Geek in Review: Sci-Fi Guilty Pleasures

This week's Geek in Review is a look at some of my favorite 1970s Sci-Fi movies that some may call cult classics, but I call guilty pleasures.

Though the '70s were a prolific decade for big studio Sci-Fi films -- particularly the "pre-Star Wars" half of the decade -- quantity clearly won over quality, and this is where I'll focus my attention this week. These movies don't age particularly well, which is a big part of their charm, and I share them today in the hopes that they may just become guilty pleasures of yours, too, if you can accept a future world where the sideburns are huge, the furniture is made of molded white plastic, and almost everyone wears a tunic.

It was incredibly fun to put this one together, but it was the most time-consuming column so far. Watching a marathon of these movies was awesome, but it was difficult for me to shake the feeling that I was slacking off when I should have been doing something more productive.

I did five movies, and could easily have done five more if I'd had time (look for a Part II at some point in the future.) Here's one of them:

Westworld (1973)

Long before he was a global warming denier, and named child rapists in his novels after critics of his global warming-denial, Michael Crichton had a successful novel turned into a film (1971's The Andromeda Strain, a movie so bad it didn't make this list.) It was also successful, so he tried his hand at writing and directing a movie of his own.

The Delos amusement park is split up into three themed lands: MedievalWorld, RomanWorld, and WestWorld. Visitors kick down $1000 a day to visit the world of their choice, and enjoy the immersive experience it offers. Each world's experience is made complete by life-like androids who interact with the guests, usually by fighting or fucking them. The guests (and the audience) are reminded several times that nothing can possibly go wrong, ensuring, of course, that that is precisely what will happen.

Much of the film takes place in Westworld, where tourists Benjamin and Blane spend a couple of days drinking, fighting, and screwing, before having their suspicions raised that something's gone all wonky when Blane gets bitten by a robot rattlesnake, then confirmed when he's killed by a robot gunslinger. Benjamin then spends the rest of the movie running away from the deadly Termin-- uh, Gunslinger.

Guilty pleasure because: Yul Brynner is sofa king cool in this movie. He is the original Terminator, and in fact one could make the case that certain elements of that film were, uh . . . inspired . . . by this one. And let's be honest with each other, mmmkay? If you could take a vacation to a place where every person you tried to seduce would drive the skin boat to tuna town with you, and you could start and win fights pretty much whenever you wanted, I don't know a lot of people who would refuse the trip. In fact, isn't Second Life built entirely around this concept, including the whole "nothing really works the way it should" element?

Lesson about the future: People of the future will still spend $1000 a day for a vacation spent drinking, fighting and fucking.

Drinking game: Whenever you see the crazy shiny android eyes, take a drink, but pace yourself. Trust me. Advanced drunks can take two drinks whenever Dick Van Patten provides some comic relief.

The Geekwire is marginally SFW today. I don't think it's much more revealing than what you'd see Maxim or on the cover of FHM, but it's borderline enough to warrant this disclaimer, so consider yourself warned.

Comments

[Khalil A. Cassimally]

It seems that 2001: A Space Odyssey wasn't in the 1970's lol.

[ExMember]

My favorite part: "I know that I'm opening myself up to ridicule from my peers, but I'm going to take it like a man"

Are you sure that's a good idea Wil? I mean, do you have any idea how cruel Sci-Fi fans can be?

[Bec]

Heya Wil,

Have you checked out the DVDs of the original Star Wars trilogy?

Worth the $$, do you think?

(and no, I haven't forgiven GL for tampering with them in the first place either)

Bec

[cocacola]

I loved westworld too! I'm not a western fan but wrap it up in science fiction and I'm a fan!

Logan's Run with Michael York and Jenny Agutter was also a fave and I preferred the 1970s version of The Island of Dr.Moreau with Michael York over that awful remake of it with Val Kilmer.

