Westworld (1973)

 

Westworld (1973)

Director: Michael Crichton

Stars: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin

Short Review, no spoilers

A seminal science fiction film, Westworld came about during a nihilistic time for the genre before a more optimistic generation came crashing in with A New Hope. A stripped-down masterpiece with a hauntingly avant-garde portrayal of a robot from Yul Brynner, the film features groundbreaking effects and paved the way for a variety of influences in the future.

Full Review (spoilers)

Peter Martin : You talk too much.

Robot Gunslinger : You say something, boy?

Peter Martin : I said you talk too much.

Robot Gunslinger : Why don't you make me shut up?

There’s a pleasing irony in this rare piece of speech from Yul Brynner as the Gunslinger in Westworld pertaining to some acting advice Brynner shared with co-star Richard Benjamin. Brynner believed that the less said the better, giving what little is said more impact. This ethos could apply to the style of the film as a whole, which gives us no character detail and not much build up to the action, instead briskly running the viewer through a nightmare that begins satirically and ends violently. As stark and spare as this vision is however, it gave birth to several ideas that were developed in later films, three of which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger. Machines turning on humans in The Terminator is the most obvious, but the cheesy commercials for futuristic holiday thrills which involve customers taking on different personas is also very Total Recall. Then there is the visualisation of seeing through the digital eyes of a computer-assisted monster in both Predator and The Terminator. Also in Predator is the use of coloured heat detection to hunt down human prey, and, even in a quite different genre, orchestrated characters who wait frozen until scheduled to act out their false environment is seen very familiarly in The Truman Show.

For sheer ruthlessness in an android, see Brynner’s influence on Terminator 2 and T1000’s terrifyingly frozen expression and efficient body movements. In Westworld, the Gunslinger turns from obedient plaything to menacing assassin, the cowboy swagger with thumbs hitched to gun holster perversely maintained even as he transforms from laconic tough guy to demented hunter, stalking unstoppably after his prey.

If Brynner’s robot performance is successful however, it is also conversely because there are traces of something more than a machine or monster. The Gunslinger is at times somehow melancholic and pitiable - a picture of faded elegance, he’s shot down repeatedly by dumb tourists who ape the epic fantasy that was the Wild West. Brynner’s outfit is exactly the same as the one he wore in his iconic performance from the classic western The Magnificent Seven, a ghostly reminder of past glories. The star persona of Brynner and the robot co-mingle, with the Gunslinger’s wavering, not-quite-human manner of behaviour interacting intriguingly with the enigmatic persona of Brynner himself. All supports the postmodern acknowledgement of fantasy – and particularly, fantastic masculinity - as construct, but there is a sense of tragedy in this. Brynner is visibly older but still compelling, a strong physical presence, but one that is faded and dusty and part of a fake set that is trampled through by credit-card-in-the-air yuppies. It’s like romance dying, replayed over and over each time the Gunslinger is shot dead, something that seems to be confirmed by the director’s decision to film his deaths in slow motion. In giving these moments gravitas, they contrast distinctly with the delighted guffaws of the tourists as they enact the killings. The robots are exploited like slaves, as in Bladerunner. Indeed, there seems to be some reference to this in the name of the holiday park as Delos, the same as an island that in ancient times was the site of the largest slave market in the world.

With old-fashioned reverence for classic movie stars seemingly in the dust, things take a swift turn when the mechanics of the robots begin to malfunction. Refusing to be played back over and over again, the robots break out of the fantasy and destroy the consumers. Like all great sci-fi, it begs questions about humanity, morality, society and culture, and delivers warnings about developing technology too quickly, greedily and irresponsibly … So before AI enthusiasts get excited about sympathy for the robot-devil, see the following:  https://filmstories.co.uk/features/westworld-the-race-to-make-one-of-the-most-important-films-of-the-early-1970s/ - a succinct and fascinating summing up of the making of the film and Crichton’s real intention, which was not anti-technology as such, but anti-corporate greed and its abuses of technology for profit.