In the Crichton film, the tourists were the (mostly) likable protagonists. This reframing goes hand in hand with a fundamental shift in moral perspective. The human beings of Westworld are, to a considerable degree, supporting players in a drama of android self-actualization. The series still asks the classic question of what might happen if our creations turned against us, yet it is more interested in the consequences for them than in those for us. HBO’s Westworld takes this narrative and inverts it by telling the story largely from the perspective of the androids. But the robots inevitably glitched, and, led by a mechanized gunslinger played by Yul Brynner, they began massacring the tourists. (It was, among other things, an almost perfect prototype for Crichton’s subsequent, vastly more successful Jurassic Park franchise.) Tourists visited a robotic theme park based on the Old West to enjoy safe, guilt-free versions of shoot-outs, saloon altercations, and assignations with prostitutes. ![]() ![]() The 1973 movie followed a decidedly conventional monsters-run-amok plotline. Westworld’s goal is more idiosyncratic but no less daring: a provocative exploration of creators and their creations at the dawn of artificial consciousness. * HBO has excelled at intricate world building, whether true to life ( The Wire) or fantastical ( Game of Thrones). ![]() Created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, a frequent collaborator with his better-known brother, Christopher ( Memento, The Dark Knight), the 10-episode premier season debuts on October 2 and is further evidence of the boundary-challenging ambitions of televised cinema. What would happen if or when the day came that humankind created an intelligence so powerful that it turned against us? It’s a scenario that’s been visualized a thousand ways: with robots ( The Terminator), with computers ( 2001: A Space Odyssey), with human-animal hybrids ( The Island of Doctor Moreau)-even, in the case of Disney’s (and yes, going further back, Goethe’s) “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” with animated brooms.īut the scenario has rarely been developed with the sophistication and ingenuity on display in HBO’s upcoming series Westworld, a cunning variation on-and subversion of-the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name. In the two centuries since Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s monster first uttered these rebellious words to his maker in the pages of Frankenstein, this terrible reversal has captivated cultural imagination. “You are my creator, but I am your master obey!”
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