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Westworld
	; Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Crichton
Produced by	Paul Lazarus III
Written by	Michael Crichton
Starring	Yul Brynner; Richard Benjamin; James Brolin
Music by	Fred Karlin
Cinematography	Gene Polito
Editing by	David Bretherton
Distributed by	MGM
Release date(s)	November 21, 1973
Running time	88 min. (theatrical)
Country	US
Language	English
Followed by	Futureworld

For other uses, see Westworld (disambiguation).

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 (aka Saturn) awards^[3], and was followed by a sequel film, Futureworld, and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld.

[edit] Plot summary

It is sometime in the near future, in a fictional high-tech adult amusement park called Delos. The park is divided into three zones: WesternWorld, MedievalWorld and RomanWorld. The entertainment in all three areas consists primarily of interaction by the guests with androids programmed to act in character (the Old West, medieval Europe, and pre-Christian Rome, respectively). The androids are indistinguishable from human beings, apart from minor flaws in their hands, and guests are encouraged to indulge in any fantasy, including killing the androids. The androids are programmed to respond positively to guest requests, specifically including requests for sex. Delos's guests pay $1,000 a day for the experience.

Peter Martin (Benjamin) a first-timer and his friend John Blane (Brolin), who has visited previously, come to the WesternWorld zone, where one of the main attractions is the Gunslinger (Yul 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 firing at 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 in one area of the park and then on to the others. First, the robots in MedievalWorld begin suffering an inexplicable number of systemic failures. Then, a robot rattlesnake strikes Blane. Against her programming, a female servant 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, attempt to regain control by shutting down power to the entire park. Unfortunately, this results in trapping them in the control rooms, unable to turn the power back on again while the robots run amok on stored power.

Martin and Blane, who have been passed out drunk after a bar fight in the WesternWorld bordello, wake up unaware that there has been a change for the worse. The two men are confronted by the Gunslinger, who challenges them to a showdown. Blane treats the confrontation like a joke, 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 manages to open a manhole leading to the underground control area, where the resort's technicians have suffocated since the ventilation shut down. The Gunslinger stalks Martin through the corridors, arriving at the robot repair facility where Martin lies in wait, pretending to be a disabled robot. Martin ambushes the Gunslinger by throwing a beaker of hydrochloric acid, found among the repair materials, into its face. Thinking he has disabled the Gunslinger, he leaves the service area and enters MedievalWorld.

However, Martin is again followed by the Gunslinger, whose face has melted but who is still functioning, though its visible spectrum optics were destroyed by the acid. The robot can still see Martin, but only via infrared backups, and is confused when he moves in front of several flaming torches, something it would not have been programmed to deal with in WesternWorld. The Gunslinger begins to leave the room, but Martin accidentally makes a noise, allowing the Gunslinger to zero in on him again. When it lunges to strike, its ammunition exhausted, Martin seizes the opportunity to set fire to it with a large torch.

Thinking this has destroyed the robot, Martin leaves the burning Gunslinger and wanders out of the great hall, finding what he believes to be a female guest chained up in the dungeon. He releases her and gives her a drink of water, whereupon her face bursts into sparks, revealing she is a machine. Backing away in shock, he is confronted by the still moving burned hulk of the Gunslinger, which continues its attempt to attack him. However, it falls off a high set of steps in the process and, finally succumbing to damage, shuts down. Martin, apparently the sole survivor of the humans at Delos, simply 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!"

[edit] 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. Both characters wear nearly identical costumes.

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, and which combined 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]

[edit] Digital Image Processing

Westworld was 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 course pixel matrix was output back to film.^[8] The process was covered in the American Cinematographer article 'Behind the scenes of Westworld.^[9]

[edit] 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. In one added scene, a brief, fly-by shot of the hovercraft zooming just a few feet above the desert floor is seen. 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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".

[edit] 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.

[edit] External links

Westworld at the Internet Movie Database
Westworld at Allmovie
Westworld at Rotten Tomatoes

[tcm.com-0] ttp://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article.jsp?cid=12461&mainArticleId=245816

[1] Westworld digital image processing

[2] Awards nominated for

[3] ttp://www.filmscoremonthly.com/cds/detail.cfm/cdID/348/

[4] The Evolution of Viruses and Worms

[5] A Brief, Early History of Computer Graphics in Film

[6] ttp://www.atariarchives.org/artist/sec17.php Ed Manning BlocPix

[7] Chapter 4: A HISTORY OF COMPUTER ANIMATION 3/20/92 (note that this article is in error about the year the film was made)

[8] American Cinematographer 54(11):1394-1397, 1420-1421, 1436-1437. November 1973.

[9] Sci-Fi Wire: Billy Ray Talks Westworld Remake, June 2007

[10] Hostel 2 DVD commentary track.

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