Review of Westworld (1973) by Jacob H — 04 Jul 2007

Michael Crichton's first movie is set in a futuristic amusement park with robots that help the guest live out fantasies. Everything is great until the park operators lose control of the robots and the robots began killing the guest. While you have probably seen technology goes wrong films before this one does it very well.

There are many things that make this a good film. First, the cinematography of the film is excellent. As the guest arrive in Delos( the amusement park which contains three parts: Westworld, Roman World and Medieval World) we see a shot of the landscape reflected in the sunglasses of the pilot of the hovercraft. Second, for a movie that is over 30 years old it has aged well. Yes, the computers in the control room are out of date, but most of the technology is not explained. We are just told the robots are human in everyway, except that the palms of the hands are different.

The most important part of this movie is Yul Brynner's performance. Brynner plays the killer robot tracking down are hero and does an amazing job in this role. First, his movements are off just enough to give a sense that he is not really human. Second, he makes his character scary without needing dialogue. In the last third of the film, when he is now the out of control killing machine, he says three words. This does not limit the fear he projects, it only enhances it. Brynner tells us what we need to know not with dialogue, but mostly through his facial expressions. You can see this in the last line he says, which is just one word. Afterhe delivers this line he gets a slight smile on his face. While we know he is not human, it gives the sense that he has the ability to feel pleasure and finds pleasure in killing others. Brynner's performance makes this a good thriller.