‘Westworld’ (1973)

Work has dealt me a couple of surprises this week, nothing major but definitely time consuming so while I’m aiming for at least a couple of book posts this week… Well, lets see what happens there. It’s a good job then that I’ve got a whole pile of DVDs that I need to work my way through, just what a situation like this requires ;o)

I’m a contrary old… erm, person :o) While everyone else is looking forward to a speculative genre future filled with possibilities, I automatically find myself looking back to the past and searching for gems there. Don’t get me wrong, the genre has to evolve if it’s going to continue to thrive, I’m just at a point in my life where I’m not in a big hurry to evolve with it, especially when there’s still loads of stuff that I haven’t read or seen yet.

A lot of ‘classic’ sci-fi films seemed to pass me by when I was a kid so I thought I’d catch up on some now and ‘Westworld’ seemed like a good place to start. I mean, any film that is mined for content, to turn into a new TV show, has to be pretty good, doesn’t it? Better than ‘pretty good’ as it happens, I’m really glad that I gave ‘Westworld’ a go, it was brilliant.

The Island of Delos offers holidaymakers the trip of a lifetime to Roman World, Medieval World or Westworld; resorts where you can experience all the thrills of a bygone age but without any of the danger, the robot population is there purely to make sure that your holiday is perfect.  A lawyer and businessman take a dream holiday to Westworld but when one of the computerized gunslingers malfunctions, the two city slickers find themselves in a battle for their lives.

‘Westworld’ is bit of a mixture of themes with one part questioning how much we leave in the hands of computers, and whether this is a good thing) (the head scientist tells the Delos Board of Directors that most of the machines are now being built by other machines and their understanding is failing as a result) and another part questioning how humans treat these robots, do the robots of Delos deserve better? It’s clear pretty early on that that human tourists are using Delos as a ‘Sex and Murder’ vacation under the excuse of ‘living as a part of history’. Every one of the tourists goes on to either kill a robot or have sex with it. It’s also clear that this is how it’s being marketed by the Board with technicians on standby to reprogram robots so that holidaymakers can get what they paid for. Are the robots really malfunctioning then or are they more alive than anyone realised? I don’t know but it’s all built up nicely to a crescendo of violence and lawyer Peter Martin going on the run from Yul Brynner’s gunslinger.

And this is where it gets really good with Yul Brynner being utterly menacing as this robot gunslinger who absolutely will not stop until you are dead. He is more ‘Terminator’ than the Terminator and watching him and an increasingly frantic Peter bounce off each other was just compelling viewing. And the bit where Peter throws acid in the robot’s face, and thinks he has won, only for ‘Robot Brynner’ to casually wash it off and then keep coming at him… It was all brilliant.

‘Westworld’ is one of those films where I’m just wondering why I never picked it up until now. I’m very glad that I did though. The only slight issue I had was that I was left wondering what happened to the little bespectacled tourist who made himself Sherriff and just seemed pleased to be living a boyhood dream (no having sex with the robots or anything like that). I always find myself looking out for the little guy, in films, and he was that guy; it was a shame that he just disappeared. Still a brilliant film though.