Sci-Fi Classic Review: WESTWORLD (1973)
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- The original Westworld was Michael Crichton's directorial debut and a surprisingly original bit of robots-running-amok genre fiction that still inspires science-fiction cinema today.
If you're looking for a "review" in the traditional sense, then let me just say I like this movie. This video, however, is a "review" in the literal sense (using the Miriam-Webster definition "a retrospective view or survey"), in that I'm going over the history of the film and its place in sci-fi cinema history.
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The First Westworld - Caravan of Garbage - • The First Westworld - ...
(I swear on my life I was working on this video before Mr. Sunday Movies and his pal Maseau beat me to it!)
Welcome to Westworld.
Where nothing can go wrong.
Go wrong ... go wrong ...
Here is one thing i do not get, how do they prevent the bullets from rickocheting?
Would I visit something like Westworld if it really existed? I can't imagine being able to afford it. The characters mentioned the price: astronomical, for the time. It was justified, too, since the point was having the freedom to wreck the place.
The show and movie have made it impossible for the common folk to have Access to Westworld. The movie was a lot but I don't remember how much. The show is $40,000 a day 😳
@@adrianazashen1000$ a day 😊
Imagine this movie starring William Shatner and Leslie Nielsen? Lol.
Captain Kirk had a somewhat similar scenario with the Melkotians in the classic OK Corral showdown in 'Spectre of The Gun'.
i thought the ending was great, & you really got the sense of human despairation and exhaustion of, running from this unstoppable machine. (later to be replicated in the terminator) & to see the reveal from Benjamins point of view that it was all only cold souless technology all the time with nowone left alive, plus theres a death wish style massage of pacifism against modern day gun violence, as an undertone. to the film- he who lives by the gun, dies by it
True though the main difference is one was an efficient killing machine while the other was an action figure that was bugged as hell.
It's been some time since I've seen 'Westworld'. Obviously the third act is largely defined by the limited budget. As far as I remember though, I did feel that the slow chase did have a real sense of Richard Benjamin being put through an agonising experience of delayed certain death. So in that sense I think it's effective. Almost as if Brynner's gunslinger wasn't just mechanically limited to that pace, but deliberately taking its time, since the outcome was inevitable. This just added to its eerie menace for me.
for anyone curious, 1 million dollars in 1970 has the buying power of 29 million today
Fun Fact: The last naming of Mr. Brolin's and Mr. Benjamin's characters is an MGM in-joke: Martin and Blane were songwriters during the Golden Era of Hollywood who wrote hit songs for Judy Garland and Lena Horne, among others.
I didn't actually think of the parity between West World and Jurassic Park-maybe because Jurrasic Park has since become the template for technological ambition outstripping wisdom.
To completely honest, this movie legit scared the pepsi flavored urine out of me when I first saw it and I saw movies like Hellraiser and I didn't bat an eye. I even remember vividly having a nightmare about this movie after watching it for the first time. The next morning when I woke up for church (back before I left the religion) that sunday morning I was clearly frightened I had this thousand yard stare on my face as if I stared into the abyss for at least an hour and a half, True story. I never thought a movie with cowboys and knights would put the fear O God in me, usually it's excitement.
You're so good at this, you got me staying up late tonight going through your uploads. Keep up the good work, and keep them coming.
Lee Clark Thank you! That makes me ridiculously happy, knowing somebody is staying up late to binge my videos. I have no intention of stopping, rest assured. 😁
@@TheUnapologeticGeek Be assured, your work is well deserving of compliments, and I'll be right here enjoying it along the way.
I've got to watch this film again. I was about 16 when I first saw it and Yul Brynner scared me to death. No matter how many times he got shot, he wouldn't shut down. He just kept coming.
Very frightening ... before
Terminator
"Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.”
For me, Westworld lives on because of Yul Brynner. He is truly eerie as the unrelenting gunslinger, without saying a word! And those eyes and his expression - programmed determination, and the onset of joy. There's a wry smile he gives that's comparable to Mona Lisa's I swear! But yes, Westworld is also VERY weak in it's plausibility for the most part. Guest safety - with heat detecting guns, explosives, bar fights, swords and knives, and sex, sex, sex! If a guest wanted to kill the new Dick Van Patten sheriff for whatever reason, then what? A guest finds another guest attractive in Roman World and wants to have his way with her regardless...? A guest trips and impales himself on a sword or mace in Medieval world...? And it's ironic that I think most viewers then and now - young and old, fantasize more about the sexual side of life like robots. But, as you say - due to ratings and puritanism, that's got to be TONED way down. Yet a massive slaughter and a orgy of violence across the realms - hey, that's fun for the whole family! So I still watch Westworld today with almost that wry smile Brynner gives.
