Control Was Always the Illusion

Read Time:7 Minute, 38 Second

MOVIE REVIEWS
Westworld [Limited Edition]
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Genre: Science Fiction, Thriller, Western
Year Released: 1973, Arrow Video 4K 2026
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director(s): Michael Crichton
Writer(s): Michael Crichton
Cast: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Dick Van Patten, Linda Gaye Scott
Where to Watch: available now, order your copy here: www.arrowvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: What happens to make-believe when the safeguards put in place to maintain it suddenly stop working? WESTWORLD begins with luxury and the idea that anything is possible, and then steadily takes each of those things away, to the point where the very idea of being in control starts to seem like an illusion. Michael Crichton’s first time directing a film doesn’t spend any time preparing the audience. Delos is shown as a place for rich people to play, a place where harm has supposedly been done away with. Visitors can drink, kill, have sex, boss people around, or act out fantasies without any trouble, as the robot ‘hosts’ are made to take the harm and just reset. The offer is deliberately appealing, and Crichton knows the film will only work if people first accept the attraction. WESTWORLD doesn’t warn you right away; it invites you to come in.

Richard Benjamin and James Brolin act as stand-ins for the audience, looking at everything with wonder and curiosity. Their relationship is simple but works well. Brolin’s John sees Delos as a normal luxury, but Benjamin’s Peter feels both impressed and concerned. This difference establishes the film's main problem by leaving you too comfortable, making you unable to see what is happening. Being familiar with something makes you less cautious. The park doesn’t seem dangerous, because it has been designed not to be.

The best thing Crichton does here is focus on the ideas. The rules of Delos are shown early on, sometimes directly, but always for a reason. Guns can’t hurt people. Robots only respond within what they’ve been programmed to do. Safety features are in place. Workers in the park watch everything. The issue isn’t that these systems aren’t there; it’s that the people running them trust the information they receive more than what is actually happening before their eyes.

When things start to go wrong, Crichton doesn’t let them get worse quickly; for as long as he can, he plays it out by offering microfractures. Small errors are ignored. Strange behavior is explained away. The film’s criticism of companies' lack of care is strong, particularly for the time it was made (almost as if it was looking into the future). The irony is that the modern remake of this, which was turned into an HBO series, was light-years behind in showing how dangerous companies without guardrails are. Delos doesn’t close because it would be troublesome, costly, or even embarrassing. This decision causes people to die, and WESTWORLD makes sure the audience doesn’t forget that carelessness, not rebellion, is what sets the disaster in motion.

Yul Brynner’s Gunslinger is still one of the most remembered villains in the genre for a good reason. His acting is based on an uncomfortable stillness, dressed in black, and he moves with machine-like certainty. He doesn’t show emotion. He doesn’t mock people. He follows. The lack of expression is the point. This isn’t a robot finding it’s aware. It’s a machine doing what it’s meant to do, without any limits. It’s impossible not to think of later villains that pay homage to this role. Brynner’s presence has a uniquely traditional seriousness.

The last part of WESTWORLD mostly leaves behind telling the stories of a group of people, in favour of a long chase, and although this choice limits the development of ideas, it makes the tension stronger. Crichton wanted this part to work almost like a silent film, and the control he shows works. The way the film sounds becomes important. Footsteps sound loud, machines make machine sounds. Silence goes on until it’s unbearable. The park, once full of luxury, becomes an empty maze meant to show how easily people can be harmed. WESTWORLD has flaws, certainly. The park’s own rules don’t really hold up when you think about them; the weapons, the fighting, and the dangers of the environment all pose problems the movie doesn’t address. People in the park are flung around, cut with knives, and generally put into terrible situations well before anyone admits there’s a problem with the place.

What makes WESTWORLD more than just a new idea is how it feels, how it seems to know what people will do. The movie doesn’t tell us about what tech will be invented, but it gets human behaviour exactly right, and in a troubling way. We trust machines until we don’t. We ignore warnings because, on paper, everything is okay. No one wants to be responsible, so the blame goes higher and higher, until no one is responsible. The movie’s point isn’t that machines are dangerous, but that people stop using their own judgment when a system makes life easier.

As a science fiction movie, WESTWORLD is in a special place, moving from the old science fiction stories that warned us to the corporate thrillers about technology that came later. It doesn’t have the depth of the works it inspired, but it makes up for it by being so sure of itself. When you watch it now, WESTWORLD might seem small, or even old-fashioned, but its ideas are still very alarming. The park is safer than the real world. The machines obey. The system is watched. But none of that is important when money and pride get in the way of being careful. That idea hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s become more true.

WESTWORLD isn’t perfect, but it’s important. It knows that horror isn’t just about robots fighting back, but about systems designed to let people avoid taking responsibility. When those systems break down, what’s left isn’t chaos, it’s the truth. The dream is over, and the guests have to face what they were willing to do when they thought nothing could hurt them.

Bonus Materials:
4K ULTRA HD LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
Brand new 4K restoration from the original negative by Arrow Films
4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
Original restored lossless 4-channel stereo, 2.0 stereo, and 1.0 mono audio options
Optional remixed 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Brand new audio commentary by filmmaker and film historian Daniel Kremer
Cowboy Dreams, a newly filmed conversation between actor Richard Benjamin and producer/screenwriter Larry Karaszewski
At Home on the Range, a brand new video interview with actor James Brolin
HollyWorld: Producing Westworld, a brand new video interview with producer Paul N. Lazarus III
Sex, Death and Androids, a brand new appreciation of the film by author and film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
On Location with Westworld, an archival behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film from 1973
Beyond Westworld, the 48-minute pilot episode of the 1980 follow-up television series
Theatrical trailer
Image gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper
Collectors’ perfect-bound booklet featuring new writing on the film by David Michael Brown, Priscilla Page, Paul Anthony Nelson, and Abbey Bender
Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Arik Roper
Six postcard-sized artcards

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[photo courtesy of ARROW VIDEO, MVD ENTERTAINMENT]

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