Westworld: Yul Brynner is our new Robot Overlord on Popcorn Roulette
You know how in Jurassic Park, Dr. Jeff Goldblum says “If The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists”? Well, um…
Welcome to Westworld! A vast amusement park where human replicants act out scenes from the Wild West! You can do whatever you want with these robots! Our staff won’t think the clientele acting on their innermost fantasies with robots is creepy! Because it isn’t! It says so right in the training video! Whatever you’re doing doesn’t look like anything to us…
“Westworld: Where nothing could possibly go wrong!” That’s our actual motto! Listen, fella… I’m not trying to sell tickets to this Icarus friend of yours. I’m selling to you. Did I fail to mention there’s an evil murder-bot that tries to murder you once a day? And he looks just like Yul Brynner!
Jeffrey Norman Bourbeau joins me for pizza from the beach. We look back at a world on the edge of the golden age of the video arcade and marvel over how Michael Crichton thought the future looked a lot more like Disney’s Hall of Presidents were riding the 3:10 to Yuma. Before you ask, I’m hiding behind Teddy Roosevelt. That man took an assassin’s bullet to the chest, gave a speech, then went to see a doctor about having the pesky bullet removed. Before the robot revolution comes, I’m making sure I’m friends with the Autobot that transforms into a bull moose.
Yes, Westworld was shot in beautiful Technicolor. This confused me when Jeff brought it up because ’73 is late for technicolor. Whether technicolor looked better in the 70s was a moot point. It required three times the amount of film (splitting the image between three primary colors) and required blinding illumination to offset the darker film. The result was very expensive compared to more modern color film alternatives.
It makes sense, though, why Chriton filmed Westworld in technicolor. If you want to look and feel like the classic 50s and 60s Westerns, Technicolor will get you there. Since Technicolor was filmed in black and silver, Jeff is right that there might be an original black & white print version of Westworld kicking around. In retropect, I think it’s likely he saw publicity and reference photos, taken at the same angle as the camera during film shoots. But I couldn’t say for certain.
For an interesting essay on Technicolor, see The Atlantic’s “How Technicolor Changed Storytelling”
