Westworld

Westworld is one of three high-tech adult amusement parks under the Delos brand. In this place, guests can engage in role play fantasies involving the Old West, Roman times (in Romanworld) or in Medieval England (in Medievalworld). Anything goes in these places for one simple reason: nothing, evidently, can go wrong. Heat sensors prevent gunslingers from shooting other humans in Westworld, for example. So who do they shoot? Robots. When the robots refuse to accept commands from their human masters, it's up to the guests to fend for themselves.

It shouldn't be any shock that Westworld comes from the mind of writer/director Michael Crichton, the same man behind Jurassic Park. Both films deal with humans trying to harness technology for entertainment purposes. Their major conflict occurs because of man's hubris over what he's able to control. And, eventually, the simple lesson that "just because we can doesn't mean we should" sinks in. It's as if Westworld served as a template for Jurassic Park, showing Crichton the pitfalls of this kind of story, allowing him to work out the kinks and flesh out his ideas. But Westworld isn't just Jurassic Park-light; it's an entertaining, action-oriented message film.

Clocking in at just 88-minutes, Westworld is very efficient in its storytelling, forgoing minor subplots and peripheral characters in favor of focusing on guests Peter and John (Richard Benjamin and James Brolin) and their adventure in Westworld. By relegating secondary characters like Dick Van Patten's "Banker" to the background, Crichton allows the audience to feel the claustrophobia both men experience at the park. The most peculiar thing about the story isn't how few "other" personalities are on the screen; it's actually how slowly the robots going crazy storyline is introduced.

Crichton refuses to push it down our throats or make it completely obvious. Instead, small scenes are inserted during the first 45 minutes showing problems behind the scenes. As opposed to John Hammond in Jurassic Park, these designers didn't do all the work themselves: apparently (and the movie doesn't delve into the specifics), computers designed some of the robots. Naturally, when something does go wrong, they don't know how to fix it. Nor does Crichton seem to care about the nitty gritty of the technology (remember the complicated animation in JP which explained how the dinosaurs were made?). All that's important is that the audience buy into the concept.

And that we do, primarily because Peter is our proxy on screen. Initially, he feel silly interacting in this environment, sheepishly telling Yul Brynner's "Gunslinger" he talks too much. Each passing time he says it, we can see his confidence rising and acceptance of the situation coming to the surface. Think about it: if you've always dreamed of going to the Wild West and taking part in a bar brawl, actually doing it is going to be odd at the outset. But as you see the people around you open and involved in the action, you eventually become comfortable with it. In that sense, it's perfectly logical.

Most of the action takes place in Westworld and Medievalworld; there are precious few scenes of Romanworld. While it's never said, the insinuation is the guests can have sex with anyone they want to, no holds barred. That's the same rule as in the other two areas, though neither the west or England are known for homosexuality, bisexuality, pansexuality or sexual orgies. That's the most plausible explanation as to why this portion of Delos is rarely shown.

The actors-save Brynner-are typical 1970s actors lacking a true emotional range, acting as though they're on television and not on the movie screen. Brynner, though, understands his role to perfection, acting without moving his face or a ton of dialogue. He does what he needs to do by, simply, staring at his opponents.

Because Crichton doesn't spend a lot of time on the workings of the robot technology or the rules of the world, he misses a few obvious questions. Remember those heat sensors? Theoretically speaking, they work on the same principle as infrared imaging. If there is a heat signature in the direction the gun is pointing, it won't fire. However, what happens if a person stands behind a chair. The heat signature is gone, allowing the gun to fire. And what about overrides? A group of scientists suffocates after the electronic doors no longer work. There's no fire exit? Where's the rest of the human staff at the park-dead, like the guests?

We're not meant to think about those aspects to closely, I suspect. Crichton is trying to warn us about putting too much trust in technology, something he saw before James Cameron in Terminator (but not before Gene Roddenberry in Star Trek).