This film defies classification or easy description. It's science fiction, but not really. It's social commentary, but not really. It's an action film, but not really. It's a cautionary tale, but... Are you starting to get the idea? Well, not really.
Rollerball is a story set in a near future where nation states have destroyed themselves via war, and have been replaced by corporations providing social services, structure, and governance. A classic description of dystopia. But not really, because everyone's beautiful and well provided for. But not really, because corporate executives wield absolute authority over every aspect of people's lives, so there's no freedom. But not really, because everyone's happy with all their luxuries and easy living, and no one bothers to test the bounds of their lives or ask any questions.
Enter Jonathan E (James Caan), an uncomplicated man who's starting to get the idea that something's amiss with this world. Jonathan E is an athlete in a game called Rollerball, an amazingly violent, brutal distillation of football, hockey, roller derby, motocross, gladiatorial combat, Unreal Tournament 2004, and jumping into a chipper shredder. Jonathan is the best player the game has ever seen. And that's a problem for the corporate executives, who designed the game specifically to chew people up, to reinforce the concept that individual effort and achievement was futile.
Jonathan E is summoned by Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman), Executive Director of the Energy Corporation, which owns the Houston Rollerball team for which Jonathan plays. Jonathan is politely asked to retire from the game. Bartholomew says the corporation is merely looking after his own best interests. But Jonathan is already soured on the idea of corporate benevolence, as they took away his wife some years ago and gave her to an executive. He was never told why. He seems to have accepted that indignity with great difficulty. But for this newest request, he hesitates. He doesn't understand why the corporation would want its best player to retire, or why he should be forced to compromise again. He starts asking questions. He wants to know why.
And that is simply Not Done in this corporate-run world.
The corporation retaliates by changing the rules of Rollerball to make it more brutal, more dangerous, presumably in the hopes Jonathan will be injured or killed. But it is Jonathan's closest teammate, Moonpie, who is seriously injured and rendered brain dead. It's here when Jonathan realizes that there are no "rules" in corporate society; that executives will change things around at whim to serve some unspecified ends.
Jonathan decides to seek out the highest authority he knows: a computer named Zero which is the central index of all human knowledge and history. He asks it how corporate decisions are made and who makes them. Jonathan gets essentially gibberish in response, despite the computer technician kicking the machine and yelling at it to answer the question. Whether the computer is actively refusing to tell Jonathan, or it simply doesn't know, is left unclear.
Not even Jonathan is sure of his motives at this point. But the idea of simply walking away, as everyone around him has pleaded with him to do, is even more of an anathema to him as he enters the final game of the Rollerball season. The rules have been changed again, essentially to ensure that no one will leave the Rollerball rink alive. With essentially no rules, the carnage is total. All pretense of sportsmanship and fair play are abandoned. Jonathan is badly injured but plays on. Jonathan smashes the only other remaining player from his motorcycle. He is about to cave his face in with the game ball, but relents. He seems to discover, in that moment, that his enemy is not the player before him, but the game itself. With labored effort, he stumbles toward the goal and plunges the ball in -- the only goal scored in the game. The scoreboard reads 1-0, with him as the last man standing. Jonathan has not won the game. He has defeated it.
This film leaves you asking lots of questions: How could a corporate state succeed in comprehensive economic prosperity where previous governments failed? Why did the corporation see Jonathan's removal from the game as their only option? Why was Rollerball the only public spectacle available? Surely you want multiple spectacles so that you can diffuse popular interest, so that no single spectacle or emerging personality can dominate the popular consciousness.
Perhaps that is the hallmark of an important film -- one that keeps you asking questions. Rollerball doesn't neatly slot in to any of the common cinematic genres. It's not flashy, it doesn't have a rich score or very quotable dialog. The acting is restrained. It has a few good action sequences, but nothing compared to modern spectacles, or even other action movies of its time. The look of the film is dated, due to its heavy 1970's jet-set vision of the future (for which I have a nostalgic attraction). There is not one single thing that you can point to in this film that is its stand-out, defining quality.
And yet, the film as a whole seems to demand to be seen. As you watch the film, you can't help but get the feeling that Something Is Going On Here. That there's something important and significant about this film, and that you should pay attention.
