Good start, but then it gets ruined

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Michael Crichton wrote and directed this classic 1970s tale of a theme park gone awry about 20 years before he went back to that same well for "Jurassic Park." In this film an enormous theme park has been created the recreates an old west setting populated entirely by robots where visitors can realistically and safely play out their cowboy fantasies (there's also a Roman themed world and and a medieval themed world). Richard Benjamin and James Brolin play two visitors to Westworld who are looking forward to strapping on sixguns, taking on robot gunslingers, and other old west clichés. Things begin to go wrong when some of the robots start to ignore their programming, which at first is damsels rebuffing the male guests and eventually becomes robot villains trying to kill the guests. Benjamin is well cast as the dopey visitor playing cowboy like a 10-year old, who instead finds himself unexpectedly fighting for his life, but casting Yul Brynner as the central robotic gunslinger villain is brilliant. Brynner donning a black hat nicely recalls his iconic role as Chris in "The Magnificent Seven." A main weaknesses of the film is the cutaway scenes to the Roman and medieval worlds, which are not all that interesting and seem only to exist to widen the theme park world, which wasn't really necessary, and to hint that something is going awry, which could easily have been done within the old west setting. Another weakness of the film is that it's not all that suspenseful or exciting, which is surprising since Crichton got much better at suspense with "The Great Train Robbery" and "Runaway," although is nowhere in the same league compared to the suspense in Spielberg's film version of Crichton's "Jurassic Park" (the T-Rex scene when the power first goes out in the park is an under-appreciated modern masterpiece of suspense), though in all fairness, few directors compare to Spielberg when it comes to suspense. Despite those deficiencies, Westworld's central premise of a massive interactive theme park is irresistible and that alone is enough to carry the film. When you top that off with casting Yul Brynner, there's no way you can't like this film. Oh, and the film also features an awesome 1970s style full-body flame stunt, which I really wish TV and films would do more of today (along with more characters getting trapped in quicksand or getting locked in deadly hot saunas).

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!!

I've watched this 1973 version (again) AFTER watching the 2016 series.And, while it now feels like a 70's-style parody on the 2016 series, I still think somehow it is stronger in its storytelling. You can almost feel the amazement of the Westworld visitors. Fun to watch, ESPECIALLY for those that weren't around in '73 when this cult classic was released.Part of the fun is the way the future machines and computes are pictured. And these sentences are only added since I seem to be obliged to submit 10 sentences or more for a review which is a bit strange since less is more. Why use too many words when you can express what you think in three sentences. Advice: go see this. Especially if you did not see it before and if your interest it raised because you enjoyed the 2016 HBO series.

I wanted to see it before I get into the new television series of the same name based on this. This is totally amazing film, especially coming from the early 70s. Obviously everyone understands the cowboy culture, because it was from the past. But mixing it with the future was the real beauty here. The robots and all, I don't think all the people from that era understood it clearly, but surely they have got entertained. So now, people do have knowledge about the things what in this film was talked, but still this film is effective despite the technology differs.No doubt this film was the source of inspiration for many films that came after it. That's what I was remembering while watching that so many titles popped in my mind. So hats off to the creator of this. But looking at its rating and reviews, seems an under-rated and under-recognised film. The story was kept simple, not making any complication, either technical terms or characters and the story developments.The two friends head for an amusement part where they can have the real wild wild west holiday by drawing the arms against the robots. But one day when something goes wrong, one of them who got stranded there, looks for a way out and how he makes it told in the remaining narration. It does not give any reason why malfunction happened. Because that's how things happen right, like when a plane crash, we investigate what caused it later. So in this, it was just focused on a disaster, but the first half of was different which was more an introduction to what kind of world the story sets in.If 'Star Wars' is the father of all the space films and 'The Lord of the Rings' for all the fantasy films, then this must be the father of all the dystopian films that we see in the present cinema. Certainly it is not a masterpiece, but the idea of the film plot stands alone. It opened the door for the similarly themed films like 'Night of the Living Dead' did for the zombie films. A must, must see film, particularly by the film fanatics.8/10