Did Yul Brynner walk into a river in Westworld?
May 26, 2013 7:44 AM
I know there's a Simpsons parody with the same scene, but I seriously remember Yul Brynner emerging from a river in the original, too. Why is it no longer in the film?
So last night I rented Westworld from iTunes and watched it for the first time since I was kid, and was dismayed to find that the scene with Yul Brynner walking into (and then out of) a river had been cut. I distinctly remember that this scene had us in stitches when we were kids. My older sister says that we might be remembering the Simpsons parody of Westworld, which had a similar scene - but I thought the Simpsons parody was only funny because it was a direct reference to Yul walking into the river.
I can't find the clip online anywhere. Does anyone else remember Yul walking into the river? Do you have an older copy of the film that shows the scene? My theory is that the scene got cut from later releases of the film BECAUSE it was so hilarious (instead of scary, as it was intended to be).
So last night I rented Westworld from iTunes and watched it for the first time since I was kid, and was dismayed to find that the scene with Yul Brynner walking into (and then out of) a river had been cut. I distinctly remember that this scene had us in stitches when we were kids. My older sister says that we might be remembering the Simpsons parody of Westworld, which had a similar scene - but I thought the Simpsons parody was only funny because it was a direct reference to Yul walking into the river.
I can't find the clip online anywhere. Does anyone else remember Yul walking into the river? Do you have an older copy of the film that shows the scene? My theory is that the scene got cut from later releases of the film BECAUSE it was so hilarious (instead of scary, as it was intended to be).
I don't remember any such scene.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:32 AM on May 26, 2013
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:32 AM on May 26, 2013
Doesn't getting the mechas wet in Westworld make them malfunction?
posted by oflinkey at 10:10 AM on May 26, 2013
posted by oflinkey at 10:10 AM on May 26, 2013
This seems to indicate it would be unlikely:
In the scene when Richard Benjamin's character splashes the Gunslinger in the face with acid, Brynner's face was covered with an oil-based makeup mixed with ground Alka-Seltzer. A splash of water then produced the fizzing effect.
(but I am going to try this as a practical joke sometime soon)
posted by srboisvert at 10:48 AM on May 26, 2013
In the scene when Richard Benjamin's character splashes the Gunslinger in the face with acid, Brynner's face was covered with an oil-based makeup mixed with ground Alka-Seltzer. A splash of water then produced the fizzing effect.
(but I am going to try this as a practical joke sometime soon)
posted by srboisvert at 10:48 AM on May 26, 2013
Totally wrong time period, but: there's a scene in Star Trek: Insurrection where Data walks into and out of a lake.
posted by zsazsa at 1:33 PM on May 26, 2013
posted by zsazsa at 1:33 PM on May 26, 2013
This is funny, as after this New Yorker piece on the pioneering (despite a budget of pennies) special effects, it's next up on my Netflix queue.
Perhaps due to the Simpsons bit (which I was able to watch online), there's an Ask Yahoo with this same question.
It's also worth noting there was a short-lived TV series, but not with Brynner.
posted by dhartung at 6:11 PM on May 26, 2013
Perhaps due to the Simpsons bit (which I was able to watch online), there's an Ask Yahoo with this same question.
It's also worth noting there was a short-lived TV series, but not with Brynner.
posted by dhartung at 6:11 PM on May 26, 2013
OK, just finished watching it thanks to Amazon Prime. There is no logical place in the plot for a scene where The Gunslinger, on foot, crosses a creek, deep, raging, or otherwise. When he's in pursuit of Peter, both are mostly on horseback from the Westworld town to a point just outside Roman World. There are two points prior to this where Peter gets off his horse, once to try to ambush the Gunslinger (foiled by the latter's auditory sensors), and once to plead with a Westworld worker for help, but he gets back on his horse both times. Then he takes the horse down a creek, hoping to conceal his track, but the Gunslinger isn't fooled. Then there's the bit where he's running around the Roman garden (Harold Lloyd's estate, by the way), but after that it's all in the underground passages (presumably based on Disneyland).
Additionally when he makes his final escape into Medieval world, he frees a woman who turns out to be one of the Delos androids when he gives her a drink of water. (This isn't completely square with previous depictions since other androids apparently ate and/or drank without a problem.) Thus the established trope is that they are vulnerable to water, and any expectation would be that the river would be an obstacle rather than a trick ending as is common today.
posted by dhartung at 11:05 PM on May 26, 2013
Additionally when he makes his final escape into Medieval world, he frees a woman who turns out to be one of the Delos androids when he gives her a drink of water. (This isn't completely square with previous depictions since other androids apparently ate and/or drank without a problem.) Thus the established trope is that they are vulnerable to water, and any expectation would be that the river would be an obstacle rather than a trick ending as is common today.
posted by dhartung at 11:05 PM on May 26, 2013
Apparently the original TV broadcast of the movie included extra scenes that are not in the home movie version, or the theater version. I think that's why some people are like "THERE IS NO SUCH SCENE." Maybe I should write to the studio?
posted by sarling at 8:03 AM on May 27, 2013
posted by sarling at 8:03 AM on May 27, 2013
Another place to look would be other parodies — if another one has such a river scene, that'd be evidence that the scene existed in some version of the original. There's a brief parody in Crazy magazine #5, and there was a porn parody Sex World.
Oh, and if you're thinking of actually writing to people, why not write to the people responsible for that Simpsons episode? Ask them if they were recreating a specific scene from Westworld or just recreating the implacable pursuer vibe.
posted by stebulus at 9:59 AM on May 31, 2013
Oh, and if you're thinking of actually writing to people, why not write to the people responsible for that Simpsons episode? Ask them if they were recreating a specific scene from Westworld or just recreating the implacable pursuer vibe.
posted by stebulus at 9:59 AM on May 31, 2013
I obtained a copy of the screenplay as published in 1974 by Bantam Books. It includes a preface by Crichton, mostly about the experience of production, but with a few words about screenplay changes:
posted by stebulus at 9:00 PM on June 24, 2013
The screenplay, reprinted here, is not the original script. Many changes were made from the first version, over a period of months. The following script is the version I had two days before shooting began.Skimming the script, I find no scene of the gunslinger entering a river. The chase sequence — from the time the gunslinger shoots Blane to the time Martin enters the underground complex — is substantially the same as in the currently available version, which dhartung described above. The differences I noted:
At that time, MGM cut the schedule by three days. I refused to shoot the script as written, and responded by cutting three days of work. The deleted scenes included the salesroom sequences and the bank robbery.
Several other changes occurred in the course of shooting. Principally, the ending was changed. We deleted the final fight between Martin and the gunslinger. [...]
The opening is also changed. We were unable to get convincing model footage of the hovercraft [...]
- The rack scene, mentioned here and there online as having appeared in the TV broadcast version, is in the script, as part of a sequence between Martin first fleeing the gunslinger on foot and his finding a horse.
- The rest of that sequence — panic in the control room and chaos in Roman World — is mostly present in the film, but chopped up and inserted at different points than the script specifies.
- The script also has a salesroom scene between the gunslinger shooting at Martin on the ridge and Martin's attempted ambush, showing a little more malfunctioning; I guess this is one of the scenes Crichton identifies above as never having been shot.
- Various changes in detail — tightened dialogue, props (and business involving them) not quite as described in the script, that kind of thing.
posted by stebulus at 9:00 PM on June 24, 2013
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posted by kimota at 8:56 AM on May 26, 2013