Delos is a futuristic amusement park that features themed worlds—ancient Rome, Medieval times and the Old West—populated by human-like androids. After two patrons have a run-in with a menacing gunslinger in West World, the androids at Delos all begin to malfunction, causing havoc throughout the park.
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Very disappointing...
Just perfect...
Fantastic!
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Pretty cheesy by today's standards. Maybe cheesy by 1973 standards too. While I was alive and watching movies in '73 I don't watch them anymore so it's hard to compare. That said, despite possibly the worst musical score of any movie I've ever seen something led me to watch it all the way through. Possibly that I'm simultaneously sitting at my desk cleaning out my email or maybe there's more here than I'm willing to admit. Give it a try but don't expect the dialogue to get any better, the acting any more convincing, or the music, especially the music, to get any less annoying as it progresses.
Marrying a cutting-edge Sci-Fi concept with the horse opera, best-selling author Michael Crichton's directorial debut feature WESTWORLD is a hybrid high on ideas but woefully inadequate in its modality. In the then-near future (1983 to be specific), those who can afford $1,000 per day, per capita are privileged to stay in the Delos amusement park, which is divided into three distinctively manufactured worlds: Medievalworld, Romanworld and Westworld, peopled with human-likes androids to pander to their clientele's indulgence of every immoral and illegal whim without any consequences, that is a provocative premise to plumb how low humanity can descend to when one's action is no longer curtained by legality, but in Crichton's book, that would be too depressing, so instead, he opts for another direction, what about an inexplicable malfunction (like an endemic virus) befalls on those lifeless robots and turns them to hunt down humans? Admittedly, there is a modicum of prescience concerning our eternal dread of A.I. technology in the design, but little food for thought is left in the final product. Our proxy in this immersive adventure is the Chicagoan lawyer Peter Martin (a mustachioed Benjamin slumming it half-heartedly), a newcomer to the park accompanied by his friend John Blane (a smirky Brolin in a horrid-looking hairdo), who has patronized the place before and they choose to stay in Westworld, where those classic tropes like gunfights, bar brawl, jail break and brothel-dossing are churned out in a slapdash tepidity (one wonders how come they make absolutely no bones about sleeping with a programmed machine, however their verisimilitude of human can fool our eyes, there is something biologically repugnant here has been crassly glossed over), although the pair do cleave to the "make love not war" watchword when a trigger-happy robbery is alternatively proffered. The thrill and spill escalates when insidiously and no less mysteriously, the android revolt takes shape in all three worlds, but in the main it centers on the Gunslinger (Brynner), who is programmed to provoke quick-draw face-off, embarks on a relentless chase to finish off Peter, regardless of the damage inflicted on his physical form, a defining forefather of TERMINATOR, so is Brynner's no-blinking, no-expression stare. It goes without saying that a Sci-Fi project made in the analog era doesn't age pretty well for its ingrown reason, especially the laborious pixelated POV which looks starkly cockamamie and creaky, which explains exactly the raison d'être why its recent small-screen reboot is indeed right on time, WESTWORLD is a seam of ideas and conflicts, what we need is some visionary practitioner to mine it proper.
What a film! Michael Chrichton's screenplay adapted into movie format with Yul Brynner playing the role of his life (after "The King and I") with a great supporting cast including Richard Benjamin and James Brolin. A dystopian future. Theme parks are now robotic holiday resorts so real that they'd pass for real. Experiences from visits to fighting gardens in RomanWorld, to exploring the wild American frontier in WestWorld all needs and tastes are catered for here. But what happens when the robots decide they don't want slavery anymore? I have soo many fond memories of watching this as a child with glee. The story of the gunslinger in black hunting guests terrified and excited me so much. After re-watching it every couple of years I still have same enjoyment from this film. Yul Brynner is immaculate as the pre-terminator robot gone bad.Culturally this film asked a lot of valid questions prevalent at the time as mankind was integrating more and more with technology while being on the doorstep to various conflicts globally. Like some of the themes, some of the visuals are now very dated but don't forget, this is pre-CGI mainstream, this is the 1970's. Despite that this is and remains one of my favorite films and it's highly recommended. It has spawned a sequel ("FutureWorld") and it's own TV series. Enjoy!
I am working on a robot film, so right now I am on a journey of watching previous films regarding those humanoids creations. Like many people, I first heard the Westworld from its TV remake. Never did I watch that, so the entire concept is new to me. The opening sequences work quite well. I was hooked to this new world at once. And indeed the writers and director have been clinging to this concept throughout the film. The audience is constantly impressed at the manipulation and delicacy of the robots. However, that is basically it. The film seems to be satisfied with amusing the audience with this novel concept, leaving alone the great chance to explore the deeper moral meanings behind. Overall, it is a good movie to watch when one wants to see a Western+Sci-Fi. It is sure to entertain you, but unlike say Groundhogs Day, it does not add anything else to it.