Sometime back in the late 1970's I first saw a movie called "Rollerball" on TV. It was one of those pre-"Star Wars" Science Fiction movies. Kind of a low-budget look and lots of low speed talk-talk between the cool action sequences. I suppose I've seen it a half-dozen or so times since then but not terribly recently. So a few weeks ago I got a jones to see it again. So I ordered it on-line and watched it the other night. One of the things I was wondering was how my experience of the movie would change with the years gone past. I had something like that happen when I re-read Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" . When I was younger I was more interested in the action/fighting/war parts of the book and less on the philosophical parts which struck me as slow and talky. No such luck.

Rollerball, the sport, is a strange, ultra-violent hybrid of American Football, motorcycle racing, and roller derby with a dash of Roman gladiatorial combat tossed in for spice. "Rollerball, the movie, is set in the near future where nation states have withered away and the world in controlled by a handful of global corporations. For the mass of people there is only work, for their color coded corporation ... and Rollerball. James Caan is Jonathan E. (Just "E.") Jonathan is the grand champion Rollerball player. He plays for Houston (The Energy (Corporation) City!), who are on a rocket for the championship. Only three more teams to beat. But things are not all well in the world of sport.

Bartholomew (no first name this time), played by the stern John Houseman, is the head of Energy. He and his fellow corporate chieftains want Jonathan to quit. He's entirely too popular, you see. The purpose of Rollerball is more than to distract and entertain, you see, it's to teach the lesson to the people of the futility of individuality. No matter how good you are Rollerball will take you down eventually. Best to take what you're given and not worry about the whys and hows of everything. Except for Jonathan. Rollerball only seems to make him stronger and he really doesn't care to quit right now, OK? And now that you mention it he has some questions. Starting with that executive who took his wife away from him...

You see where this is headed, right? Jonathan, butt-headed jock that he is really isn't interested in what's being offered him and the harder the dudes in the suits push him the more he's determined to stay on... and the more focused he becomes on getting his answers. The power structure's response is to use the game as a weapon against Jonathan by changing the rules to make things even more dangerous for Rollerball players.

Caan plays Jonathan in a low-key sort of way. Most of his dialog is delivered in a drawled mumble that is often comes across as a little dumb. I guess he's supposed to be a sort of Everyman who's not heavily into enunciation but I found it annoying. John Beck plays Moonpie, Jonathan's partner and track wingman is another Texas good ole' boy. His down-home disparagement of the Tokyo team ("Lil' teeny men.") may not play so well with modern PC sensibilities. Housman delivers all his lines with great, almost exaggerated gravitas even if the situation really doesn't quite call for it. Maud Addams is Jonathan's ex-wife and Pamela Helmsley (from the "Buck Rogers" TV show, oh yeah, like you did watch it!) is his company provided fringe benefit squeeze. Ralph Richardson also appears in a small role as a librarian who can't give Jonathan the answers he's seeking.

This movie is very nice to watch, even the dull scenes between Rollerball matches. Director Norman Jewison
scoured the globe for futuristic architecture, mid 70's style. Everybody, especially the female extras, is very pretty in an off-key, retro, Austin Powers sort of way. The movie's "look" hasn't really aged well. The Rollerball matches are the most intensely imagined segments of the movie. Even though the sets are rather obviously re-dressed roller rinks the cinematography here is excellent and stimulating. Jewison says in a featurette short that he was trying to make a Big Statement about violence and media control. Sorry, dude, the violent parts are the best parts. Without the Rollerball segments it would be like some "film" from France: taalktalktalktalktalksnooooooozzzzzeeee. And that's the problem with the movie. Everybody in the movie lives large, sort of modern Roman Empire style, people eat laying down, shoot flare guns at trees, and do happy pills, very decadent. Whatever. Put some more Rollerball on!

As to the DVD, they really should have dug down another few inches and remastered the print (or whatever you call it...). The movie looks rather cruddy and grainy maybe something could have been done about Caan's mumbling as well. The DVD extras include the above-mentioned featurette, director's commentary, and a silly "sort-the-scenes game thingie that I thought might open an easter egg, but apparently not...oh well. It's also packaged in that horrible double-sided format with widescreen on one side and full-screen on the other.

Anyway, if you're up for some lashings of the old ultra-violence and don't mind sitting through some rather Dullsville story in between Rollerball's worth your time, barely.

By the way, I should mention that from all reports the recent re-make is an intestinal deposit you should avoid like a tropical disease.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older