• Literally Anything: Movies
  • Film Index
  • The Criterion Collection
  • Collections
  • Academy Award Nominees
  • About
  • Links and Contacts
  LITERALLY ANYTHING: MOVIES

Updates

Westworld (1973)

12/15/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
A movie about a place where prostitution is legal and murder is encouraged is PG.  Thank you very much, 1970s.

DIRECTOR:  Michael Crichton

I watched this movie with my dad as a kid and I was obsessed.  But I haven't watched it since then.  After my wife and I binge-watched the HBO series, a moment of kismet landed a copy of the original movie in my lap.  So we watched it immediately after the finale and I have all of the feelings...

...not all of them good.

Westworld as a concept is actually very cool.  As a prototype to Crichton's later success Jurassic Park, the film offers what could be considered an intro to morality class about the nature of good v. evil and what the objective good could be considered.  It ponders whether man is inherently good or does he need evil without fully ever spelling it out.  I kind of love these hypothetical morality plays.  Twilight Zone almost exclusively dealt with this subgenre of science fiction and it plays really well in a television format.  I honestly think that's why the TV show works so well.  But the cool concept is a little bit of a double edged sword because a big budget science fiction story almost requires a plot to sell to large audiences.  And the plot itself is pretty cool!  The robots decide to murder everybody.  (30 somethings instantly flashed back to Itchy & Scratchy Land and now it allllllll makes sense.)   The problem is that the plot only really starts playing out in the last 20 to 30 minutes, which is criminally short for a 90 minute movie.  The rest of the movie is simply explaining the potential of a world full of murder.  It's a lot of "Wouldn't it be cool if..."?

Something that seems to be pretty consistent with a lot of '70s sci-fi is how cheap the movie looks.  Crichton wasn't really a proven director.  He never really became a proven director for the most part.  He was known for spinnin' a pretty solid yarn, but never showing what works and that might be Crichton's biggest flaw in this movie.  The set really screams "Reused studio backlot".  Considering that the park is meant to be the epitome of authenticity, the walls look like plywood and the details are nowhere to be found.  This movie somehow found its way into the canon of great science fiction, but it really looks like a made for TV movie at times.  This is an era where science ficiton isn't really seen as viable.  Remember, this is pre-Star Wars.  Its contemporaries are Logan's Run and The Omega Man, which also kind of look equally chincy.  But those movies don't base themselves on the premise of complete immersion.  

The casting is the third element of this movie.  Being the super cool eight year old that I was, I loved The Magnificent Seven.  Having Yul Brynner semi-reprise his role from this movie is a complete joy.  This really shouldn't work.  Brynner is barely in the film, but he steals the show despite his actual lack of lines.  He's super creepy and makes the film self-aware.  I get the vibe that Brynner is paid through the nose for being in this, which explains the budget and the other casting.  James Brolin somehow doesn't get lead billing for this movie because he's in a ton of it.  It would have been easier to have him be the protagonist, but that luxury comes down to Richard Benjamin.  I don't know if Crichton is trying to break the trope of the typical leading man, but putting Benjamin in this role is just bizarre.  His charisma is confusing and he just seems kind of mousey.  I applaud him if he's trying to break a trope, but it is too ambiguous if that is the case.

I loved this movie as a kid, but I don't think that this movie really holds up against time, especially knowing that the new show really just blows it out of the water.  A lot of this is on the budget and on Crichton as director.  This has the bare bones of greatness, but there's a lot of tweaking that needs to happen here.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Film is great.  It can challenge us.   It can entertain us.  It can puzzle us.  It can awaken us.  

    It can often do all these things at the same time.  

    I encourage all you students of film to challenge themselves with this film blog.  Watch stuff outside your comfort zone.  Go beyond what looks cool or what is easy to swallow.  Expand your horizons and move beyond your gut reactions.  

    We live in an era where we can watch any movie we want in the comfort of our homes.  Take advantage of that and explore.

    Author

    Mr. H has watched an upsetting amount of movies.  They bring him a level of joy that few things have achieved.

    Archives

    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Literally Anything: Movies
  • Film Index
  • The Criterion Collection
  • Collections
  • Academy Award Nominees
  • About
  • Links and Contacts