WESTWORLD (1973)

4 stars

Arrow Video. Limited edition UHD and Limited Edition Blu ray. 23rd February

Michael Crichton, possibly best known for ‘Jurassic Park’ here makes his cinematic directorial debut with an sf thriller set in Delos – a vacation destination for the rich to play in. They can choose from Western World, Medieval World or Roman World, and live out their fantasies, as this adult theme park is “peopled” by highly sophisticated robots. Most of the action here centres on the Western town following Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blake (James Brolin), though we do get sequences in Medieval World and glimpses of Roman World.

They are having a blast, shooting the gunslinger (Yul Brynner) with no real circumstances, having sex with the ladies they meet in the bar and generally having fun in this make believe environment…

Only problem is, of course, the robots begin to malfunction – it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Or in this case killed!

Of course being over 50 years old things do look a tad dated at times – computers with small screens, tapes whirring, blinking lights and basic graphics. However we have recently had dancing robots in the news, Elon Musk is pivoting Tesla to concentrate on robotics and with the next level animatronics in theme parks like Universal’s Epic Universe this is looking more prescient by the day. Unlike when it came out when it was probably seen as outlandish science fiction. For the time the practical effects used are very good. Writer/director Crichton has fun with the concept, though the music by Fred Karlin does get cheesy at times. Brynner is suitably menacing.

Interestingly the way to tell if the people are robots or guests is that the mechanical incumbents have hands that haven’t been perfected … which is often the ‘tell’ for AI images these days.

This was followed by a sequel movie Futureworld (1976), a short lived TV series Beyond Westworld and the more recent (and rather good if complex) tv series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy

Steve Kirkham

EXTRAS

New audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Daniel Kremer

Cowboy Dreams, a newly filmed conversation between actor Richard Benjamin and producer/screenwriter Larry Karaszewski

New interviews: with actor James Brolin; producer Paul N. Lazarus III

Sex, Death and Androids, a brand new appreciation of the film by author and film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

On Location with Westworld, an archival behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film from 1973

Beyond Westworld, the 48-minute pilot episode of the 1980 follow-up television series

Theatrical trailer and Image gallery

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper; booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Michael Brown, Priscilla Page, Paul Anthony Nelson, and Abbey Bender; Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper; Six postcard-sized artcards