Westworld (film)
| Westworld | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Crichton |
| Written by | Michael Crichton |
| Produced by | Paul Lazarus III |
| Starring | Yul Brynner Richard Benjamin James Brolin |
| Cinematography | Gene Polito |
| Edited by | David Bretherton |
| Music by | Fred Karlin |
| Distributed by | MGM |
Release date | November 21, 1973 |
Running time | 88 min. (theatrical) |
| Country | US |
| Language | English |
Westworld is a 1973 science fiction / thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton and starring Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, and James Brolin. Set in a high tech amusement park, Peter Martin and John Blane play cowboys in a faux western world with lifelike robots, but when the park's central computer malfunctions, the vacation turns from harmless fun to potentially fatal, and the friends must figure out how to escape with their lives.
Westworld was the last movie MGM produced before dissolving its releasing company, and was the first theatrical feature directed by Crichton.[1] It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view.[2] The film was nominated for Hugo, Nebula and Golden Scroll (a.k.a. Saturn) awards[3], and was followed by a sequel film, Futureworld, and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld.
Plot summary
The story is set sometime in the near future, in a high-tech, highly realistic fictional adult amusement park called Delos. The entertainment consists primarily of interaction between the guests and androids that are almost indistinguishable from human beings. For a price of $1,000 per day, guests may indulge in any fantasy, including killing or having sex with the androids. The androids are programmed to act in character for each of the park's three themed zones: WesternWorld (the American Old West), MedievalWorld (medieval Europe), and RomanWorld (pre-Christian Rome).
After an introductory advertisement for the park, the film begins as Peter Martin (Benjamin), a first-timer, and his friend John Blane (Brolin), who has visited previously, visit WesternWorld, where one of the main attractions is the Gunslinger (Brynner), a robot programmed to start duels. Thanks to its programming, humans can always outdraw the Gunslinger and kill it. The guns issued to the guests also have temperature sensors that prevent them from shooting each other or anything else living but allow them to 'kill' the room-temperature androids.
Gradually, the technicians running Delos begin to notice problems with the androids. In what may be the first mention of the concept of a computer virus in a film, the technical staff describe inexplicable problems and breakdowns spreading "like a disease" between the machines: first the robots in MedievalWorld begin suffering an inexplicable number of systemic failures; then a robot rattlesnake bites Blane; against her programming, a female android refuses a guest's request for sex. The failures increase until the robotic Black Knight kills a guest in a sword-fight in MedievalWorld. The resort's supervisors, in increasing desperation, try to regain control by shutting down power to the entire park, but this traps them in the control rooms, unable to turn the power back on while the robots run amok on stored power.
Martin and Blane, who passed out drunk after a bar fight in the WesternWorld bordello, wake up unaware of the breakdown. When the Gunslinger challenges the two men to a showdown, Blane treats the confrontation as a typical amusement until the robot shoots and kills him. Martin runs for his life as the robot implacably follows him.
Martin flees to the other areas of the park, but finds only a panicky fleeing technician, dead guests and damaged robots. He climbs down through a manhole to the underground control area, where the resort's technicians have suffocated since the ventilation shut down. The Gunslinger continues to stalk Martin through the corridors as he throws acid into its face and sets fire to it with a torch. Martin also finds a woman chained up in the dungeon, but he discovers that she is an android when a drink of water destroys the circuitry in her face. Finally, the burned hulk of the Gunslinger attacks him one last time before succumbing to its damage. The film ends as Martin, apparently the sole human survivor, sits down on the dungeon steps in a state of near-exhaustion and shock, thinking of the irony of Delos's advertising, "Have we got a vacation for you!"
Production
Westworld was filmed in several locations, including the Mojave Desert, the gardens of the Harold Lloyd Estate, and several sound stages at MGM.[1] It was shot with Panavision anamorphic lenses by Gene Polito, A.C.E.
The Gunslinger's appearance is based on Chris, Brynner's character from The Magnificent Seven. The two characters' costumes are nearly identical.
In the scene when Richard Benjamin's character splashes The Gunslinger in the face with acid, Brynner's face was covered with an oil-based makeup mixed with ground Alka-Seltzer. A splash of water then produced the fizzing effect.
