Though best-known as a novelist, Michael Crichton jumped to the director’s chair for 1973’s Westworld. Set in the then-future of 1983, the film introduces a high-tech theme park called Delos, a location where guests can involve themselves in any of three period experiences.

These cover “Medieval World”, “Roman World” and “Westworld”. In these domains, participants mingle and interact with lifelike robots who act out their historical roles.

Despite assurances nothing can go wrong at Delos, it does. Guests Peter Martin (Richard Benjamin) and John Blane (James Brolin) find themselves stalked by the relentless homicidal Gunslinger (Yul Brynner).

At the very least, Westworld boasts an inspired premise. Even if the robots didn’t go all screwy, the “living theme park” sounds amazing, and the deadly twist gives the film potential drama.

HBO’s Westworld TV series did a good job in terms of the way it developed the themes, but the source film lacks the same dynamic feel. Of course, that seems inevitable given the time restrictions – clearly a 36-hour/four-season series could explore topics better than an 89-minute movie.

Nonetheless, the shallow nature of the 1973 Westworld creates disappointment, particularly because Crichton takes his time in terms of development. This shouldn’t be rocket science: the movie should set up its characters, give us basic exposition and then launch into the main plot/action.

Which Westworld does, but in a strangely sluggish way. The movie uses far too much of its limited cinematic real estate with slow, superfluous scenes. For instance, a segment in which Delos staff collects and repairs damaged robots goes on far too long.

In addition, the film diverts to situations outside of Westworld too often. I get the desire to show the other worlds, but with only 89 minutes at its disposal, the movie should stick with only one.

The shots in Medieval World become a distraction. These add little to the experience.

Westworld feels like a much longer story that Crichton chopped down to 89 minutes and one in which he kept too much unnecessary material. Much of the movie seems episodic, like Crichton came up with “bits of business” that appealed to him and he forgot to develop the plot instead.

Because of this, we end up with a seemingly endless bar brawl mid-film. It seems like a waste of space.

By that point, the movie starts to develop the notion of the malfunctioning robots, and it should push firmly toward that path. A long scene in which our leads yuk it up feels out of place and like a distraction.

Westworld still boasts a few enjoyable sequences, and I continue to like the concept. The end result seems spotty and poorly developed, though.

Westworld appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The Dolby Vision transfer seemed fine, though it showed its age.

Overall sharpness seemed satisfactory, though some shots could look soft without a lot of obvious reason. Still, most of the film exhibited positive delineation.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or shimmering, and the image lacked edge haloes. Print flaws also failed to materialize here, and grain seemed natural.

The film’s palette tended toward a rustic brown feel that suited the largely Western motif. Thanks to the other “worlds”, the colors showed good range, with nice pop from HDR.

Blacks felt deep and tight, while low-light shots offered largely positive clarity. HDR added some punch to whites and contrast. No one will view this as a visual showcase but the UHD seemed to replicate the source well.

As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, it appeared erratic, but it leaned toward the good side of that equation. The soundscape focused on the front and displayed nice stereo presence for music.

Effects seemed less consistent, as they occasionally broadened to the side and rear speakers in a vivid manner. We also got occasional instances of localized speech.

However, some scenes felt closer to monaural. This meant the soundscape usually offered reasonable breadth but it varied somewhat.

Audio quality seemed dated but acceptable. Despite occasional edginess, speech was fairly natural, and I detected no issues with intelligibility.

Effects appeared similarly restricted, and they could be a bit distorted at times, but they usually appeared reasonably clear. Music fared best, as the score sounded full and rich. Given the movie’s vintage, this felt like a “B” soundtrack.

The 4K UHD also came with three alternate mixes: stereo, mono and DTS-HD MA 4.0 that apparently replicated the movie’s theatrical audio. I opted for this one to compare to the 5.1 track.

Both seemed virtually identical in terms of quality and they also felt pretty similar when I considered their soundfields. Though the 4.0 dropped the surrounds – it went front three channels and subwoofer – this didn’t make much of a difference given that the 5.1 version so heavily focused on the forward channels.

In that domain, I thought the 4.0 came across as a bit more natural and better integrated. Localization and movement appeared a little smoother, though both occasionally showed dialogue that came from farther to the side than it should.

None of this made the 4.0 considerably superior to its 5.1 peer. Nonetheless, it acted as the preferred mix.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the original Blu-ray from 2013? Both came with identical 5.1 audio but the UHD added the original 4.0, and that gave it a modest sonic advantage.

The Dolby Vision UHD also boasted improvements in terms of accuracy, colors and blacks. This wound up as a quality upgrade.

The 4K UHD mixes old and new extras, and we open with a circa 2025 audio commentary from film historian Daniel Kremer. He offers a running, screen-specific look at cast and crew, the project’s development, story, characters and screenplay variations, various production details, and his thoughts on the movie.

Kremer delivers a balanced chat that discusses the topics well. He provides a compelling overview that fares nicely.

The next two extras also appear on the prior Blu-ray. Beyond Westworld, a 1980 TV pilot that runs 49 minutes, 39 seconds.

The show gives us a look at the theme park after the robots malfunctioned. The series only lasted a handful of episodes, and I can see why, as the pilot isn’t very good.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we find a vintage featurette called On Location. It fills nine minutes, eight seconds and offers a few notes from writer/director Michael Crichton and actors Richard Benjamin and Yul Brynner.

Despite a few good behind the scenes shots, this mostly becomes promotional fluff. Don’t expect to learn much.

From there we find four programs new to the Arrow release. Cowboy Dreams spans 11 minutes, 42 seconds and features actor Richard Benjamin and producer/screenwriter Larry Karaszewski.

Given he was 12 when they made Westworld, obviously Karaszewski didn't work on the film. Instead, he acts as interviewer with Benjamin.

The actor tells us how he got onto the film along with aspects of the shoot and the flick's legacy. Benjamin provides a nice collection of memories.

At Home on the Range lasts 17 minutes, four seconds. Here we find notes from actor James Brolin.

He discusses how he got into movies as well as what brought him to Westworld and his recollections of the shoot. Brolin's comments add good reflections of his experiences.

Next comes HollyWorld. This involves 34-minute, 16-second reel involves producer Paul N. Lazarus III.

Here we find Lazarus's comments about how he got backing for Westworld, casting, some production notes, the sequel, subsequent collaborations with Michael Crichton, and the film's legacy. Though the conversation rambles a bit at times, Lazarus nonetheless brings a mix of insights.

Sex, Death and Androids goes for 13 minutes, 13 seconds. We get info from film scholar Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.

Billed as an "appreciation", Heller-Nicholas offers context and interpretation for the movie. Happily, Heller-Nicholas doesn't just make this a collection of plaudits for Westworld, so she provides useful context.

Despite an inspired premise, Westworld sputters too much of the time. The movie fails to develop its themes and characters in a satisfying manner, as it dallies too much and wastes a lot of its limited length. The 4K UHD provides solid visuals and audio as well as a mix of bonus features. The film winds up as an erratic disappointment but the 4K UHD presents it well.