Westworld
It was the promise of “the future of the vacation, today,” a stay at one of the three linked Delos resorts, Roman World, Medieval World and Western World, a living fantasy for only $1000 each day as visitors would experience somewhat sanitised recreations of imagined histories, minus the endemic disease and poor hygiene, but with all the excitement and romance of sword fights and gunplay, of clear delineations between wholesome good and evil to be vanquished.
Best friends travelling to Western World, John Blane has experienced it before but for recent divorcee Peter Martin all is new and bordering on the unbelievable, the township populated with androids who mingle among the visitors and respond to the cues they are given, be they brothel owners with their eager ladies, barkeeps supplied with whiskey or gunfighters with over-itchy trigger fingers, the thrill of the kill with none of the consequence.
Released in 1973 and directed by Michael Crichton from his own original script, the format for Westworld resembles Robert Wise’s earlier adaption of Crichton’s 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain, breaking down the technology for the audience in an introductory promotional film before shifting to the arriving characters, at first dazzled and enthralled then horrified as the previously benign androids inevitably begin to malfunction and break down.
Starring James Brolin and Richard Benjamin as John and Peter, the iconic image of the film is Yul Brynner as the automated Gunslinger, chilling and challenging but programmed to lose, his synthetic blood on the sawdust of the saloon floor until a glitch unleashes chaos across all three kingdoms, the estimated failure rate of 0.3% per 24 hours of operation leaping exponentially, Crichton always loving a good graph to illustrate his points.
“The whole spectrum of technology” represented by integrated circuit boards, oscilloscopes, electrodes and banks of blinking lights monitored by middle-aged men in lab coats, there are questions unasked; are all the bedrooms and seductions monitored, as many of the other areas are? Do the guests all retire at a specific time, allowing the support teams to clear the debris of the day, resetting for the next performance when the spectacle is concluded?
An iconic and ambitious film, certainly for a debut director, the bordello of Miss Carrie (Majel Barrett) first seen in a 360 degree pan encompassing two mirrors with no backstage equipment visible, despite that the influence of Westworld is strangely limited, a sequel film and television series, Futureworld and Beyond Westworld, and the namesake remake which reimagined and expanded the premise, though Crichton himself would of course thematically revisit “theme park gone awry” in Jurassic Park.
The opening act a promise which is not quite fulfilled with no deeper consideration of the implications of overtrusting technology, the later stages a chase through the desert pursued by an unstoppable killer whose battery life will likely outlast his quarry, like much science fiction, particularly in the Cold War era, Westworld is a warning, albeit one unsophisticated beyond the superficial, a thrill ride of precisely the type which it depicts, well-constructed and enjoyable.
Restored in 4K from the original film negative, Arrow’s new edition of Westworld is supported by new interviews with James Brolin, Richard Benjamin and producer Paul N Lazarus III, a commentary with historian Daniel Kremer, an appreciation by scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, an archive featurette and Westworld Destroyed, rarely seen first episode of Beyond Westworld, largely undifferentiated from the American action serials of the late seventies and notable only for Scalpel’s superb Judith Chapman, a character absent the following week.
Westworld will be available on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Arrow Films from Monday 23rd February
