Oct 041975
 
four reels

In the near future, where corporations rule, the populous is kept docile with comfortable surroundings and the diversion of the brutal sport, rollerball. Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the greatest player the game has ever had, but before the playoffs, Bartholomew (John Houseman) of the Energy Corporation, tells him to retire. Not understanding why and bitter over an executive taking his wife, Jonathan does the unthinkable and refuses.

Every dystopian film runs into a problem: how do you make an exciting movie about a drab, unexciting future? Rollerball solves it by interspersing the lifeless everyday with violent, exhilarating games of rollerball. It works. This is a smart drama that gets your blood pumping with sport, and then makes you consider if there isn’t something seriously wrong with that.  The film is split into five segments, the three rollerball matches and two sections of plot and character development.

Rollerball is roller derby on steroids. Skaters with studded gloves and their motorcyclist teammates fight their way around a circular track in an attempt to put a heavy metal ball into a goal. It’s not easy; it’s very dangerous; and it is surprisingly compelling for a made-up sport. The basics of the game are simple, and after a few minutes I understood the strategies involved and a good number of the rules. If you are the type to cheer at a hockey game, the rollerball matches should have you out of your seat.

The film starts with the normal trappings of a televised sports competition, and nothing appears out of place until players and fans are asked to stand for their corporate anthem. A major theme of Rollerball is the danger of escalating violence in sports and this is shown so well, with each match more violent and compelling than its predecessor, that many critics missed it. The last game ends in an insane bloodbath that left some, wrapped up in the mayhem, thinking the film was glorifying violence. But the absurdity of it, the sheer scope of the slaughter, nullifies that conclusion.

When not in the rink, the story follows Jonathan E., wonderfully underplayed by Caan, who feels something is wrong, but can’t grasp what. He is a product of his environment: docile, obedient, poorly educated, and respectful to his corporate masters. It takes a lot to make him rebel, and even then, it’s a soft-spoken revolution. Only while playing rollerball does he feel secure enough to confront the problems directly. And those problems, and the second theme of the film, have to do with the place of the individual in society and the ability to act freely. Jonathan’s ex-wife voices the corporate line, “Comfort is freedom.” Rollerball does an excellent job of refuting that point of view.

Ralph Richardson puts in a cameo as a comic relief librarian, but he is part of a message as well (this is a theme heavy film). In a world where the individual is nothing and everything comes from large faceless organizations, information can slip away. The main computer system (which has replaced all books) recently misplaced the 13th century, but the librarian explains that isn’t much of a loss as there was nothing besides Dante and a few corrupt popes.

This exciting, thought-provoking, emotional, dystopian, Sci-Fi film was remade in 2002 into a dull, mindless, detached, modern-day, action flick. Skip it and see the original.

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