The Cinema of Michael Crichton

[macintoshuser]

After writing a few threads on Crichton's novels on Twitter, I wanted to start a thread about Michael Crichton's directorial work and the best place to start is WESTWORLD: his theatrical debut. A moderate success, the film quickly became something of a cult classic. It's not a film as highly regarded as it ought to be. I'll try to keep my thoughts on the film as concise as possible, but in short, I believe this is one of the greatest science-fiction films of all time. 

MC: It [Westworld] didn’t work as a novel, and I think the reason for that is the rather special structure of this particular story. It’s about an amusement park built to represent three different sorts of worlds: a Western world, a Medieval world and a Roman world. The actual detailing of these three worlds—and also the kinds of fantasies that people experienced in them—were movie fantasies, and because they were movie fantasies, they got to be very strange-looking on the written page. They weren’t things that had literal antecedents, literary antecedents. They were things that had antecedents in John Ford and John Wayne and Errol Flynn—that sort of thing. In some ways, it’s a lot cleaner as a movie, because it’s a movie about people acting out movie fantasies. As a result, the film is intentionally structured around old movie cliche situations—the shoot-out in the saloon, the sword fight in the castle banquet hall—and we very much tried to play on an audience’s vague memory of having seen it before, and, in a way, wondering what it would be like to be an actor in an old movie.

People pay thousands of dollars to larp at a resort that allows them to live out their favorite movie images whether it be the old American west, ancient Rome, or medieval Europe. They are paying to live inside the images they love seeing on television and at the theater. I could probably cite Baudrillard here, but I like having a full head of hair so I'll hold off for now. 




The very first scene of WESTWORLD is an advertisement for the Delos resort. A cold opening that’s shot like a parody of travel adverts from the early 70s. The cornball host, the fake smiles, the canned laughs. All gloss and no substance. It’s selling you escapism – fill the empty void in your life for only 1000 dollars a day. An innocuous scene at first glance, but it reveals itself to be a crucial one after further scrutiny. This short sequence is Crichton showing us the power of persuasion images have. The way Crichton shot this sequence was totally bizarre. It lacks logical continuity, even for a TV ad. We're shown showing smiling faces and glowing appraisals so over-the-top it becomes surreal. Awkwardly cutting off the interviewer’s questions to show the (likely fake) patron’s glowing face. They act more like androids than actual human beings. Which is really what WESTWORLD ends up being all about – how artificial images affect us, how they turn us docile, how they turn us into creatures that are indistinguishable from the androids roaming the park.

CHIEF DELOS SUPERVISOR: We aren't dealing with ordinary machines here. These are highly complicated pieces of equipment. Almost as complicated as living organisms. In some cases, they have been designed by other computers. We don't know exactly how they work.

There’s a great exchange in WESTWORLD between the two main characters - John and Peter. John has been to the resort several times, and assures the first-timer Peter not to worry and to just go along with the surroundings. Assuring him that full immersion is how you get the most out of the Delos experience and that no harm will come to him by doing so. 

"There's no way to get hurt in here, just enjoy yourself." 


In order to get anything out of the Delos experience, you have to become indistinguishable from the animatronics – you need to fill into an imagined role where guys in lab coats determine the outcomes in your favor. Westworld, and the other Delos parks for that matter, are interactive movies. Places where you totally lose yourself to the image; whether it be the images of the old American west, ancient Rome, or medieval Europe. Crichton shows us how easy it is for images to completely take over your personality and your mind. The adverse effects of this are only made known to the main duo when the administrators behind the scenes lose control of their own created images. 

By the time the administrators at Delos lose control of the park, the damage has already been done. After a night of drinking and bar-fighting, John and Peter stumble out of the saloon and into an empty street where they run into the Gunslinger android for the third time. The Gunslinger, who had been “killed” twice by Peter at this point, is something of an annoyance to the duo. They’re disappointed that they have to shoot the same guy yet again - upset interact with an image they’re already familiar with. This interaction with the Gunslinger however snaps him out of his lulled, make-believe state of mind and back into the real world after he kills John with a real gun. Now Peter finally sees that everything he interacts with is artificial. The illusion completely shattered as the Gunslinger chases Peter throughout Westworld and into Romanworld and Medievalworld – effectively chasing him through a Hollywood soundstage. One of the best moments in the film comes near the end of this chase: There's a woman tied to a cage in Medievalworld and - without thinking - Peter tries to save her only for it to be revealed that she is just an android. He steps away shocked that, despite the illusion being "shattered," he still fell for the trick. 



Aesthetically, the film is perfectly in-step with its themes. Crichton is almost Bressonian in his approach - he gives Westworld a similar ascetic, minimalistic mise-en-scene as the French filmmaker, though it's used for different purposes and is, ultimately, less highbrow. But I would argue that Crichton is as serious as the Frenchman, and has more prescient things to say as we are more intertwined with images and media today than we were in 1973. Technology is an extension of ourselves, and he shows us how perverse and deluded man has become as technology rapidly advances. We simply don't understand how to use it to our advantage - we use it to sedate ourselves. If nothing else, the film reflects the latent suicidal urge of Europeans in that we create things to enslave ourselves as oppose to things that would liberate us and take us to even greater heights. Much like the androids who malfunction for reasons nobody understands, we author our own demise for reasons we can hardly understand. WESTWORLD is our world. We've turned reality into artifice and act like this is how it's always been. 



