Rollerball

Plot synopsis:
It is the year 2018. There are no wars, poverty, or violence on the entire planet Earth. People get their frustrations out by watching and attending Rollerball games.The Houston team plays against Madrid and wins, with their star player Jonathan E doing most of the scoring. It's an extremely violent game, but the players thoroughly enjoy it. After the game, the men shower and the corporate executives, led by the pompous Mr. Bartholomew are congratulated. Jonathan E is requested by Bartholomew to come visit him the next dayHouston, Texas in the future resembles a prosperous western European city from the late 20th century. Jonathan comes to visit Barthlomew and is informed he needs to retire, per Energy Corporation executives, but Jonathan resistsJonathan comes home by helicopter just outside of Houston in the piney woods of East Texas to a young lady provided to him by the corporation and his friend/trainer Clete. The lady leaves for Indianapolis on a whim.Jonathan is training the Rollerball team players, plus some newbies introduced.Jonathan and Moonpie visit a library hub in downtown Houston, because he's wanting to get information about the Energy Corporation. A library clerk reveals she cannot issue the books he's wanting because they are classified.Jonathan is back on his ranch and meets another young lady Daphne, also issued to him by the corporation.The Rollerball team is informed of the changes of the rules to the game of no penalties. Despite their objections, they are all reminded they are bound to a contract. All this is mainly due to the fact Jonathan refuses to quit.Jonathan is in a television studio being interviewed by a computer over the upcoming Rollerball game and his history of playing it. He is supposed to be following a script and the show is about his announced retirement. It is revealed that Bartholomew has been behind this interviewThe Rollerball team is exercising in a fitness room with a coach from the Tokyo team there to warn them about the karate and hapkido techniques they use, but the players shrug him off and declare their team as number one.Jonathan and Daphne attend a lavish cocktail party at a mansion in the piney woods of East Texas. No longer an area of hick towns and backwoodsmen, but a prosperous area catered to the wealthy. The guests are beautifully dressed and slightly drunk and strung out on aphrodisiac pills. Some guests overheard that the players are actually robots. Jonathan is warned once again by Bartholomew to quit and he still resists. Some of the party guests are outside shooting pine trees with a laser gun for fun.Jonathan is back at his ranch packed and ready to go. He wants Daphne to come along, but the Energy Corporation wants her back and she tells him he won't be back. Jonathan threatens her with his spiked glove that she better leave and not come backThe players are now in Tokyo. The Tokyo team is beating all of them half to death. Moonpie takes a blow to the head by a spiked glove by one of the team members and is in a coma. A Japanese doctor tries to persuade Jonathan to sign for Moonpie to be removed from life support, but Jonathan refusesBartholomew is on a televised video conference with various executives from the Energy Corporation about having Jonathan E removed from the game and for Rollerball to go back to its intended meaning and effort. All the men concurJonathan is now in Geneva, Switzerland at the worlds largest computer bank to get information about the corporate wars and the decisions made by corporate executives. The computer malfunctions and fails to give him any straight answers.Jonathan's ex-wife Ella, whom the corporation removed from him, comes to visit him at his ranch. Ella tries to reassure Jonathan that the corporation took her away for a good reason and it was all over the game. She also tries to convince him to quit and that he'll die if he doesn't, with the new set of rules. Jonathan erases all video footage of he and Ella together and Ella leaves.The Rollerball team is now playing New York City. No substitutions, penalties, or time limits. Half the players end up knocked out or dead and Jonathan scores. The crowd chants his name and Mr. Bartholomew is furious. Jonathan skates endlessly, then the frame freezes and the credits roll.

Tags: murder, cult, revenge, violence, flashback, suspenseful, sci-fi

Review:
The corporation has taken away the woman he loves(Maud Adams),but they won't take away his soul even if the diabolical corporate head(John Houseman)tells him he'd better retire..or suffer the old-fashioned way.With some surrealistic imagery,Orwellian theme,and tense action with some of the best action sequences ever filmed,this picture will grip you from the moment the ball rolling out and zooms into the stadium to its chilling cilmax,this movie has haunted audiences as it takes a look into the future and what the future would become,and has a stunning effect.
He tries every trick without success.The supporting cast is filled with great actors, like Moses Gunn, John Beck, Sir Ralph Richardson (not John Gielgud, as one reviewer stated), Maude Adams, and Shane Rimmer.The film demonstrates that the individual can triumph over insurmountable odds and cautions against corporate control of society.
