BW Media Spotlight

Science Fiction and Westerns have gone together for a long time now. It makes sense when you think about it. Exploring outer space is a journey to unknown territory filled with unknown dangers. The same thing happened when the pioneers started moving westward, only in sci-fi you don’t have to be a pest to the locals. Both adult and kids stories have used this connection as it’s a great source of action and drama. I grew up with Adventures Of The Galaxy Rangers, Saber Rider & The Star Sheriffs, Bravestarr, and The Wild West C.O.W.boys of Moo Mesa (though that last one was “sci-fi” in concept and weapons only). Even Japan has made that connection with works like Trigun. You can have fun with it, like Cowboys And Aliens or get serious with shows like Westworld, which brings us to tonight’s review.

Before it was a television series on HBO Westworld was a 1973 movie by Michael Crichton. While he’s known for having movies made from his books, most notably The Andromeda Strain and the original Jurassic Park (the sequel made just to make a sequel movie…that ignored the majority of the book so what was the point of making him do it?), this was an original-to-movies story that Crichton himself made his directorial debut on. The movie would go on to have a sequel called Futureworld (which I’m now adding to the Finally Watched list) and a TV series…not the HBO series that came later but Beyond Westworld, in which a mad scientist decides to use the robots in his world domination scheme…so little if any ties to the movie. I saw maybe one episode of HBO’s series during a preview week and by then the story had past me…also it was during a night of insomnia, so either way I didn’t get the best look at that show. I do know enough to feel confident in answering one question though. If you’re a fan of HBO’s series should you watch Crichton’s original movie?

On the one hand this trailer almost does the plot summary for me. On the other hand it also gives away like half the film. 1970s trailers.

RELEASE DATE: 1973 (my birth year)

RELEASED BY: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

RUNTIME: 1 hour 28 minutes (closer to 2 hours TV time–I saw it on the Movies! channel)

RATING: PG (TV-14)

STARRING: James Brolin, Richard Benjamin, Yul Brynner, and Alan Oppenheimer

SCREENWRITER/DIRECTOR: Michael Crichton (Less than five names? No wonder movies are so expensive today.)

GROSS REVENUE: unfortunately IMDB doesn’t have that info; Wikipedia claims it hit $4 million in the original release and more in re-release

ESTIMATED BUDGET: $1,250,000

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