COWBOY BUILDERS

MORE THAN 50 YEARS AFTER ITS RELEASE, WESTWORLD REMAINS A CHILLING WARNING ABOUT HUMANITY'S FAITH IN TECHNOLOGY. WE DISCUSS ITS LEGACY WITH STAR RICHARD BENJAMIN

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WHEN MICHAEL CRICHTON began developing Westworld in the early ’70s, he soon realised its onscreen potential. The bestselling author, already known for novels such as The Andromeda Strain, recognised that the premise was tailor-made for cinema: a lavish futuristic resort where wealthy tourists could live out their fantasies inside immersive historical worlds populated by lifelike androids. Guests could duel gunslingers, seduce saloon girls, or swagger through ancient Rome without fear of consequences. The robots serving them were designed to obey strict programming and could never harm a human being. Until, of course, they could.

Released in 1973, Westworld starred Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as urban professionals seeking escapist thrills at the Delos resort. For Benjamin, the appeal of the role mirrored his own passions. “I was a kid growing up in New York City, loving westerns and science fiction,” he tells SFX. “But never in my wildest dreams did I think, how am I going to be in a western? Then my agent sent me this script, and I thought, ‘Holy smokes!’ The two things I thought would never happen were suddenly in one movie. So I just jumped at it.”

FUTUREWORLD

Benjamin plays the somewhat timid Peter Martin, who accompanies his more adventurous friend John Blane (Brolin) to Delos. The resort offers several themed environments, including Roman World and Medieval World, but the pair opt for the dusty frontier setting of Western World. There they encounter saloons, outlaws and gunfighters, all convincingly embodied by android hosts designed to behave like characters from classic Hollywood westerns. “Just like my character in the film, I got to do all the things that I dreamed of as a boy: shoot guns, draw against a gunslinger, ride horses. The whole thing was more than fun; it was every boy’s fantasy come true,” he says.