It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

Do you believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to The Next Picture Show, a movie of the week podcast about it to a classic film and how it shaped our thoughts on a current release.

I'm Keith Phipps here with...

Tasha Robinson.

Genevieve Kosci.

Scott Tobias.

Here on The Next Picture Show, we believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context.

So every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and consider how it relates to a current movie, or in this case, a current television show. This week, we decided to put our troubles aside and take a vacation to a cutting-edge amusement park. So we packed our bags, put on our spurs, and decided to toss back a few shots of whiskey and take out some bad guys. And we enjoyed it so much, we did it twice. Although the first time, Scott had a really wimpy-looking 70s mustache. That was weird, right, Tasha? Yeah, that was weird. Nothing like his vibrant, manly facial hair of today. But I am surprised that you decided to focus on that detail rather than like the killer robots. For this episode, we decided to break a little bit from our normal format and look at the new

HBO series Westworld, created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.

It's adapted from the 1973 film of the same name, written and directed by Michael Crichton.

Both share the same essential premise.

For the right price, visitors can travel to an amusement park that allows them to live out

their fantasies of the Old West, hanging out a saloon, betting the ladies of the house, shooting down gunslingers, etc. Both take strikingly different approaches to the material, however, most of them directly related to when they were made and the audiences they were designed to serve. Creton's Westworld is a tight and tightly-paced feature film. Nolan enjoys series is suggestive, open-ended, and designed to play the long game with its central mysteries. A few episodes in, we've been introduced to dozens of characters and at least as many intriguing subplots, designed to leave viewers wondering where we're going to go from here. Looked out together, the two Westworlds reveal just how thematically rich, Crichton's straightforward-seaming film is, as well as the changing desires of those interested in watching a similar story several decades later. So saddle up with us as we head into two different versions of the same dangerous place. What is your name? Gardner Lewis just got back from Westworld. Tell us how you liked it, Mr. Lewis. When you played Cowboys and Indians as a kid, you'd point your fingers and go bang, bang, and the other kid would lie down and pretend dead. Well, Westworld is to the same thing, only it's for real. I shot six people. Well, they weren't real people. What Mr. Lewis means is he shot six robots, scientifically programmed to look, act, talk, and even bleed just like humans do. Now, isn't that right?

Well, they may have been robots. I mean, I think they were robots. I mean, I know they were robots.

Yes, the robots of Westworld are there to serve you and to give you the most unique vacation experience of your life.

Thank you, sir. And you, madam?

Hello.

Well, what is your name?

My name is Janet Lane, and I was in Roman World.

What is the one thing that stands out in your mind about Roman World?

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