On Location with Westworld

The camera goes on the set to film the making of Westworld (1973), the first directorial effort of medical student turned novelist/screenwriter, thirty year old Michael Crichton who is enjoying the process if only because it is so different than the solitary function of the screenwriter. The movie takes place in a futuristic world where bored, wealthy adults can live out their fantasies of living in the Wild West, medieval Europe or Imperial Rome without repercussion at a high tech amusement park called Delos, where the “actors” at the three theme parks are robots programmed to give pleasure in meeting those fantasies. The “injured” or “killed” robots are repaired overnight to be used again the following day. While Crichton discusses the possibility of such amusement parks actually existing, stars Yul Brynner and Richard Benjamin discuss their parts in the story, which is basically an old fashioned adventure with a modern twist.