Michael Crichton has been involved with a company, Soul Machines, in New Zealand. They create digital synthetic humans based on people actually living around this world. Watch their UA-cam videos and go to their website. This movie is solid predictive programming.
take your meds
1973 prototype huh! without the original film obviously, there wouldnt be a modern glossy state of the art tv series.
plus the plot of the old film is much more easily understood wit a good black comedy sense of humour lacking in the modern "re-imagined version, but as someone else pointed out, Medevel & Roman world did seem unecessary, as most Americans see the wild western fronteir as their proud historical past
As a pre-teen when this book came out I was not a big reader of what I called 'long stories', so I did not read this book nor really any books. However, when Andromeda Strain was on TV--long after it's release--I was so terrified that I actually thought it was a true story. I came to realize that it was fiction, obviously, but it made me long for stories that seemed like they COULD be real. When I went to the drive-in to see West World, I understood the concept that 'something' (Virus) was breaking down the programming of the robots, and making them kill. That shocked me in a way I would not be shocked again until 1984's Terminator. By then I had, of course become an avid reader of Robin Cook (thanks to the film Coma), Stephen King (thanks to the film Carrie) and John Saul (no films at the time, but his 'formula' of a little kid is murdered and 100 years later comes back to possess a little kid and make that kid a revenge-seeking killer (Suffer the Children, Comes the Blind Fury, among others) had won me over. Thanks for the great job and keep on doing what you do. Oh, and the HBO West World was goodish in the first season, since then it is the last season of GoT for me.
great film.
Crichton also wrote and directed the 1981 sci-fi movie Looker with Albert Finney and James Coburn.
I was surprised at how little of the movie is Richard Benjamin being pursued by the gunslinger. My impression or memory was that the malfunction happened much sooner. And I would say, at the time, James Brolin was mainly known for his role as Dr. Steven Kiley on Marcus Welby, M.D.
I liked this film but unfocused would be a good way to describe it when it finally feels like it's getting going it's almost over
I felt that to at the end. The big climax didn't happen. It would have been nice for the robot to explain the things he felt and what it was like to be aware. But that never happen, so they just stare at one another...
Personally I NEVER found the ending boring, it seemed to me that Criton was adding to the robot menace by showing these endless tunnels, that all looked identical, as if once you were down there, there was no getting back out, also when Pete finds the...control room were they are all dead, adding more to the sense of helplessness.
the other Worlds didnt need to go anywhere as they were simply sob plots, probably for contrast, I suspect that what you quote as Michael Criton's intentions, he achieved very well as he did with his social commenting JURASSIC PARK novel, but which DIDNT translate to the screen, very well, because of watering down
Majel Barrett being, of course, Gene Roddenberry's wife, and Nurse Chappel and Luaxana Troi on Star Trek
Of course, there are wandering dub plots. They are wandering through a theme park. And the showdown is all about tension.
I was just comparing Westworld Jurassic Park yesterday. Of course it was written by the same man lol (if only he had been alive to witness the first season). Great video!
While I did find the movie slow and unfocused, it was great seeing the source for the show. I also liked that the animals were attacking the guests. I was hoping we'd eventually see or hear more from the black dressed cowboy's perspective, as he seemed to be the Dolores of the movie. I loved Yul's eyes here ☺️ shame he was paid so little. He carried the movie for me
The opening newscast has Robert Nichols who had big parts in 'The Thing from Another World' and 'This Island Earth'.
Thanks you for the content really liked the info you researched. The same set as blazing saddles 🙂
obviously there wouldnt BE a tv series without the 1973 film, as it was both written & Directed by the same man, I don't think anyone could have made it better at the time, possibly the writer of PLANET OF APES, but we'll never know.
1973 was a different time and a VERY different place, the problem with all sci fi is that KNOWONE can be sure as a certainty, WHAT the future will be like even in the area of technology (although in that reguard it is now much easier to predict)
Wow, I think you are off base here this quaint old film as you call it was shocking at the time and the chase scene at the end was tense and dramatic not dull and plodding as you call it. I was so excited by the idea of the new westworld but the bus sized plot holes and hopeless meandering story was too clever for it's own good, kind of like the way "lost" contradicted itself out of existence.
I prefer the classic Westworld to the HBO series, the latter which in typical fashion tries to get viewers by shoving genitalia in your face. The classic spent it's investment in creating the story and world and has better impact as a result without cheapening itself.
Thank You Very Much for your stunning English Vocabulary ! Great for non native speakers ! Best Regards from Zaragoza, Aragon, SPAIN 🇪🇸
Yes I would visit I would be 😎
“ When I saw Westworld in 1973 it reminded me a little of ‘THX-1138’.
but what happened to the staff trapped in the basement without air and 98 degrees. they just left them there. rumor has it, they're still there today
I would go to 80s World.
I didn't find the end chase boring; it felt reasonably credible and tense.
There's a lot the film fails at. Most importantly, there's no real explanation for why everything is going wrong. In Colossus and 2001, there are implied explanations why the machines are behaving wrong, but in Westworld, everything falls to pieces almost immediately. There's no, "Oh, that's why it happened" which you get in some other films. It feels a little bit like a whodunnit where the killer is found by fingerprint evidence. As @DungeonStudio says, infrared sensors on the guns do not explain how they keep guests from accidentally beating one another up. Why are the hands brought up when the eyes are so much more obvious? And we're supposed to believe the control room has no fire exits, and it's hermetically sealed so everyone inside suffocates with no emergency equipment whatsoever? And why can it hit everyone but Richard Benjamin?