And I guess that's what I have to say about this film: Find it, watch it, and pay attention. Because it's that kind of film.
Rollerball is a story set in a near future where nation states have destroyed themselves via war, and have been replaced by corporations providing social services, structure, and governance. A classic description of dystopia. But not really, because everyone's beautiful and well provided for. But not really, because corporate executives wield absolute authority over every aspect of people's lives, so there's no freedom. But not really, because everyone's happy with all their luxuries and easy living, and no one bothers to test the bounds of their lives or ask any questions.
Enter Jonathan E (James Caan), an uncomplicated man who's starting to get the idea that something's amiss with this world. Jonathan E is an athlete in a game called Rollerball, an amazingly violent, brutal distillation of football, hockey, roller derby, motocross, gladiatorial combat, Unreal Tournament 2004, and jumping into a chipper shredder. Jonathan is the best player the game has ever seen. And that's a problem for the corporate executives, who designed the game specifically to chew people up, to reinforce the concept that individual effort and achievement was futile.
Jonathan E is summoned by Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman), Executive Director of the Energy Corporation, which owns the Houston Rollerball team for which Jonathan plays. Jonathan is politely asked to retire from the game. Bartholomew says the corporation is merely looking after his own best interests. But Jonathan is already soured on the idea of corporate benevolence, as they took away his wife some years ago and gave her to an executive. He was never told why. He seems to have accepted that indignity with great difficulty. But for this newest request, he hesitates. He doesn't understand why the corporation would want its best player to retire, or why he should be forced to compromise again. He starts asking questions. He wants to know why.
And that is simply Not Done in this corporate-run world.
The corporation retaliates by changing the rules of Rollerball to make it more brutal, more dangerous, presumably in the hopes Jonathan will be injured or killed. But it is Jonathan's closest teammate, Moonpie, who is seriously injured and rendered brain dead. It's here when Jonathan realizes that there are no "rules" in corporate society; that executives will change things around at whim to serve some unspecified ends.
Jonathan decides to seek out the highest authority he knows: a computer named Zero which is the central index of all human knowledge and history. He asks it how corporate decisions are made and who makes them. Jonathan gets essentially gibberish in response, despite the computer technician kicking the machine and yelling at it to answer the question. Whether the computer is actively refusing to tell Jonathan, or it simply doesn't know, is left unclear.
Not even Jonathan is sure of his motives at this point. But the idea of simply walking away, as everyone around him has pleaded with him to do, is even more of an anathema to him as he enters the final game of the Rollerball season. The rules have been changed again, essentially to ensure that no one will leave the Rollerball rink alive. With essentially no rules, the carnage is total. All pretense of sportsmanship and fair play are abandoned. Jonathan is badly injured but plays on. Jonathan smashes the only other remaining player from his motorcycle. He is about to cave his face in with the game ball, but relents. He seems to discover, in that moment, that his enemy is not the player before him, but the game itself. With labored effort, he stumbles toward the goal and plunges the ball in -- the only goal scored in the game. The scoreboard reads 1-0, with him as the last man standing. Jonathan has not won the game. He has defeated it.
This film leaves you asking lots of questions: How could a corporate state succeed in comprehensive economic prosperity where previous governments failed? Why did the corporation see Jonathan's removal from the game as their only option? Why was Rollerball the only public spectacle available? Surely you want multiple spectacles so that you can diffuse popular interest, so that no single spectacle or emerging personality can dominate the popular consciousness.
Perhaps that is the hallmark of an important film -- one that keeps you asking questions. Rollerball doesn't neatly slot in to any of the common cinematic genres. It's not flashy, it doesn't have a rich score or very quotable dialog. The acting is restrained. It has a few good action sequences, but nothing compared to modern spectacles, or even other action movies of its time. The look of the film is dated, due to its heavy 1970's jet-set vision of the future (for which I have a nostalgic attraction). There is not one single thing that you can point to in this film that is its stand-out, defining quality.
And yet, the film as a whole seems to demand to be seen. As you watch the film, you can't help but get the feeling that Something Is Going On Here. That there's something important and significant about this film, and that you should pay attention.
And I guess that's what I have to say about this film: Find it, watch it, and pay attention. Because it's that kind of film.