Westworld
Westworld
PG | 15 August 1973 (USA)
Westworld Trailers

Delos is a futuristic amusement park that features themed worlds—ancient Rome, Medieval times and the Old West—populated by human-like androids. After two patrons have a run-in with a menacing gunslinger in West World, the androids at Delos all begin to malfunction, causing havoc throughout the park.

Reviews
Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?
Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
one-nine-eighty What a film! Michael Chrichton's screenplay adapted into movie format with Yul Brynner playing the role of his life (after "The King and I") with a great supporting cast including Richard Benjamin and James Brolin. A dystopian future. Theme parks are now robotic holiday resorts so real that they'd pass for real. Experiences from visits to fighting gardens in RomanWorld, to exploring the wild American frontier in WestWorld all needs and tastes are catered for here. But what happens when the robots decide they don't want slavery anymore? I have soo many fond memories of watching this as a child with glee. The story of the gunslinger in black hunting guests terrified and excited me so much. After re-watching it every couple of years I still have same enjoyment from this film. Yul Brynner is immaculate as the pre-terminator robot gone bad.Culturally this film asked a lot of valid questions prevalent at the time as mankind was integrating more and more with technology while being on the doorstep to various conflicts globally. Like some of the themes, some of the visuals are now very dated but don't forget, this is pre-CGI mainstream, this is the 1970's. Despite that this is and remains one of my favorite films and it's highly recommended. It has spawned a sequel ("FutureWorld") and it's own TV series. Enjoy!
Weiming Sheng I am working on a robot film, so right now I am on a journey of watching previous films regarding those humanoids creations. Like many people, I first heard the Westworld from its TV remake. Never did I watch that, so the entire concept is new to me. The opening sequences work quite well. I was hooked to this new world at once. And indeed the writers and director have been clinging to this concept throughout the film. The audience is constantly impressed at the manipulation and delicacy of the robots. However, that is basically it. The film seems to be satisfied with amusing the audience with this novel concept, leaving alone the great chance to explore the deeper moral meanings behind. Overall, it is a good movie to watch when one wants to see a Western+Sci-Fi. It is sure to entertain you, but unlike say Groundhogs Day, it does not add anything else to it.
Rameshwar IN It is important to note the context that this is viewed and reviewed after watching the highly popular TV series which goes by the same name. So some of the observations (maybe most) could be comparative in nature. The simplistic approach at times exploitative of the premise is what works the best - there is some genuine fun to be had. However it was far too ambitious and ahead of its times and doesn't seem to have aged too well especially the technology part - for that matter it is the same case even with the current TV series. Delos Westworld is a futuristic theme park accessible via an hovercraft consisting of 3 worlds - Lawless Western, Roman and Medieval. It provides a real escape vacation to its visitors to have a time of their lives without fear of consequences. All the worlds are populated with sophisticated robots that look, talk and behave like humans where each are programmed a character and a narrative - but one rule abides them all - never harm a guest. The supervisor at the park's service facility starts to observe an increasing trend of malfunctioning robots leading to unprogrammed behavior by the hosts.Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) is visiting the theme park for the first time with his buddy John Blane (James Brolin) who has been there before. When a gunslinger (Yul Brynner) teases Peter at a saloon and eggs him on for a duel, after initial reluctance Peter draws his gun and kills the gunslinger. This ice breaker works well for Peter who starts to have fun along with James going from one adventure to another including another slaying of the gunslinger. When the robots unprogrammed behavior continues to rise, the management decides to stop further guests from coming in and plans to deal with it. Can it be contained or will it spiral out of control?The theme park expanding to other genre worlds like medieval and Roman is exciting to watch even while the primary focus still remains in the Westworld. Michael Crichton is one of the most acclaimed science fiction writers of this generation but not known for his subtlety, he takes this to whole new level by helming the director's seat for this one. His trademark mix of mainstream action and highly researched science fiction is highly evident and works again here. The production values has to be appreciated, it looks grand and adequate by all means when watching the movie but when you think back on the scale - more is shown than spent. The leads Richard Benjamin and James Brolin seems to be having the time of their lives with breezy performances while the eternal foreigner Yul Brynner does a menacing villain with his trademark bald head, walk and accent. What starts off as a fun adventure quickly turns into a slasher movie (scenario is setup right from the beginning though) but competently held together by a masterful performance by Yul Brynner. It is interesting to watch which at times makes you wonder the wishful thinking towards AI during the 70s itself (not to forget the HAL9000 of the 60s). What sets it apart from the TV series especially for me is there are no dreaming, feeling or hallucinating robots here - that just comes off as silly for me. An adventure you'd wish to be in!! Funny, intelligent, corny and what not!!
scott I came across this film completely by accident. I was searching through Amazon, found Westworld, thought the description was good, so I watched it. I had never heard of it and didn't realise it was a 70's film. At first I though it was very retro then realised it was in fact produced in 1973. I like 70's stuff so I gave it a chance.First off I have to state that its wrong to criticise old films based on contemporary standards but you could write a dissertation on how the 70's imagined the future. Its comical in so many ways and so bad in others. As a piece of entertainment its OK. I watched the whole film but was more stuck by the imagination of a future more than the actual story. The story itself is 'middle of the road' but at the time I imagine it was original and captured the imagination of a generation. I watched it, was entertained, but laughed more at how bad it was rather than being enthralled by a piece of movie magic.I first judged the film right at the beginning where a TV reporter is talking to people getting off the plane that are just returning from Westworld (Dalos). One guy bragged that he had killed 6 people (" I think they were people" he told the reporter). The next person the reporter spoke to was overly excited having just been to Romanworld "The Men!, the men!" she exclaimed. It quite clear straight away that this is a sex park for depraved pervs. Nothing more than sex tourism for the rich. Plus you get to 'kill without committing murder'. Who in their right mind wants to go to park so they can experience the 'thrill' of murder? This is not something I would pay to experience.It goes downhill from there. The two protagonists then check into their hotel in Westworld and come to realise the Western world they have come to experience includes authentic digs. They sleep in old beds with old sheets, drink old drinks with absolutely no modern comforts. I don't know why someone would pay $1000 a day for bed bugs and malnutrition just for the privilege of sex and murder. This pretty much sums up the whole film. The 'dead' robots are cleaned up every night, while the guest are asleep, and repaired. This strikes me as an extremely expensive way of doing things. Plus the engineer at the park says "These androids were designed by computers so we don't really know how they work" Wow, great! unleash a load of highly sophisticated machines with weapons amongst a load of fee paying guests.What made me laugh the most is when Peter sleeps with the robot prostitute. He is all timid and shy and afterwards thinks hes a stallion. It was a ROBOT PROSTITUTE! Not much conquest to speak of but we was very proud of himself. Because of this he then embraces the experience and come out of his shell.Peter does ask the question 'How is it that we have real guns?' where he is then informed that the guns don't fire at warm targets. These must be non-ricochet bullets then (geeze!). When the robot snake bites John, and the park engineers start to realise things are going wrong, do they close the Park? No, just bring the snake in so we can take a look at it. Health and Safety just doesn't exist in the 70's (kinda why I like it).When the situation worsens then park engineers shutdown the power to the park all it does is shutdown the engineers computers. We discover all the robots have batteries!! Plus, somehow, shutting down the power only locked the engineers in their control room, with no oxygen. Seriously! come on.I would love to continue poking holes in this but this is too long already.Overall, a laugh but not great.