Has any one seen the 1970s flick "The Devils Rain" (1975)? This one is science fiction meets horror, really!. William Shatner versus the devil!!!! (can you get any better than that?), and yes the devil is Ernest Borgnine..and yes he has horns! It's also John Travolta's screen acting debut! It's a hoot and a half!

cheers,
Patricia from Canada

[brazos605]

Excellent article. Yul Brynner really is the coolest of cool, in any movie, "etc., etc., etc." And nothing sounds like more fun than driving a vintage Mustang through a showroom window, and afterwards, not having worry about (a) cops, or (b) traffic.

[KaliAmanda]

I loved Westworld. Yul had that celebutante dead eye thing DOWN!!!

[Big Tony]

Excellent article. I'm a big fan of bad sci-fi. :) I'd have to add Colossus: The Forbin Project, and Death Race 2000 to that list. Though Colossus is pretty good and not so guilty of a pleasure.

I kinda like The Andromeda Strain. Bad, but in a good way.

[KaliAmanda]

Hmm, Shatner and Borgnine in the ultimate battle between good and evil. Sounds like a Festivus movie to me. To Netflix!

[Veronica]

Hey -- Have you read the Richard Matheson story "I Am Legend", which Omega Man was based on? (Also the source material for the old Vincent Price flick "Last Man on Earth".) If you haven't, I highly recommend it -- it reads much better as a story than as a movie. There's also a graphic novel version, though I can't remember who adapted it.

[Auz]

WTF... have you been stalking my DVD collection...?

[dathon]

I've not seen the movie, but I followed it around the Internets for a couple sites, and found two interesting facts:

*Majel Barrett had a role in the movie.

*There is talk of a re-make to be released in 2007, directed by Tarsem Singh.

Thought you might find those interesting!

[AikenDrum]

Ok, now I HATE to be picky, but something you wrote in your article bugged me. You said (regarding Silent Running), "It's dark, it's sad, and the science is so bad, you could drive a starship through it...". That doesn't make sense. You have to say something like "the science is full of holes big enough to drive a starship through..." or something like that. I know you MEANT to say that, but still...

Ok, I'm done being picky now.

Oh wait, one more thing: you forgot to mention how smoking hot the girl in Logan's Run was.

Otherwise I loved the article; very amusing.

[alicein1derland]

Terrific post! I have to admit to watching all five movies, a few of them many times. I saw "Soylent Green" in a theater in Hollywood and loved it, over-acting and all. I thought it was interesting that the gorgeous Leigh Taylor-Young was referred to as "furniture", and she was part of the package deal for whomever owned the apartment.

Do you think it might improve the present real estate market to offer that??

[kidnebulous]

That's a great take on "Westworld" -- I reviewed it with a friend a year or so ago and had many similar thoughts, although I stupidly kept trying to look for deeper meaning behind some of the elements. At one point I actually posed the question "are robot whores programmed to act dispassionate about screwing, or is that simply a by-product of being a robot?"

I mean, yeah... wrap your head around THAT one.

[Aurizen]

I also am a fan of bad (or semi bad) sci-fi as well. I've seen almost all of the films that have been commented on here.

I personally liked Andromeda Strain (although will admit that the book was much better, but that's the way with 99% of books turned into movies).

[unicron73]

hi again
enjoyed the list dont know if i agree with silent running-maybe dark star instead-also to the guy that was on about i am legend-its being done as a big budget flick with will smith for release next year-dont know if it will be any good but we can but hope...

[Brightflowermaid]

Oh my God Wil, thankyou so much.
I saw Silent Running when I was really young and all I remembered about it was a big greenhouse floating into space whilst I cried my eyes out, I have never been able to remember it's name and I have wanted to scream, in frustration when I've described it to people and they've looked at me like I'd escaped from my carers for the day.

Huge thumbs up for all of the films mentioned, although seeing the decade they were all from makes me feel every single one of my 31yrs on this earth.

[dragonfey]

I have to disagree with you about The Andromeda Strain. Yes it looks rather silly now, but seeing it in a theatre when it was released was something. It did catch your imagination and it built suspense in a wonderful way. *All* the sci fi movies back then were rather cheaply made. But the actors in Andromeda Strain really made the story surpass the production.