Westworld (1973)

Genre

Sci-Fi | Thriller | Western

Director

Michael Crichton

Country

USA

Cast

Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Norman Bartold, Alan Oppenheimer, Victoria Shaw, Dick Van Patten, Linda Scott, Steve Franken, Michael Mikler, Terry Wilson, Majel Barrett, Anne Randall, Nora Marlowe

Storyline

In a near future where vacationers can experience life in the themed period chosen - Medievalworld, Romanworld and Westworld -, Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blane (James Brolin) find themselves being stalked by a rogue robot gunslinger (Yul Brynner).

Opinion

A lot of year before he wrote "Jurassic Park", Michael Crichton constructed his first amusement park of the future and brought it to life in "Westworld", this incredibly gripping and tense film that effectively blends sci-fi and western. 

The story, that revolves around people paying to live in a different time period and things going awfully bad, isn't by any mean perfect - the reason why people can't be harmed in these worlds is quite weak, and there are a lot of plot holes -, but it sure is clever, engaging and suspenseful, and it easily manages to hold the attention until the very end.

Michael Crichton who wrote the screenplay and made his (impressive) directorial debut with this film, put together cowboys and robots, and delivered a film that has great and believable main characters, plenty of action moving just at the right pace, a great musical score that fits both the western and the robotic setting, and a few effects that are dated but still work well.

Other than being very entertaining, the film also explores the dark side of technology very well for its time. Of course now it feels dated, but it still is a hell of a ride.

Now forget about all of that because the best is yet to come. I'm talking about the cast. Both Richard Benjamin and James Brolin do a good job portraying the two cowboy-wannabe friends that find become preys of the androids, but easily stealing the show is Yul Brynner. He is simply spectacular, creepy and very menacing as the robot gunslinger that just won't stop coming back.