As John Houseman, the corrupt and ubiquitous head of the all-powerful Corporation that owns and operates ROLLERBALL inc worldwide, tells Jonathan at one point, "Rollerball was meant to demonstrate the futility of resistance, no man was ever intended to become bigger than the game." This was a society (set in 2018) with media censorship in place to such a degree a centralised computer stores the worlds' entire literary knowledge (physical books being a thing of the past as in FAHRENHEIT 451.
We couldn't understand why the whole film wasn't just composed of game sequences (a criticism also leveled by at least one reviewer on this site).Now, having just watched the movie twice in a night, the second time with the director's commentary, I have finally got to grips with the scenes between the action, and discovered that I like it more than ever.
In this way, when we come to watch the actual contests, our enthusiasm is whetted, and by making the rules progressively more dangerous with each passing game, the stakes grow ever higher.The central themes of the movie are (i) loss-of-soul/nihilism/sensual-vs-spiritual-happiness, and (ii) individuality vs state control.
If the film were truly anti-sport,then I think Jonathan would drop the ball and leave; he would mock the game as Mandy Patinkin's character does hockey at the end of SLAPSHOT.
But here you'll see an excellent example of what scifi was designed to do: comment on our current human condition by creating a fictional (extreme) scenario as a cautionary tale.Excellent, and I mean EXCELLENT performances by James Caan (The Godfather, Misery), John Houseman (The Paper Chase, The Fog), Maud Adams (3 James Bond films), Moses Gunn (every 70s TV show from Hawaii 5-O to Shaft), and a particularly gripping performance by Pamela Hensley (Princess Ardala in "Buck Rogers" homina homina) make this an all-star powerhouse of 70s talent.The music deserves a special mention of its own.
But since rollerball has never been played, James Caan as Jonathan E really looks like the best in the game.
From the beginning we sense the stakes are higher -- Jonathan E will either conform or die.That brings up the fact that ROLLERBALL also shares a central theme with a lot of other powerful movies, like FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, COOL HAND Luke, and even A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS.
The rugged action scenes are so real you hardly notice that rollerball is a make believe game.James Caan as Jonathan E turns in a sensitive, nuanced performance, deliberately underplaying the tough guy side as much as possible.
"Rollerball" even foreshadowed the political correctness of the 1990's with the generic Bach-like Corporate Anthem played before each game.When the film was produced, roller derbies were hot items on TV and attended by large gatherings of blood-thirsty fans who egged on the pugilistic elements participating.
Jim Croce even had a hit record parodying the game, "Roller Derby Queen." Add bikes, spike-studded gloves, the roller ball, change a few rules and there's Rollerball.One of the more interesting elements of "Rollerball" is how it differs from the futuristic societies depicted in the two classics, "1984" and "Brave New World." Rather than Big Brother watching you, an anonymous board of directors who run a corporate global conglomeration rule the world.
The only important part for a woman in "Rollerball" is when a pistol is used to set trees ablaze making the depletion of the rain forests seem like child's play.The story concerns Rollerball idol of millions, Jonathan E., who for some unknown reason the corporate ladder orders to retire at the height of his career.
Released in the summer of 1975, there are definite and readily apparent influences of earlier films, not the least of which being Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange." The colors, the film stock, the editing style are all reminiscent of that earlier, similarly-themed master work, yet I don't believe it detracted from this film at all.Supposedly set in the year 2018 (though this is never established in the movie, that I could tell), corporations have replaced governments and managed to eliminate war, poverty, disease and bad hair days.
Director Norman Jewison couldn't know what the world of forty years in his future would be like, so he took the wise route of not making it all that different from 1975, but with subtle changes (such as the interesting but impractical "multivision" concept in which all TV sets have a large screen and three smaller screens above it, each showing different but related pictures).
The world's greatest star of the sport Jonathan E finds himself being manipulated by a global corporate company Believe it or not after THE GODFATHER films were released it wasn't Pacino or DeNiro who was going to be the biggest star from the films but James Caan .
George Orwell described sport as " War without the shooting " and as someone who grew up in the west of Scotland I can testify that most peoples obsession revolves around two football clubs Rangers and Celtic who attract a lot of sectarian pond life and there's a blackly comical joke that there's only six letters in the West of Scotland alphabet - IRA and UVF , so the idea of corporate companies controlling the masses wasn't a ridiculous idea when this film was made The problem is that the message is a bit too heavy handed to be entirely credible .
