but ultimately comes up short.

There is no denying that "Westworld" is an original film and the first of its kind. Released in 1973, the film did very good business at the box office and it was the right decision to make a sequel. The scale of "Westworld" is quite small and this affects the look of the film. If a higher budget had been commissioned by "M.G.M," then the final results would have been better. There are no sets or camera shots that show the scientists entering or leaving their laboratories via any corridors. We eventually see long, dark corridors at the end of the film, so why not earlier on? There are no camera shots that show the outside of the complex where all the robots are made and repaired. Those criticisms aside, "Westworld" is still very good. The plot is kept quite simple which is an advantage. No one stands out on the acting front in particular. Even though Yul Brynner gets top billing, he doesn't have much screen time and his dialogue is limited. He adds a lot to the proceedings though when he is in the film. I enjoyed the scene when he walks along the corridors in semi darkness as he stalks his prey, it was quite atmospheric. It is a great idea in having ones own private fantasy come to life through an amusement park when everything around you has been recreated to exact specifications. Having all of that suddenly going wrong after a few of the robots begin malfunctioning, is the equivalent of being plunged into a nightmare world where the rules of survival are changed. The characters who are caught up in all this, only have their wits to keep themselves alive. At the end, the last remaining character is wondering just what on earth he has been through and if such tragic events will occur again.

Michael Crichton's thriller invariably draws comparison with the author's later JURASSIC PARK, seeing as both stories deal with amusement parks which turn into chaos. However, WESTWORLD is by far the more horrific of the two. Whereas JURASSIC PARK is a film made for children with sweet, sugary sentimentality, WESTWORLD is a brutal, nihilistic affair where the emphasis is on gritty survival horror.And a cracker it is too. WESTWORLD succeeds in building up an elaborate picture of life at the tourist resort. While concentrating the action upon the two main actors, there are also cleverly a lot of cut scenes involving various scientists and lab technicians, and other events taking place at the rest of the resort, so that a picture may build up of the entire proceedings as a whole. This gives the film an authentic sense of scale. The leisurely pace may put off some viewers (it's more than halfway through the film before the horror really begins) but it's well worth sitting through, as a fun depiction of life in a wild west town.The actual mechanical breakdown of the resort is played out nicely, with small events gradually building up into actual death, and the cold murder of James Brolin is very shocking upon first viewing. From then on it's man vs. machine in an early TERMINATOR kind of way. Brynner is definitely a lot like the unstoppable android that Schwarzenegger was, and we can safely say that WESTWORLD is an early version of the killer android on the loose story. Brynner's inhumanity is showed by shots of his computerised vision (quite basic from a modern perspective) and his special powers, such as increased hearing and being able to survive acid thrown in the face. The whole ending of the film, the last 20 minutes, is absolutely fantastic and will have you on the edge of your seat before the inevitable showdown occurs, and then there are still one or two shocks left to make you jump a little.Richard Benjamin (more familiar as a director) is realistic as the everyday Joe caught up in the events who has to fend for himself, while James Brolin has a field day as the laconic sidekick who knows all the tricks. However, the film really belongs to Yul Brynner, who is superbly cast as the cold, android villain, who even manages to gain our sympathy at the end of the film (where he is blinded by the fire). With actual effective special effects, a haunting soundtrack, and lots of important messages about relying on machines too much, WESTWORLD is a total sci-fi classic blending futuristic thrills and wonder with a cold, harsh feeling of dread. One to own.

Story follows many characters that have decided to arrive in amusement park Delos and there are offered to choose which world will they go in. Mainly we are focused onto Peter and John that are in West World, but there are some scenes from Medieval World. Movie introduces us into everything with very shortly and explains a lot and then as hosts start to malfunction with higher rate things get really interesting. As John and Peter enjoy themselves, on the other side everybody at Delos is trying to figure out what is going on and how should they react and couple of bad decisions have caused everything to fall apart. Problem with malfunctioning was that host were not able to be controlled and that could be connected with explanation that was given to us before, how other androids are creating androids and how they do not understand everything. Then it got wild as androids started to kill everybody and people are desperate, on the other hand John and Peter encounter Gunslinger again and this time John dies and now Peter in shock is on run for his life. After a pretty nice chase and a lot of tense scenes he managed to get into facility of Delos and discover horrifying truth that everybody is gone. There are some issues with the movie like too many information about everything and how things in Delos works, such as we are never shown where they put androids only where they repair them and some other plot holes that should be filled to our better understanding of the world. Main focus of the movie is on "rebelion" of machines and how they tend to control everything eventually killing everybody and showing how humans are not as advanced as they are with the control room scene where they got locked and didn't manage to escape which led to their deaths. Benjamin, Brolin and Brynner totally stole the whole show with some pretty nice scenes. 3/4