7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.7 |
An 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.
Starring: Yul Brynner, Richard Benjamin, James Brolin, Norman Bartold, Alan OppenheimerWestern | 100% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital Mono
German: Dolby Digital Mono
Italian: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono (Spain)
English SDH, French, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Spanish, Korean
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
As a storyteller, the late Michael Crichton was as prescient as he was popular. A visit to Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean inspired Westworld, which Crichton made as his debut film, after he'd first tried to write it as a novel and decided the story would only work visually. The result has become a sci-fi classic, despite its limited budget, dated effects and retro aesthetic. Stories of technology run amuck were nothing new, and the theme has never lost its popularity, as exemplified by such franchises as Battlestar Galactica and the Terminator series (whose central figure owes much to Westworld's implacable Gunslinger). But it was Crichton's inspiration to have the technology of Westworld revolt from performing extraneous leisure functions. In the classic scenario, the rebellious machines perform essential tasks like manning a defense perimeter or controlling a nuclear arsenal, and they decide to take over. In Westworld, the machines play dress-up and make-believe, and they simply decide they've had enough. The brilliance of Crichton's device becomes especially evident when you look at how he recycled it twenty years later in Jurassic Park , another tale of a theme park plagued by malfunction. "If The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down", says Dr. Ian Malcolm, "the pirates don't eat the tourists." They don't eat them in Westworld either, but other equally unpleasant thing happen. Crichton foresaw that technology would be pressed into service to deliver to consumers a kind of ersatz stimulation as daily life became more monotonous, alienated and routine. He wanted to explore—metaphorically, if not literally—the risks of that transition, just as Malcolm warned against the unpredictability of the genetic experiments in Jurassic Park. Being a populist entertainer, he slipped his questions between the lines of a lively, often amusing and always engrossing parody of a theme park for the rich.
A small controversy has arisen regarding Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray as a result of screencap comparisons posted by another site between the Warner disc and one issued last year in region B by Aventi, which is darker, has less intense colors and reflects different geometry that applies a slight squeeze to the image, cropping the top and bottom in the process (but adding a slight amount at the right edge). I don't have the Aventi Blu-ray, but I do have MGM's original DVD release of Westworld from 1998, which is now out of print. It reflects the same geometry shown on the Warner Blu-ray, but zooms the image slightly on all four sides, which was a common practice in the early days of DVD. (I have included two DVD screencaps, upscaled to 1080p, for comparison; they are at positions 6 and 28, immediately below their Blu-ray counterparts.) Having reviewed all three sets of images, and based on my own familiarity with the film, my conclusion is that the Warner Blu-ray reflects the accurate geometry and probably the most accurate framing. With respect to color and contrast, the issue is harder to resolve. I have never considered DVD presentations to be a reliable guide, and neither the director nor the DP is alive to tell us their intent. Having watched the Warner disc, I can affirm that it features excellent black levels, natural-looking grain and strong colors from a palette that seems appropriate to Crichton's effort to make the "Westworld" resort resemble a theme park derived from a movie. The transfer's only observable flaws are a lack of fine detail in long shots (which is probably a source-based issue) and a layer of video noise that is readily observable in a handful of shots but then disappears when each problematic shot concludes. (I have already read at least one complaint about so-called "DNR". If true "DNR" had been applied, there'd be no video noise to see.) In the absence of an authoritative sign-off, purchasers are free to choose the look that suits their taste—indeed, they're always free to make that choice (assuming, of course, that they have the hardware to play a disc locked for region B). I would simply point out that, according to the same site that posted the screenshot comparisons, Westworld runs almost four minutes shorter on the Aventi disc, for reasons that are nowhere explained. My own call is to go with the transfer where the technical crew appears to have gotten the basic geometry right. That's the Warner disc.
According to IMDb, Westworld was released in the four-track stereo process that was later supplanted by Dolby Surround. If Warner had access to the original elements, it would certainly account for the richness and dynamic range of the Blu-ray's DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, which is astonishingly good for a film of this vintage. The sound effects editing on Westworld is frequently subpar, especially when the action switches into slow motion, but the score by Fred Karlin (The Sterile Cuckoo) sounds superb, with a clear sense of stereo separation and a wide dynamic range with a solid bottom end. Although there is little in the way of noteworthy surround activity, the mono surround channel provides an expansive sense of presence for the score. The dialogue remains firmly anchored to the front and is always clear.
One aspect of Westworld that always left me dubious was the willingness of its guests to let themselves be observed by the park staff while engaging in the theme parks' elaborate charades, including sexual relations with robots in a variety of fantasy scenarios that most people presumably wouldn't want to share with strangers. This time around, though, I realized that Crichton's instincts were once again ahead of his time. If a theme park like Westworld existed today (and it still may be built, as least in the world of remakes), there would be an additional class of guest besides those paying the contemporary equivalent of $1000 a day. For these guests, all expenses would be paid in exchange for a waiver allowing their entire stay to be filmed and broadcast on a reality series. Crichton might not have imagined the specifics of Westworld: The Jersey Shore, but the germ of the idea is right there in his park design. Highly recommended.
2016-2022
Director's Cut
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