Rollerball star Jonathan E, as played by James Caan, knows this all too well - his wife was taken from him by one of the corporation's executives.The game known as Rollerball fits in as a sort of enforcement of these rules.
In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes (James Caan) is out to defy those who want him out of the game.So, the film is known for its stunts and being the first film to give credit to the stunt performers in the credits.
James Caan plays a dull, shallow hero ("the great Jonathan E") who tries in his own thickheaded way to learn the hows and whys of his world--but largely to get back the love of his life, a woman even more shallow than him, and ultimately far less appealing.
James Caan stars in Rollerball and if you can forget the silly remake and the fact that audiences completely missed the message and that the thing was adapted into a real "sport" then you're in for a treat.
However, the powerful themes woven so artfully into this gem only add to the visceral thrill that even a sports-hater like me gets from hearing the organ thundering out Bach's shimmering chords and seeing the silver ball slammed home.Twenty-five years later, as government steals more and more of our individual freedoms while placating the masses with socialist bread and circuses, this movie's strong, jarring themes ring truer than ever.
We only see them as mind-numbed chanting sports fans.Rollerball has some interesting ideas, but the film just lasts too long and doesn't have as much action as you'll probably want.
But Jonathan doesn't want to leave and the Corporation gets angry...The film LOOKS great with some stunning set designs and costumes.
The violent game play is only part of this movie that looks realistic.The acting by the extras is quite good, they look like drug crazed, hedonistic maniacs who live only to get high, get laid, and watch roller ball games, especially in the tree frying scene.
This thoughtful direction gives a sense of the "vibe" of life in this future world, and elevates this movie beyond the action-flick genre.And I cannot close out this review without mentioning the power of the final scene.
Leading the Huston team is the greatest player in Rollerball history Jonathan E.,James Caan, who together with his fellow teammate Moonpie, John Beck, bashing heads and breaking bones in no time at all demolish the Spanish team beating it 3 to 1 with Jonathan scoring all the points for Huston.After the game in the locker room Jonathan is asked by the Huston team owner Energy Corps.
Being in the game for ten years, more then any other player, it's felt by the worlds top corporate executives and CEO's that it's time for Jonathan to call it quits.
Jonathan in his not getting killed or baldy injured but winning championship after championship for Huston was doing exactly that!Given the choice to retire and live a life of luxury and pleasure for the rest of his days by the corporate elite Jonhatan instead, in a sign of rebellion against his masters, chooses to continue to play the dangerous game of Rollerball for Huston and lead his team to the world Rollerball championship, thats to be played in New York City.
It's determined that there would no rules at all with the only winner being the last player left standing alive on the blood-splattered skating rink.The movie "Rollerball" was one of the biggest box office successes of 1975, it grossed $30 million dollars, but was both overlooked and not taken seriously as a thought-provoking motion picture like most people watching it now.
Despite his superb performance Jonathan's good friend and teammate Moonpie ends up with a near-fatal injury leaving him practically dead, actually brain-dead, to the world.It now comes down to the championship game against the tough and no-holds barred New York Rollerball team that has been declared, by the corporate giants, to be a last man standing event.
The plot hinges on a sudden demand by the corporate powers who rule the world that the star player of THE GAME and captain of the Houston team, Jonathan E (Caan), retire.
So it was no wonder that it led to a crossover of those two genres - and it was Norman Jewison's turn to create the ultimate chase'n'fight science fiction drama of the mid-seventies.Filmed in 1975 in the then futuristic setting of the Munich Olympic Stadium, it shows us a time in the early 21st century when there are no governments and wars and crisis anymore, but big companies ruling the world.
The most popular hobby to keep people busy and satisfied are rollerball races, a mix of roller blades, ice hockey, rugby, American football and motorcycle racing with a large amount of seriously hurt and killed players.The most brutal star of the game, Jonathan (played by James Caan), is a big media hero, just like in our times.
Jonathan refuses to stop and wants to continue - so he's got a big problem as the presidents of the companies change the rules of the game and send killers into the arena....There are only three Rollerball matches - one in the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the movie, each becoming more brutal, bloody and deadly as the one before.
that's the efficient ruthless and insidious ruling politics of the corporate elite in the year 2018; the nations are kept sedated into a state of well-being, totally deprived of information, in conclusion subdued to the worst kind of captivity, mental slavery; freedom that comes through knowledge has been traded for comfort, and the Rollerball game has been created to inhibit the individual effort and initiative; Jonathan's 'awakening' and decision to play the game until the end taking the risk of sacrificing his own life is the ultimate heroic gesture against the monolith-corporations and their disguised tyranny, statement underlined in a very discrete yet powerful way; big ups for this excellent prophetic dystopia.
