Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Michael Crichton, Yul Brynner, and Westworld

who loves ya, baby?

Rachel Lucas posted an article about new robot technology that mimics human facial expressions. The picture provided made me instantly think of Yul Brynner in Westworld.



One of her commentors mentioned Kevin Spacey. Touche`. I'm going to stick with Yul Brynner though because, along with the appearance, the technology made me think of Westworld. Besides, it's a generation thing. Back in the day you couldn't look at a bald guy without instantly thinking of either Yul Brynner or Telly Savalas.

Plot summary from Imdb:

A amusement park for rich vacationers. The park provides its customers a way to live out their fantasies through the use of robots that provide anything they want. Two of the vacationers choose a wild west adventure. However, after a computer breakdown, they find that they are now being stalked by a rogue robot gun-slinger.
This was one of my favorite movies growing up. I was always particularly fond of movies and books having to do with the "Wild West", and then to add rogue robots into the mix? You damn skippy.

An interesting side note, this movie was written and directed by Michael Crichton. I didn't know that until I looked it up today. The man obviously didn't look at amusement parks the same way as most people. They seemed to have a habit of turning bad in his stories. Unfortunately, he passed away earlier this month. He left behind an impressive body of work.

Here is a scene from Westworld. Keep in mind that only James Brolin's (I know, get over it), and Richard Benjaman's characters are human. The rest are robots.



Also, here is an extended trailer. This is probably the better video, but it is set not to allow embeds.

If you enjoy Westerns and Science Fiction then I recommend this movie. The effects obviously don't hold up, the movie was made in 1973, but the story is solid.

Template provided by Webtalks