Subject: Retrospective: Westworld (1973)

From: [email-masked] (Monika Huebner)
Date: 17 Mar 1999 06:02:13 GMT

Westworld
A movie by Michael Crichton
With Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin and others

Clever marketing strategists created a very special theme park: At
Westworld the stressed-out vacationer can relax in an unusual way and
experience things he will never forget for the rest of his life. Who
hasn't dreamt of being a sheriff in the Wild West, see the pleasures
of ancient Rome or win the love of a medieval queen by defeating the
Black Knight? Westworld gives you the opportunity to live your dreams
at a time when time travel still belongs in the realm of science
fiction. The tourists are cared for by hi-tech robots that look
incredibly human. But as you know the best technology is only good as
long as it works. If the circuits blow due to a technical defect the
most human robot is just a machine...

Those somewhat familiar with the works of Michael Crichton can
probably guess what this movie is about. My first thought was: the
man's relation with theme parks is a bit strange. Even if Westworld
isn't plagued by rambling dinosaurs like JURASSIC PARK some 20 years
later, this early version of a story warning about the menace of
exaggerated use of technology is everything but colorless. On the
contrary: The fact that this story deals with human looking robots
that can't be told from real people makes everything more ghastly.
Imagine being chased by a gunslinger - played brilliantly by Yul
Brynner - whose only aim is to kill you because his circuits were
messed up by a major blackout in the conrol center. You can't kill him
like a normal man and he acts with the precision of a machine, cold
and unfeeling. The pleasure seekers in the ancient Rome and in the
medieval castle are no better off. There, too, the robots were
affected by the blackout and the Black Knight doesn't want to give up
his victory. The vacation turns into a nightmare, brilliantly and
eerily staged.

Many blame Crichton for being anti-technology, which I never quite
understood. His books and movies rather make you think about the
dangers of a naive faith in the infallibility of technology. And that
is an impulse that can't hurt in these times. His vivid imagination
and not exactly squeamish use of violence serve to entertain the
viewer or reader, which all in all is the purpose of a thriller.

A gloomy vision of an artificial world that hopefully never will come
true.

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