Story Movie
The Western World is one of three giant theme parks built on the remains of American nature. There is also the Roman World and the Medieval World. For $1,000 a day, tourists can entertain themselves to their heart's content. The robots that inhabit these amusement parks can be raped, killed, loved, shot, and chopped up with swords. You can even befriend them. They never fight back and have no emotions. But suddenly, something breaks in the well-oiled mechanism of the attraction. A computer malfunction spreads like the plague. The robots begin a rebellion.
Review 4K Movie
Amusement parks. Places where adults can feel like children again, and children can find themselves in a different, fairy-tale world that lives by its own rules and laws. Amusement parks are places where you can have a great time and not think about the fact that somewhere out there, creditors, your wife with two children, and workers whom you haven't paid for months are waiting for you. But such amusement parks, despite the fact that both children and their parents go there, are designed for little boys and girls who have just started school. What about adults, uncles and aunts who are wise with life experience? There is a solution, and its name is “Western World.”
An alternative reality. Scientists have learned to create intelligent machines that are virtually indistinguishable from living people. And how do you think those in power have dealt with this discovery? Perhaps intelligent machines are used in jobs involving serious risk? Or are they used by the army for its own purposes? You know, fighter pilots or artillery gunners, after all, intelligent machines can calculate coordinates better than any human. But no, intelligent robots have become something of an amusement park attraction for rich men and women. That's the truth of life! And you know, I'm willing to believe it. After all, what else are scientists' inventions for, if not for the amusement of ordinary citizens? And so, two close friends come to the Westworld amusement park to have fun, enjoy themselves, and shoot at robots that look so much like real people. After all, machines can't fight back... Or can they?
Oh, they can, and how! And even though this film was released long before such films as “The Terminator,” “The Screamers,” and “Blade Runner,” science fiction writers were already predicting a bleak future for humanity if intelligent machines suddenly appeared in our lives. It is difficult to say whether this is related to the “uncanny valley” theory put forward by Masahiro Mori, or whether it is simply that people with vivid imaginations were frightened by the very idea of intelligent beings created from metal and plastic. Who knows? But anyway, in any, or almost any, work of fiction involving intelligent machines, synthetic biorobots, or just overgrown fighting chickens, sooner or later everything started to go downhill, and intelligent machines began to chase their creators in order to “thank” them for giving them life. And our guest today, for obvious reasons, is no exception. After all, everything goes well at first. The two main characters behave like children who have found themselves at Disneyland for the first time. They want to try everything these attractions have to offer, whether it's courtesans, a fight in a saloon, or a cowboy duel with a notorious villain. But a little later, the smiles on the characters' faces are replaced by genuine horror when they realize that the intelligent machines have experienced a program failure and Asimov's rules of robotics no longer apply to them. This is where the most interesting part begins.
And yes, an attentive reader will ask me why this film received such a low rating and why it is not at the top of the list. It's very simple. The fact is that Michael Crichton, who is the director and screenwriter of this film, had a lot of interesting ideas, many of which he was unable to fully realize. Take, for example, the only thing that distinguishes a living person from a robot, namely the palms of the hands. It's an interesting idea, and I already have a psychological thriller in mind, where the main character doesn't know who to trust and who not to trust, and as a result of a tragic mistake, he may kill an innocent person. Hello, Screamers . But alas, this idea doesn't really take off. Yes, robots can be distinguished by their palms, but if this isn't played up in any way, then maybe the average viewer doesn't need to know about it? Or here's another example. Long before the robots went mad, a man became the sheriff of the “western world.” And not just any man, but a man prone to obesity, nearsighted, and extremely awkward. This is an interesting plot twist, and I was curious to see what would happen to the hero next, but at one point, everyone suddenly forgets about the sheriff. There was a hero who was given a certain amount of screen time, and then he was gone. And in fact, there are plenty of similar plot lines in the film that come to nothing, and it is precisely because of them that the film did not gain such popularity, although it is loved by many. Proof of this is the recently released “The Lego Movie,” in which a reference to Michael Crichton's film became almost a plot device, and rumors that Hollywood is planning to shoot a remake starring Russell Crowe cannot be dismissed. So yes, this film is loved, and God knows there are reasons to love it. It is funny, exciting, and at times somewhat tense and frightening. Ultimately, Yul Brynner playing a killer robot is quite a sight to behold. Therefore, I would say that if you are interested in the western genre in general and genre experiments in particular, then pay attention to Westworld, but remember that the film was released in 1973, so you shouldn't expect impressive special effects.
