While this movie was a pretty huge hit when it came out, it faded into obscurity pretty quickly. I remember catching a short bit of it on TV during my childhood, but I think I found it boring.
It's written and directed by Michael Crichton, and it's easy to view this as being a dry run for Jurassic Park. I actually found this one much more interesting though. Not much time is dedicated to it, but the idea of this type of complete freedom, and how people are willing to use it, is interesting. Clearly, a lot of time is devoted to sex, although the movie only implies that. Westworld itself seems to be about indulging violent fantasies. And the medieval setting is a cross between the others. It's fascinating that the three fantasy choices are just different balances between sex and violence.
This raised another issue to my mind. How satisfying would it be, knowing that you're spending your time with a bunch of robots? As nice as it might be to have someone talk to you, and feign interest perfectly, I would probably be kind of sad.
When things start breaking down, everything happens pretty quickly. I was surprised by how quickly the violence hits, and how it immediately escalates into some really dark places. It's not explicit violence, for the most part, but it seems like it went further than I was expecting.
There is a sense of horror to the last act, and it makes me think of a few other things. Night of the Living Dead may have influenced this one, with the unstoppable nature of the threat. The other thing is that The Terminator probably used this as an influence.
Still, a good movie, and entirely worth seeing. I probably wouldn't show it to kids, since they'd be alternately bored, or scared.
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