Westworld (film)

Westworld
Theatrical release poster by Neal Adams
Directed byMichael Crichton
Written byMichael Crichton
Produced byPaul N. Lazarus III
Starring
CinematographyGene Polito
Edited byDavid Bretherton
Music byFred Karlin
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • August 17, 1973 (1973-08-17)
Running time
88 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.2 million
Box office$10 million

Westworld is a 1973 American science fiction Western film written and directed by Michael Crichton. The film follows guests visiting an interactive amusement park containing lifelike androids that unexpectedly begin to malfunction. The film stars Yul Brynner as an android in the amusement park, with Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.

The film was from an original screenplay by Crichton and was his first theatrical film as director, after one TV film. It was also the first feature film to use digital image processing to pixellate photography to simulate an android point of view. Critical reception was largely positive by contemporary and retrospective critics and Westworld was nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Saturn awards.

Westworld was followed by a sequel, Futureworld (1976), and a short-lived television series, Beyond Westworld (1980). A television series based on the film debuted in 2016 on HBO.