At first, he is bemused and doesn't understand, but as the movie progresses, we see him simply refusing to change as instructed while seeking the answer to why he is being asked to give up the one thing that gives his life meaning.For those of us (myself included) who may not understand the message buried in the dialog, we are eventually told the simple premise behind the game itself, its role in a perfected (though far from perfect) society and the stunningly simple answer to the question as to why this man is being told to conform.The dramatic development of the political theme and the characters make the actual game sequences meaningful and interesting, not because roller derby with motorcycles is in any way compelling, but because it brings the inherent struggle of the story to a pique and engulfs both ideas and characters that are extremely well set up.I cannot help but think that in modern times, as we witness the (attempted) manifestation of many of the Utopian ideas presented in this film, that it is a timely reminder of - and a timely warning against - the essential forfeiture of liberty that seems more and more unavoidable.This may be billed as an action film, but it's actually a thinking film and will challenge you intellectually even as those motorcycles which never seem to have any purpose race around the track..
A mixture of speedway, roller-skating, basketball and raw gladiatorial combat: that's rollerball, sport of the future, opium of the people, and the subject of Norman Jewison's eponymous film, which tells the story of Jonathan E., the star who becomes too big for the game.
After re-watching it recently I now understand the fundamental theme of the film & actually found the non-action parts more interesting than the games.There are plenty of reviews here describing what the movie is about, so I won't go into that.
Only the team matters and it is therefore a great analogy for the corporate utopia depicted.Rollerball looks very dated now but I'm sure modern films that depict the near future will also appear dated in 30+ years.
All these elements combined to derail a society where corporate America has created an impersonal and morally depraved world through violent entertainment for the masses.If you want to see an interesting 1970's flick, with violence, hot babes, or to just watch James Caan pulverize people into hamburger, then Rollerball is worth a look..
James Caan is really good (I found myself wishing I was more familiar with his work); his performance as a Rollerball veteran and champion who is so conditioned to combat that even the corporations that govern the world don't scare him is great.Yes, the costumes are cheesy; yes, it CLEARLY is a movie from the 1970s (roller derby and pinball combined with excessive violence); yes, it MAY be a little bit slow for very brief moments (I never thougt it was slow but my mate thought it dragged a bit at the end).However, it is still really good, and I plan to buy it on DVD..
The Rollerball action sequences are superb, fast and violent as you would expect from the sport that has replaced wars.The plot's anti-violence and anti-corporate subtexts are somewhat harder to follow, but more is revealed on each viewing.One of my all-time favourites.
The 70s got some of the best sci-fi movies ever done: Soylent Green, Colossus, Silent Running, Solaris, The Omega Man, Logan's Run, Westworld, Dark Star, Star Wars, The Black Hole, Alien, Mad Max, Stalker and and and.One of those classics is Rollerball with James Caan as the superplayer of a deadly game, made by the corporations who rule now the world to entertain the masses.
As the action is set in the year 2018 for this 1977 film you have to ask yourself just how close are we to the world that Rollerball projects for our future?
James Caan plays Jonathan E in the year 2018, and he is star champion of the ultra violent sport called Rollerball.
But his joy won't last long: Bartholomew (John Houseman), head of the corporate power and supporter of the Houston team for quite a long time, wants him out for reasons he doesn't feel like explaining.But Jonathan has no intention of retiring: the rollerball is everything he has.
But what I saw when watching "Rollerball" was an inert, dreary film that establishes a central conceit early on and then spends the rest of its lengthy running time not developing that conceit at all.James Caan is zoned out in the central role of a celebrity Rollerball player who is asked by the shadowy corporate entities who seem to run everything, and who are represented by John Houseman, to retire because he has become too famous and is setting a bad example of an individual who is becoming more powerful than the masses.
It's movies like this that make the 70's my favourite decade for film.It's the story of one man's refusal to accept his assimilation into a society run by corporations.
The three games of Rollerball are breathtaking and if you just like action movies, it's worth seeing just for those.
The Pinnacle of 1970s Sci Fi. One of the grimmest and most effective projections of the corporate future, Rollerball is unrelentingly dark in its portrayal of a high profile athlete(Jonathan E.- James Caan) who begins questioning the assumptions holding his world together.
James Caan is Jonathan, the best player in the game and the powers that be want him to retire.