In honor of the upcoming WESTWORLD TV series, journo and film programmer Heidi Honeycutt looks at the original 1973 film and its influence on science fiction entertainment.
An ensemble cast, including James Brolin, Richard Benjamin, Dick Van Patten, Alan Oppenheimer, and many more, are put in exciting situations in the 1973 science fiction film WESTWORLD: gun fights, hovercraft ships, Roman orgies, medieval feasts, and uncanny androids all make up the exhilaration of futuristic theme park DELOS. When a computer virus begins infecting the normally harmless androids, causing them to kill humans, the amusement park patrons have to run for their lives or be shot, stuck with swords, or tied to the rack.
In August 1972, when writer Michael Crichton had finished his screenplay, the only studio that was interested in making it was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had a terrible reputation among filmmakers at the time. Despite the setbacks caused by MGMs low budgets and inadequate pre and post-production schedules, Crichton directed a phenomenal piece of genre cinema.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NfKbqB5a-8E
Westworld is notable not only for spearheading the image of a silent, super-strong killer stalking human victims essentially the prototype for slashers like Michael Meyers and Jason Voorhees in the 1970s and 80s as well as machines like THE TERMINATOR but for its amazing special effects. Thanks to Gene Polito, Crichtons cinematographer, WESTWORLDs front projection, rear projection, burn-ins, video replay, and blue screen effects helped avoid a bizarre, science fiction appearance: he shied away from using wide-angle lenses, eccentric compositions, and disorienting cutting patterns to create something less artistic, and more entertaining to mainstream audiences. The mirrored contact lenses worn by Yul Brenner as the menacing android Gunslinger, his infrared POV eyesight as he hunts Richard Benjamin, and the final scene in which the Gunslingers face is melted by acid (actually a mixture of makeup and Alka Seltzer) were weird enough to make WESTWORLD a fun and exciting movie without any added cinematic artistry. WESTWORLD was not intended to be profound, said Crichton in 1973. Neither was it intended to be stupid, but out clear goal was entertainment. I like to think that audiences have fun with this film. We had fun making it.
Star Richard Benjamin once noted that WESTWORLD was the start of the machines going nuts cliché in modern science fiction. It also planted the seeds for Crichtons later novel, and subsequent film, JURASSIC PARK in which science creates a theme park that goes horribly, horribly wrong.
WESTWORLD had one official feature film sequel, FUTUREWORLD(1976), and its own TV series BEYOND WEST (1980) (which was so unpopular it only aired three episodes before being removed from television forever). The real legacy of WESTWORLD lies in its influence on later science fiction film and TV.
While horror filmmaker John Carpenter has openly admitted to modeling the silent, machine-like character of Michael Meyers in his original Halloween film after Yul Brenners Gunslinger in WESTWORLD, James Cameron has never mentioned him being an inspiration for his android, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, in The Terminator (1984). While The Terminator clearly had other influences (some fans argue that CYBORG 2087 (1966), COLOSSUS: THE FORBIN PROJECT(1970) and BLADE RUNNER (1982), inspired Camerons vision of murderous androids with super strength), several scenes in THE TERMINATOR seem directly adapted from WESTWORLD particularly the scene in which the Terminators human skin covering is torn from its face revealing the machine inside.
Arnold reveals the robot within in THE TERMINATOR.
In the original WESTWORLD, STAR TREK fans will immediately notice Majel Barrett as Miss Carrie, the brothel owner. They will also understand that the season six STAR TREK: TNG episode A Fistful of Datas is an expression of admiration for WESTWORLDs legacy. In A Fistful of Datas, Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn), his son Alexander, and Counselor Deanna Troi (Marina Sirtis) enter the holodeck (a sort of virtual reality theme park, where a computer can simulate any situation or experience) and run a Deadwood program set in the Wild West for some fun. Unfortunately, the holodeck computer is malfunctioning and the simulations are out of control, threatening to harm the users. Of course, Worf, Troi, and Alexander get out just fine, but not without some whimsical references to WESTWORLD in which Worf faces down a corrupted android version of Data in a gunfight. The episode playfully captures the nostalgia for a forgotten and lawless time that, while dangerous, seems to be as exciting for Worf as it was for PeterMartin (Richard Benjamins character in WESTWORLD).
https://youtube.com/watch?v=se8hSvl8lmA
The WESTWORLD influences keep coming, as in the (new) DR. WHO episode A Town Called Mercy (2012) which takes place in the Old West. A cyborg named The Gunslinger holds the town hostage, indiscriminately killing anyone who attempts to leave the town. In this case, the android is an alien to boot, but its unmistakably made from someones love of WESTWORLD.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=CHws-63LR3U
Though the last effort at bringing WESTWORLD to TV was a miserably failure, HBO is attempting to do just that again in a reboot of the original story as a series. Written and produced by Jonathan Nolan (brother of Christopher) and Lisa Joy, J.J. Abram and Bryan Burk are executive producers. Like the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA reboot of 2003, the androids in the new WESTWORLD will have more developed personalities as they become self-aware during their malfunction as evident in the tagline a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. Ed Harris plays the new Gunslinger, the original Yul Brenner role, but will he finally reveal deeper reasons for his murderous rampage?
Ed Harris as The Man in Black in HBO’s WESTWORLD.
The new series, out in early 2016, also stars Sir Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Miranda Otto, Rodrigo Santoro, Shannon Woodward, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Angela Sarafyan, and Simon Quarterman. You can watch the teaser right here:
