MovieChat Forums > Westworld (1973) Discussion > Why do they keep bringing The Gunslinge...

Why do they keep bringing The Gunslinger back?

posted 11 years ago by Littlebitsofgaming
24 replies | jump to latest

From the perspective of the humans enjoying the experience.
If whenever they "kill" one of the people, killing the same person again and again and again would break that "realism" the whole experience is trying to portray.

Even more so, once a robot is "killed", it goes in for repairs.
So why don't the technicians there re-program the robot and give it a new face. Creating a new character by reusing the same robot?
Or knowing the robots will be taken out of commission from time to time, why do they not have back up new models ready to insert in place of any of them that are "killed" by guests?

Makes more sense than to just patch it up and send it back out as the same character.

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[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

the thing cost only 1000 dolalrs a day. they had to fit the budget of runing whole 3 towns of robots for that little money.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] Gama_212 11 years ago

It was filmed 40 years ago, for $1000 today i could get 2 weeks in the med.

"Good things come to those who wait, But $h1t will show up pretty much strait away." Rich Hall

[–] Strazdamonas 11 years ago

could you get a world of robot? no? pointless comparison then.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] NovakGrey 10 years ago

A 1000$ in 1973 meant way more than it is today. In the movie they say its a vacation for rich people.

[–] Strazdamonas 10 years ago

It meant more, but not that much more. the amount of resources it took to keep it would be economically feasible with more like at least 100.000 a day nowadays, and thats now how much 100 was worth back then.

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Applied Science? All science is applied. Eventually.

[–] dayvit78 8 years ago

And even if $1000 was worth a lot more back then, computers were alot more expensive! You couldn't buy an iPhone for $600. So each one of those robots probably cost tens of thousands of dollars. They not only populated the town with people, but horses and dogs and snakes. That was some really expensive infrastructure which they had to repair basically daily.

There were basically 15 guests/day based on the tram passengers, so no, the costs don't add up.

[–] Mighty_Duck_4 7 years ago

No it's a lot more than you're imagining. When this film was made in 1973 the average income for a person was $13,000 a year. Here's the cost of some things in 1973 compared to how much time in Westworld it would cost:

•Spending 2 weeks in Westworld would be more money than the average person would make in an entire year.

•Spending a single week in Westworld would cover more than 20% of the cost of a brand new home in 1973.

•3 days in Westworld would cover the entire bill of having a child & 4 days in the Hospital after in Boston in 1978.

•You could buy a sports car for less than the cost of 3 days in Westworld.

•A single day in west world would be an entire month's wages for the average person at the time.

•Just one hour in Westworld would be enough to buy you more than 100 gallons of gasoline in 1973.

•Half an hour in Westworld would buy a family of 4 passes into Disneyland.

•3 minutes in Westworld would cover the cost of a ticket and concessions to see this movie in 1973.

PS: This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R didn't exist.

[–] CichlidAsh 7 years ago

People were not under the illusion that the holiday was actually real what the park did was recreate an romanticised version of the Wild West and I am sure that the visitors would get used to the characters (robots) of that world and it would become like visiting an old favourite, rather than having a totally new experience all the time.

The cost a day is said to be $40,000 a day in the new series and the park is meant to be losing a lot of money at that price. Of course the cost of one of these robots would be extraordinary expensive (along with impossible) to make currently but we can see they have a manufacturing process in the series so I guess costs are cut dramatically. Still they keep the same design and personality of the robots for many years even in the current TV show.

To make a great film you need three things - the script, the script and the script -Alfred Hitchcock

[–] Strazdamonas 7 years ago

My estimate was 100.000 per day running costs, so yes, spending 2 weeks (1.4 million) is much more than the average person makes in a year. (average person makes around 10 times less in fact).

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The spirit of abysmal despair

[–] roland-rockerfella 7 years ago

the thing cost only 1000 dolalrs a day. they had to fit the budget of runing whole 3 towns of robots for that little money

Thats in 1973. In the HBO series of Westworld set in todays world the park cost 40k a day. I don't think to many ordinary people could afford that.

[–] Strazdamonas 7 years ago

Yeah, in 1973 1000 dollars was worth more, but not enough to cover even half of the costs of running these robots, let alone replacing damaged ones.

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The spirit of abysmal despair

[–] zebar-1 11 years ago

All valid points but lets face it they kept bringinghim back because yul brynner was so cool

[–] garyedgecombe 11 years ago

Why are you SO surprised at robots being brought back again & again, only to behave in a mindless (robotic) fashion when they appear?
Over here we call them members of the House Of Commons....i believe you have the same in the Senate!

[–] Times_Up 10 years ago

It could be so that they do break the realism just a bit, seeing as how killing could be a very traumatizing experience. Having the robot come back would help your psyche know that it is just a game after all.

Also, for security purposes it makes sense. People want to be safe in this environment, if they used different robots constantly it would be much easier for some nutjob to get in there and pretend to be a robot and blow people away. This way the job is easier for the technicians, security and the vacation has a safe feeling for the goers. It makes everyone's life easier.

It's what people know about themselves inside that makes 'em afraid. - The Stranger

[–] roncerabona 10 years ago

Yes - it also makes it feel like a theme park like Disneyland - the same characters appear in the rides (apart from the occasional major overhaul). There's only so far time, money etc can stretch! I mean, they couldn 't even afford a way to manually open doors in the computer room...

[–] TragicBloom 8 years ago

Ha obviously it wasn't that they couldn't afford a way to manually open the doors, and that what is so sweet about that. I mean, if they had spent a little less on their door mechanisms and a little more on their robots, maybe they wouldn't be in that situation. Instead they have maniac robots running wild, and they're doomed to suffocate due to the lack of a f-ing door knob! LOL

[–] ydobon-1 9 years ago

From the perspective of the humans enjoying the experience.
If whenever they "kill" one of the people, killing the same person again and again and again would break that "realism" the whole experience is trying to portray.

I didn't mind that they kept repairing him and putting him back in service, but they should have wiped his memory so that he could start fresh instead of going after the same guest repeatedly.

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[–] ronaldt49 9 years ago

As a kid I "Drew Down" on Matt Dillon at the intro of Gunsmoke every Saturday night. To have had him change would have spoiled the illusion. Gunslinger is part of the same illusion.

Of course I never won any of my challenges, but it was always fun trying!

[–] ydobon-1 9 years ago

As a kid I "Drew Down" on Matt Dillon at the intro of Gunsmoke every Saturday night.

Yes, but that was a pre-recorded TV show. You knew it wasn't going to change.

To have had him change would have spoiled the illusion. Gunslinger is part of the same illusion.

I disagree. I think that having him come back with his memory intact spoiled the illusion.

Westworld was supposed to simulate life in the old west, but when you kill someone in real life, they don't keep coming back, day after day, looking for payback.

Let's assume that he wasn't the only gunslinger in Westworld. A guest gets in a duel with him in the afternoon, then he gets in another duel in the evening. The next day, he has two robots coming after him. He kills them, then gets in another duel later in the day. Tomorrow he'll have three robots coming after him, and so on.

If a guest were rich and spent a month there, he could conceivably have a dozen or more robots hunting him every day.

And what about the other worlds? If we assume that they follow the same policy of not wiping the robots' memories, does that mean that the guest in MedievalWorld would have had to fight the Black Knight every day for the rest of his stay there (if he hadn't been killed by him)?

Plus, what happens if another guest bumps into the gunslinger first and kills him? Does he then come back with a list of two people to go after? What happens when all the guests that have shot him have left the park? Does he spend his entire day searching for people who are no longer there?

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[–] bing-57 7 years ago

> If whenever they "kill" one of the people, killing the same person again and again and again would break that "realism" the whole experience is trying to portray.

But everything in West World reset at the start of every day. The same robots would be at their posts and doing the same thing they did yesterday. All damage was repaired and it was like nothing happened yesterday. Any guest that stayed more than one day would recognize that.

Of course, that's the way amusement parks work. On day one you can get into a fight with a gunslinger and bang a prostitute. On day two you can ride out of town in a posse and gun down a notorious gang in their hideout. On the third day, you can help the blacksmith shoe horses or rob the bank. "There's so much to do here," said one of the guests.

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What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?

[–] censorshipsucks06 7 years ago

From the perspective of the humans enjoying the experience.
If whenever they "kill" one of the people, killing the same person again and again and again would break that "realism" the whole experience is trying to portray.

Their budgets clearly aren't limitless. Even in the updated version of WESTWORLD, the same characters re-appear withing a day or so of being killed.

[–] jimprideaux2 7 years ago

Don't know how old you are but back in the day when this was made Yul Brenner was the star. Also I think he wore the same black outfit he wore in The Magnificent Seven, a much bigger hit movie from a few years before.

Of course if WestWorld was just an amusement park any old gunslinger would do. But for the movie the audience wanted to see Yul Brenner as he was in the Magnificent Seven on screen.

If the filmmakers wanted to mix it up they would have kept the Brenner character facing a variety of challengers.