FNDF: 2001 and Westworld

FNDF, you say? Bound, have you gone mad? Are you making up acronyms simply to generate confusion and bring this fine blog into ruin? The answer may surprise you.

Maybe.

Or possibly I’ve just started a little tradition for myself: a tradition of a Friday-night double-feature! That’s right, years old films or at least nothing recent, rented on DVD (or, heaven forbid, VHS) and viewed with a company of comrades. Each week will purportedly have a theme, and this past one was “robots run amok.”

The films for this week were 2001: A Space Odyssey and the lesser-known Westworld. Who’d have thought that before Jurassic Park, the directorial claim-to-fame of Michael Crichton would be a movie about a cowboy robot Yul Brynner?

Spoilers follow for Westworld but not for 2001.

I had never seen 2001 before and was perhaps expecting a slightly less artsy film. This isn’t a slam, but I think the problem is that it’s been parodied so many times (I didn’t keep count but I think it approached half a dozen major scenes) that going into it someone like me has no clue what it’s actually about.

2001 is about sweeping shots, taking its good time with storytelling, being scientifically correct to a level that’s refreshing and beautiful, and having positively haunting scoring, almost to the point of discomfort. It’s got long stretches with no dialogue that still held the attention of a room of rowdy individuals fairly well, and when there is dialogue it’s tightly written by necessity. If you’re in a contemplative mood, want to have a glass or two of your favorite beverage, and watch something that’s challenging but entertaining nonetheless, 2001 would be a good choice. Granted, I can’t really think of the last time I was in a mood like that, and there is something weird about going, “hm, I’m in a contemplative mood, Kubrick would be good!”

Seriously, though, for someone born way after the film came out, I wasn’t disappointed in its quality–2001 has withstood the test of time admirably. If you’re like me and you’ve never seen it, it’s aged extremely well and if you like sci-fi it’s worth seeing just to note how it’s influenced the genre.

Westworld is a little more of an oddity; I first heard of it through some dudes I worked with. My original plan was to also view Spartacus (as in the internet meme) but it was sadly unavailable. After some hunting to try and go for a sci-fi double feature, I admitted Westworld with a smile.

The basic premise of Westworld is there’s a futuristic tourist resort with a lot of sexbots who don’t mind when the patrons shoot them and/or sex them up. And everything peachy until everything breaks down simultaneously. This has several predictable responses and several not so predictable ones.

Predictable responses:

1. Vacation becomes less fun.
2. People die en masse.
3. Things don’t get put back in order by the end of the film.
4. Similarities to Jurassic Park come out of the woodwork.

Not-so predictable reponses:

1. The scientists shut off power to try and deactivate the robots and are stunned that they have batteries.
2. Furthermore, the scientists cannot get the power back on, the doors to the rooms cannot be opened, and are apparently airtight. They all suffocate.
3. COWBOY ROBOT YUL BRYNNER INEXORABLY PURSUES THE PROTAGONIST AND TRIES TO KILL HIM.

This last one should be stressed as the highlight of the film and the reason to continue watching. Yul Brynner stalks the unnamed main-character vacationer like a cowboy Pepe Le Peu, to positively comic ends. Unfortunately, the film also doesn’t have much to go on other than this hence my decision to spoil almost the entire thing.

It was enjoyable, I’ll say that much. But I can’t really endorse renting Westworld unless you’re a big fan of strange sci-fi or you really like the thought of a maniac cowboy robot Yul Brynner.

Next week: I move forward past 1973 and away from America to South Korean, with The Host and A Tale of Two Sisters.

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