From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

In article <10mpmd2$33duh$10@dont-email.me>, weberm@polaris.net wrote:

Before Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton built a different kind of
monster. This is the story of Westworld (1973), the "cursed" production
that predicted the dark side of AI and the playgrounds of the elite.

In this episode, we open the gates to the chaotic production of
Westworld. Discover how a "cheap" B-movie shot in just 30 days
predicted the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the first computer
virus, and the terrifying reality of what the wealthy do when they
think no one is watching.

Michael Crichton's directorial debut was a disaster waiting to happen.
With a starving budget, a lead actor in financial ruin, and a studio
that wanted to bury the film, Westworld (1973) should have failed.
Instead, it invented digital special effects (CGI) and inspired The >Terminator, Halloween, and Jurassic Park. But beyond the robot cowboys,
the film hid a darker message about corporate greed and elite morality
that took 50 years to come true.

Timestamps
00:00 The Face That Inspired The Terminator
01:18 NASA vs. Disney: The Terrifying Idea
02:56 30 Days of Chaos: Production Hell
05:10 Blood & Venom: The On-Set Accidents
07:07 Inventing The Pixel (The First CGI)
08:42 How Editing Saved The Movie
10:05 The Deleted Medieval Torture Scene
11:17 The "Blitzkrieg" Release Strategy
13:55 The Grandfather of Sci-Fi Horror
15:56 The Franchise That Malfunctioned
17:35 A Warning for 2026: The Lawless Playground
19:19 A Complex Machine

https://youtu.be/hsmzSh6nMF4?si=v5CoyuFQiW3qdNCA

I thought that 80s Young Sherlock Holmes film was credited with the
first proper cgi effect on screen.

--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:04:54 -0500, moviePig wrote:

I saw Westworld in a double feature with Soylent Green in early
1974. I was 13. Shown together made a very clear point that the
greed of corporations over and above the value of life, human or
otherwise was a major theme and a burgeoning problem and the future
might be quite grim.

Did it ever occur to you that those films were made and distributed by
big, faceless, amoral, profit-driven corporations of exactly the type
those films were warning you about?
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Wed, 25 Feb 2026 12:43:07 -0600, Daniel Rodriguez wrote:

I thought that 80s Young Sherlock Holmes film was credited with the
first proper cgi effect on screen.

For suitable values of rCLproperrCY?

Just checking with IMDB over this and another film that came to mind:

rCLYoung Sherlock HolmesrCY -- 1985
rCLLookerrCY -- 1981

From <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/trivia/>:

The first ever film to create 3D shading with a computer that
produced the first ever CGI human character was the model Cindy
(Susan Dey). This movie achieved this feat before Disney's more
famous Tron (1982) hit the screens. The Web site Filmsite said of
Cindy: "Her digitization was visualized by a computer-generated
simulation of her body being scanned--notably the first use of
shaded 3D CGI in a feature film. Polygonal models obtained by
digitizing a human body were used to render the effects."
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On 2/26/2026 7:29 PM, Lawrence DrCOOliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:04:54 -0500, moviePig wrote:

I saw Westworld in a double feature with Soylent Green in early
1974. I was 13. Shown together made a very clear point that the
greed of corporations over and above the value of life, human or
otherwise was a major theme and a burgeoning problem and the future
might be quite grim.

Did it ever occur to you that those films were made and distributed by
big, faceless, amoral, profit-driven corporations of exactly the type
those films were warning you about?

[Aside: the quoted post is not from me.]
--- Synchronet 3.21b-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

In article <10nk4gm$3hhm6$1@dont-email.me>, nobody@nowhere.com wrote:

On 2/14/2026 7:32 AM, The True Melissa wrote:

Verily, in article <10mpmd2$33duh$10@dont-email.me>, did >>weberm@polaris.net deliver unto us this message:

Before Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton built a different kind of
monster. This is the story of Westworld (1973), the "cursed" production >>> that predicted the dark side of AI and the playgrounds of the elite.

I watched this as a little kid. I'm not sure how old I was, but it >>probably took a few years for this to cycle to TV, so I was maybe 8 or
so. I recall understanding virtually none of it and still being >>fascinated.

I saw Westworld in a double feature with Soylent Green in early 1974. I
was 13. Shown together made a very clear point that the greed of >corporations over and above the value of life, human or otherwise was a >major theme and a burgeoning problem and the future might be quite grim.

ThatAs a heavy pairing, especially for 13! And it's funny how, back then,
we watched these movies thinking it was an exaggeration...

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

In article <10mpmd2$33duh$10@dont-email.me>, weberm@polaris.net wrote:

Before Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton built a different kind of
monster. This is the story of Westworld (1973), the "cursed" production
that predicted the dark side of AI and the playgrounds of the elite.

In this episode, we open the gates to the chaotic production of
Westworld. Discover how a "cheap" B-movie shot in just 30 days
predicted the rise of Artificial Intelligence, the first computer
virus, and the terrifying reality of what the wealthy do when they
think no one is watching.

Michael Crichton's directorial debut was a disaster waiting to happen.
With a starving budget, a lead actor in financial ruin, and a studio
that wanted to bury the film, Westworld (1973) should have failed.
Instead, it invented digital special effects (CGI) and inspired The >Terminator, Halloween, and Jurassic Park. But beyond the robot cowboys,
the film hid a darker message about corporate greed and elite morality
that took 50 years to come true.

Timestamps
00:00 The Face That Inspired The Terminator
01:18 NASA vs. Disney: The Terrifying Idea
02:56 30 Days of Chaos: Production Hell
05:10 Blood & Venom: The On-Set Accidents
07:07 Inventing The Pixel (The First CGI)
08:42 How Editing Saved The Movie
10:05 The Deleted Medieval Torture Scene
11:17 The "Blitzkrieg" Release Strategy
13:55 The Grandfather of Sci-Fi Horror
15:56 The Franchise That Malfunctioned
17:35 A Warning for 2026: The Lawless Playground
19:19 A Complex Machine

https://youtu.be/hsmzSh6nMF4?si=v5CoyuFQiW3qdNCA

30 day shoot. That shocked me. $1m for the whole thing. Flawless. And
decades later we get Billion $ repetitive trash like Avatar

--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

On Fri, 27 Feb 2026 22:33:54 -0500, john wrote:

And it's funny how, back then, we watched these movies thinking it
was an exaggeration...

Did you really? rCLSoylent GreenrCY, particularly? At a time of high oil prices, stagflation, unemployment, the Cold War, worries about
overpopulation, the first dawning awareness of environmental damage
from industry?

There were not a few who saw it as prophetic.
--- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2