‘Westworld’ or — Welcome To The Machine?
I watched ‘Westworld’ (1973) many times as a kid so was very familiar with the movie but I hadn’t seen it in maybe over twenty years so was curious as to how it would stand up revisiting it last night, if it would at all.
And I’ll be honest that, for me, things didn’t get off to that great a start and as the memories came flooding back the memory also came back that, even as a kid, the first half hour of ‘Westworld’ is a little iffy: there’s some rather inert looking effects and portrayals of future-tech; Critchon’s direction can be a little flat, especially with light comedy; the premise is silly and it takes an HOUR before the robots go groovy on everyone’s asses and freak out. It also has that slightly drab, early 70’s sci-fi feel at times and I’ll admit I was getting a little bored. I just hope this picks up.
Fortunately ‘Westworld’ has two secret weapons up its sleeve in that it’s super short and laser focused so once the set-up has been established and the movie settles into itself the energy massively increases. And Critchon might not be a natural talent at breezy comedy but he’s absolutely superb at being-hunted-by-a-killer-robot shit. It must be that clinical approach of his. Either way, the last half hour of ‘Westworld’ is just great and one of the best relentlessly implacable machines hunting sequences there is obviously influencing not just ‘The Terminator’ but a whole load of slasher and stalker movies that followed.
Plus, the fact that ‘Westworld’ is only an hour and twenty eight minutes long means, like an out of control robot, it get away with murder. It’s so compact and concise. It has a simple premise, puts the necessary pieces in place then nudges them all into motion and it is satisfying watching events cascade. Critchon certainly knows construction and configuration. So it might have a somewhat sluggish opening but the entire and overall film feels taut and tight and lingers in the memory as an exciting experience.
Oh and something I never noticed as a kid is there’s hardly any footage of Roman World, and last night night I figured out why. After all, notice the woman being interviewed at the start after having just returned from Roman World. Just how many Roman robots did she have sex with and did she do anything else during her stay there? I think the answer is as many as she could and all the time, certainly going by the grin on her face. There’s a reason we don’t see Roman World until things go tits up and that’s because it would be nothing but non-stop fucking. You don’t get middle-aged fantasy films like this anymore.