The score for Westworld was composed by Oscar-winning American composer Fred Karlin. It combines ersatz western scoring, source cues, and electronic music.[4]
Although the lead scientist in the film makes an analogy to the computer problem spreading like a disease, at the time Westworld was made the concept of computer viruses was still many years away.[5]
Digital Image Processing
Westworld was the first feature film to use digital image processing. John Whitney Jr. and Gary Demos at Information International Inc. (aka "Triple I") digitally processed motion picture photography to appear pixelized in order to portray the Gunslinger android's point of view.[6] The approximately 2 minutes and 31 seconds worth of cinegraphic block portraiture was accomplished by color-separating (3 basic color separations plus black mask) each frame of source 70mm footage, scanning each of these elements to convert into rectangular blocks, then adding basic color according to the tone values developed.[7] The resulting coarse pixel matrix was output back to film.[8] The process was covered in the American Cinematographer article Behind the scenes of Westworld.[9]
Network Airings
Westworld was first aired on NBC television in 1975. The network aired a slightly longer version of the film than was shown theatrically or subsequently released on home video. One added scene shows a brief fly-by shot of the hovercraft zooming just a few feet above the desert floor. Previously, all scenes involving the hovercraft were interior shots only. Another additional scene later in the film features a guest in Romanworld being subjected to a torture rack.
Sequel
A sequel to Westworld, Futureworld, was filmed in 1976, with only Brynner returning from the original cast to reprise his Gunslinger character. Four years later, in 1980, the CBS television network aired a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld, expanding on the concepts and plot of the first film with new characters. Its poor ratings caused it to be canceled after only three of the five episodes aired.
A remake of Westworld was in development as of 2007[10], but a director is still not attached to the film. Quentin Tarantino was approached but turned it down[11]. The film has not begun pre-production. A remake was originally speculated to star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Billy Ray is currently listed as a writer of the film. Michael Crichton was also expected to screenwrite, before his death.
Influence on popular culture
- In 1981, Theatre of Hate had a top 40 hit with "Do You Believe (In the Westworld)."
- In 1985, Colourbox recorded a song titled Just Give 'em Whiskey which sampled dialogue widely from the film.
- Stephen Malkmus's self-titled debut album featured the song "Jo Jo's Jacket," which was partially sung from the perspective of Yul Brynner. It included the lines “Perhaps you saw me in Westworld, I acted like a robotic cowboy”.
- The band Westworld takes their name from the film.
- The Canadian band Valley of the Giants's self-titled debut album is heavily influenced by the movie, with a track called "Westworld".
- The Simpsons has parodied the film on multiple occasions. In the episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" (S5Ep20), Principal Skinner resembles The Gunslinger as he pursues the truant Bart across a river and up a mountain. Musical scoring similar to Westworld's is heard during the chase. "Itchy & Scratchy Land" (S6Ep04) makes extensive references to Westworld as the amusement park in the title descends into similar chaos. References include the "theme park of the future" slogan, the mispronounced line of dialogue "where nothing can possibly go wrong," an underground control area, and robots designed for entertainment purposes that turn into uncontrollable killers. In "Homer Simpson in: "Kidney Trouble"" (S10Ep08), Westworld is once again parodied. The opening sequence has the Simpson family go on a tour of a ghost town called "Bloodbath Gulch." The tour includes a stop at "Ye Old Animatronic Saloon" where they interact, sometimes violently, with robotic cowboys and other robotic western-themed characters.
- The Red Dwarf episode "Meltdown" has a plot in part inspired by Westworld.
- The music video for Muse's Knights of Cydonia features several references to Westworld.
- In the pilot episode of Welcome to Eltingville, "Bring me the Head of Boba Fett", during the Trivia-Off a character asks "What was the name of the theme park from Westworld?", it is answered correctly.
- In 2003, the Cartoon Network television series Duck Dodgers aired an episode, "The Wrath of Canasta," in which the title character visits a robot-filled, Western-themed vacation planet where the robots are programmed to always lose gunfights with tourists.
- Director John Carpenter has stated that Yul Brynner's character was an inspiration for Michael Myers in Halloween.
- A Hsu & Chan comic featured a minor amusement park parody along with the appearance of a gunslinger.
- The PC game System Shock 2 features the Westworld movie poster at points during the game.
- Writer-Director Michael Crichton would later use the backdrop of an amusement park based on advanced technology gone wrong in Jurassic Park, which also featured a scene where a visually-impaired menace has its senses frustrated by its prey.
- In an episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo? titled "Go West, Young Scoob", the gang visits an Old West theme park named Cyber Gulch where all the inhabitants are robots. Some of the robots turn evil and cause havoc in the town.
- The second last level in The Nightmare Levels expansion pack for the computer game Blood II: The Chosen is called "Westworld".
References
- ^ a b http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=12461&mainArticleId=245816
- ^ Westworld digital image processing
- ^ Awards nominated for
- ^ http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/cdID/348/
- ^ The Evolution of Viruses and Worms
- ^ A Brief, Early History of Computer Graphics in Film
- ^ http://www.atariarchives.org/artist/sec17.php Ed Manning BlocPix
- ^ Chapter 4: A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION 3/20/92 (note that this article is in error about the year the film was made)
- ^ American Cinematographer 54(11):1394-1397, 1420-1421, 1436-1437. November 1973.
- ^ Sci-Fi Wire: Billy Ray Talks Westworld Remake, June 2007
- ^ Hostel 2 DVD commentary track.