That said, I'm amazed how this film "gets" computers. The Gunslinger's vision is absolutely credible; it doesn't "need" high resolution. The scenes where the Gunslinger's IR vision is spoofed by torches is well ahead of its time. The Gunslinger's dialog feels unnatural, as though it is an NPC in a computer RPG, which of course it is. And, of course, the performances are top notch.
Westworld is a classic but had a lot of flaws. I only ever saw it on TV chopped up with commercials so you didn't notice those details so much, like how they flew there on a very futuristic aircraft while wearing big 197O's shirt collars, the computers were still analog reel to reel tape machines like the 1960's, and why did they make a robot rattlesnake? There weren't enough real ones in the desert? And what would they use to lubricate the orifices of the female robots? Just sayin'...
I always found medieval world more interesting than the west side ....
Me too!
I love this film and it's very disturbing in so many ways. The Blu Ray looks great and the stereo soundtrack very effective.
i wouldn’t say the climax is boring.
maybe some moments are a bit boring, but after all it is a 70s science fiction movie, there is no guarantee for a happy end for the hero.
great video by the way.
(to be fair i have never seen the full movie, but the climax has an unsettling atmosphere at some moments if you ask me.)
Yoo-hoo! Mister Robot! That's what a low quality DVD-R looks like.
I might not visit an attraction like Westworld, (although if I had a rifle like the old TV show "The Rifleman" I would definitely reconsider!) With my love for Sci-Fi, I would be better off in Futureworld!
A cult classic from the 70s with a Michael Crichton theme beware the government/ corporations and technology
I’m not very impressed by Westworld. Considering how much better the story and writing of his prior Andromeda Strain is. And of course Jurassic Park is far superior. It reflects more the standard studio films of the time.
The pacing of this movie as a whole isn't great, not just the third act. At least there, there is some tension.
This also may be the least scientifically competent Crichton work.
Androids going rogue wouldn't allow separate self-contained gun programming to change in lethality.
Most annoyingly, apparently they can create fantastic robotics in the future but no one is smart enough to put a handle on a control room door...
This movie was enjoyable as a kid. But as an adult, it loses some luster.
Sorry, but despite it's many glaring flaws, Westworld 1973 is a GIANT among "tech run-a-muck" movies/tv because -- "if we can see further, it's because we've stood on the shoulders of GIANTS". And Yul Brynner's "gunslinger" SHITS on Schwarzenegger's Terminator portrayal, and the ending of Westworld -- the scorched, imploring-to-Benjamin gunslinger -- is way more nuanced than the T.
I wish to god that "JURASSIC PARK" the film had made its points as clear as WEST WORLD'S (which like in ROBOCOP, were about corporate greed & Americas gun violence problems)
the point about corporate greed & man playing god made more clear in JURASSIC PARK.
I would say no, not for anyone thats read the book, which is more like a ROBOCOP but with dinosaurs for its tone.
The JURRASIC PARK film chose to focus on the cgi set pieces (it being the first time we were seeing digital dinosaurs) & FAR LESS on what should have been the point- the dangers of interfering in the power of nature, and corporate greed and cynisism, to pull in a larger audience for a film costing $60 million dollars
It be sweet being a outlaw in stead of a real police officer! Bar fights not real bank robberies that are not real. And sex with hot robots with out making babies HELL YA SIGN ME UP!
Disclosure, I've never seen _Westword._ That being said, I wonder if in universe Yul Brynner was paid by Westworld to use his likeness, and if so what he thought of his duplicate running amok.
I presume everyone realises that Westworld and Jurassic Park are exactly the same story?
I saw the Original WestWorld back in 1973 and loved it as a kid, then a few more times throughout the years.
The series is BORING, with too much drawn out dialog and overplayed simple plots. WestWorld should not have been made into a series.....leave the original cult classic Alone.
Exactly in the last 10-20 years there is so little inovatin in themes that is down right depressing.
@@Raximus3000 Seems to be a total lack of creativity nowadays. Not sure why. I guess we still have the classics to re-watch though, so hey ho...
@@drizzle952
There are 2 reasons the corporations want to own IPs and so they do not want deals with creators that want to own their creations and so they remake everything. The other is the promotion of incompetent hacks as great visionaries through their cliques which in effect leads to pale immitations of everything because they have no skill to make smth on their own.
@@Raximus3000 Think you are right. But, as a film fan, it really is quite disappointing the way things are going. I am so sick of these "superhero movies" and the endless rubbish remakes they keep churning out. So so boring.....
i tried to watch this movie but it was just too silly, only Yul was surreal
✌️
I enjoyed Crichton's work a lot more before I found out he was a climate change denier. Oh, well.
This film sucks. It's fine if your a little kid because of how simple and unbelievable the story plot is. The people running the park watch the guests every move including having sex with one of their robots. A $1000 a day wouldn't cover the parks expenses. This movie is predictable and really corny. It could almost be a comedy it's so laughably bad.
It still influenced the likes of Halloween and Terminator with the relentless walking killer which gives it some merit ...