I think this is a good place to stop for now before I start to ramble. In my next post I'll write a little more on WESTWORLD and how it ties in to his 1981 film LOOKER. 

[Leverkühn]

If nothing else, the film reflects the latent suicidal urge of Europeans in that we create things to enslave ourselves as oppose to things that would liberate us and take us to even greater heights. Much like the androids who malfunction for reasons nobody understands, we author our own demise for reasons we can hardly understand. WESTWORLD is our world. We've turned reality into artifice and act like this is how it's always been.

I found this point to be very interesting. I'm only vaguely familiar with Crichton's work, but a lot of it seems to revolve around the relationship between Man and his technological creations: Westworld, The Andromeda Strain, and Jurassic Park, just to name a few (I know the latter 2 his novels and he didn't direct the movies). Man's Creations are always running up against him due to his own folly. Looking into his background I also found he was a medical student for some time, so he has a good background in the sciences. So is his problem just with the ways in which scientific knowledge is being poorly utilized by people who are only interested in commercial projects like Westworld? Is the commercial element a corrupting one on scientific research, in his mind? Because he surely doesn't seem to think scientific research itself is a problem, in fact he seems to be genuinely interested in all the advancements that were occurring while he was alive.

Awkwardly cutting off the interviewer’s questions to show the (likely fake) patron’s glowing face. They act more like androids than actual human beings. Which is really what WESTWORLD ends up being all about – how artificial images affect us, how they turn us docile, how they turn us into creatures that are indistinguishable from the androids roaming the park.

I feel like this is one of the greatest flaws of the Westworld tv-show, which I have seen. The shows writers were unable to tell this interesting story about how the technology we make effects us, so they focus to much on the life of the androids and their own humanity. It quickly becomes a sob story about how the androids are oppressed peoples that need to fight a liberation war. Classic Hollywood ZOG stuff. It's so easy to make a show or movie about how Humans are the bad guys and we treat those who serve us like shit. This seems to take a more nuanced approach, similar to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. I feel like the show butchered whatever deeper elements were involved in Crichton's novel and his own film adaptation of it.

[macintoshuser]

If nothing else, the film reflects the latent suicidal urge of Europeans in that we create things to enslave ourselves as oppose to things that would liberate us and take us to even greater heights. Much like the androids who malfunction for reasons nobody understands, we author our own demise for reasons we can hardly understand. WESTWORLD is our world. We've turned reality into artifice and act like this is how it's always been.

I found this point to be very interesting. I'm only vaguely familiar with Crichton's work, but a lot of it seems to revolve around the relationship between Man and his technological creations: Westworld, The Andromeda Strain, and Jurassic Park, just to name a few (I know the latter 2 his novels and he didn't direct the movies). Man's Creations are always running up against him due to his own folly. Looking into his background I also found he was a medical student for some time, so he has a good background in the sciences. So is his problem just with the ways in which scientific knowledge is being poorly utilized by people who are only interested in commercial projects like Westworld? Is the commercial element a corrupting one on scientific research, in his mind? Because he surely doesn't seem to think scientific research itself is a problem, in fact he seems to be genuinely interested in all the advancements that were occurring while he was alive.

Awkwardly cutting off the interviewer’s questions to show the (likely fake) patron’s glowing face. They act more like androids than actual human beings. Which is really what WESTWORLD ends up being all about – how artificial images affect us, how they turn us docile, how they turn us into creatures that are indistinguishable from the androids roaming the park.

I feel like this is one of the greatest flaws of the Westworld tv-show, which I have seen. The shows writers were unable to tell this interesting story about how the technology we make effects us, so they focus to much on the life of the androids and their own humanity. It quickly becomes a sob story about how the androids are oppressed peoples that need to fight a liberation war. Classic Hollywood ZOG stuff. It's so easy to make a show or movie about how Humans are the bad guys and we treat those who serve us like shit. This seems to take a more nuanced approach, similar to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. I feel like the show butchered whatever deeper elements were involved in Crichton's novel and his own film adaptation of it.

On your first point - It depends. He doesn't think research in and of itself is a bad thing. He tends to believe that the research, while valuable and interesting, is too quickly compromised to be used against us. For instance, he's not necessarily against genetic testing like the kind seen in Jurassic Park, but he is concerned at how that technology has been perverted so quickly. He decided against becoming a doctor because of the way the medical establishment work, which would later become the basis for a few of his novels. That experience kind of sums him up - he loves science but thinks that the establishment is corrupt and inhuman. 


I agree 100% on the show being ZOG shit. The show lightly touches on some of the themes that are in the film, but you're right, it decides to focus on gay revolutionary themes where a black robot woman turns the tables on the humans. It's terrible. The film is much more radical because it's literally about the dangers of ZOG-controlled imagery. The film WESTWORLD has similar themes to Blade Runner but ultimately takes it in a much darker direction. Crichton was a pretty pessimistic guy when it came to what our future relationships with technology could look like - and it turns out he was proven correct most of the time considering where we are today. One of the last books he wrote was about how the global warming agenda can be used to control people by fear. It would have been very interesting to see how much angrier his material would have gotten if he were alive today.