Westworld

Westworld (1973)

Runtime: An economical 88 minutes

Directed by: Michael Crichton

Starring: Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Yul Brynner, Norman Bartold,  Alan Oppenheimer

From: MGM

In another later than posting for me, my plans for Wednesday changed so another rare phenomenon occurred: posting a review for a movie less than an hour after viewing. Finally tackling Westworld wasn’t a bad Plan B. Considering the movie was famous enough to inspire a prestigious HBO show that had a first season most loved and subsequent seasons that had a more polarizing reception… about time for me & a famous effort from a decade whose cinema I typically enjoy.

Through cultural osmosis, for years I’ve known of Westworld’s plot; this allowed me to write a decent amount of this review even before checking out the picture on Turner Classic Movies. Long ago I learned this concerned human-presenting androids in the theme park Delos that has three lands (Western, Roman, Medieval Europe; what I didn’t know was that this (according to Wiki, at least) was in the far-flung future of… 1983. For those concerned about AI, the malfunctioning and their subsequent murderous streak won’t assuage those fears. 

My opinion of a film that I should have viewed & reviewed many years ago: I had a very good time. A simple yet effective storytelling trick was used: Richard Benjamin is a nervous lawyer visiting for the first time while James Brolin (sadly w/o facial hair but still delivering a quality performance) is a veteran to the experience, explaining Delos, answering questions and offering encouragement on how to interact w/ the androids. Arguably, the best way to dump exposition and explain the world to the viewer as well.

I do understand why the idea was turned into a TV show; it’d be a great adult amusement to cosplay in a historical era and live out fantasies, including that of a badass hero. You can also have sex with the androids! It’s also wholly believable those machines would malfunction. Heck, while not related, when the plot point was mentioned that humanity “hadn’t perfected the hands” of the androids, of course I thought of AI and its issue w/ hands.

Westworld was quite enjoyable; of course I’d be fond of the early 70’s computer tech and witnessing the 1973 version of a screensaver. However, I was most captivated by the full, complete story that was satisfying despite the length of only 88 minutes. While I’d be curious to see the in-world explanation for how this was all created, but that was extraneous information for the story presented here. What we got was incredibly economical.

Much of the focus is on Benjamin and Brolin. At first, the former was kind of a dweeb but it wasn’t long before he was an enjoyable protagonist to follow. I’d never actually seen a Benjamin movie in full before. After the first two acts, Yul Brynner’s Gunslinger character (dressed like his character from The Magnificent Seven deliberately) becomes integral to the story. Further assets included the strong directing from Michael Crichton, some rad moments of cinematography from Gene Polito that sadly is missing from modern film and the vivid score from Fred Karlin which was more than just the expected Western score in the appropriate area.

As sometimes proclaimed by me, what a fool I was for not viewing the movie much sooner. Who knows if I’ll ever bother w/ just the first season of the Westworld TV show; despite its more lukewarm reputation, the 1976 sequel flick Futureworld is still on the table for me.