Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Set a few decades in the future, we find a world where violence has been outlawed and corporations are the new governments. The pacified population's primal blood-lust is serviced by viewing the ultra-violent and massively popular game Rollerball. Contestants regularly die during games and the longest surviving veteran of the sport has only lasted ten years; he is Jonathan E and he is the acknowledged superstar of the sport but his fame has reached levels that concern the leaders. They believe his popularity has put him on a pedestal and this hero worship goes against the intended message of the sport that individualism is doomed and collective effort is all. Because of this, the rulers insist he retires but he refuses and so new rules are implemented to make the game ever more nihilistic and deadly with the hope it results in Jonathan E's death.Rollerball is yet another movie which follows the 70's trend for dystopian sci-fi, or perhaps more accurately utopian sci-fi. Quite a few films of the period depicted utopian societies where many of the negatives of life have been eradicated but at a cost to individual freedoms. In fact, these films suggest that utopias and dystopias are just two sides of the same coin. In the future world of Rollerball illness, violence and poverty have been eradicated but so too are individualism and true freedom. There is no unrestricted access to knowledge and the people live strange soulless hedonistic lives. In one stand-out scene we see a group of affluent young people venture out into the grounds of a large estate during a party to fire an extremely powerful handgun at large trees, setting them ablaze. This is the kind of activity that the people indulge in for kicks in this brave new world.The social commentary is always welcome in sci-fi films like these and this one is no different but it's probably the Rollerball sequences themselves that offer up the true highlights of the movie. The game is set in an arena with combatants kitted out in helmets and heavy protective gear, with some on motorbikes. A steel ball is fired into play and it is them a case of anything goes with all manner of violence actively encouraged. These scenes are very well shot and edited together and make for dynamic and exciting stuff. The acting overall is nothing especially too memorable it must be said. This is mainly because the underplayed nature of performances which underline the downbeat nature of the world that they exist in. James Caan does what he can with his role but his character is limited really. Overall, Rollerball's combination of dystopian pensive sci-fi with high octane action is its secret weapon. Both threads complement each other and feed off one another, resulting in a very distinctive bit of 70's sci-fi that gets you fired up while simultaneously makes you think. It was remade in 2002 in a hilariously misguided fashion; needless to say, the original towers over that one.

I had heard about the apparently rubbish 2002 film with American Pie's Chris Klein, but I had no idea it was a remake, so it was only right to watch the original 1975 version first, directed by Norman Jewison (In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck). Basically in the not too distant future, the year 2018, the world is a global corporate state, society is controlled by corporations, there is no more crime and there are no more wars. A violent sport called Rollerball has become globally popular, two teams in body armour on roller skates, three are on motorcycles to tow fellow team members, travel on a banked, circular track, to get possession of a small steel ball, fired from a cannon, to throw and hit it on the goal, a magnetic, cone-shaped area on the wall, there is close contact as the opposing team try to take possession of the ball. Energy Corporation sponsors the Houston team, Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the veteran star of the Houston rollerball team, but Energy Corporation chairman Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman) wants him to retire, he offers him a large sum if he agrees to announce retirement on a special programme about his career, Jonathan struggles to understand why. Jonathan continues playing, despite threats from Bartholomew, the game of rollerball changes as the rules are made more dangerous, in order to force Jonathan out, there is also a point where the sinister corporate forces attempt to kill him, he even gets a surprise visit from his ex-wife Ella (Maud Adams), who confesses the corporation ordered her to convince him to retire. As the game of rollerball reaches the Final, Jonathan is still willing to play, despite many players being incapacitated and killed, the crowd are raucous and energetic, subdued by the building carnage, after violent struggles, the world watches in silence, until Jonathan scores the final point and wins the game for Houston against New York, Mr. Bartholomew exits the arena, knowing that the purpose of the game has been defeated. Also starring John Beck as Moonpie, Moses Gunn as Cletus, Pamela Hensley as Mackie, Barbara Trentham as Daphne, Ralph Richardson as Librarian, Shane Rimmer as Rusty, Team Executive, Burt Kwouk as Japanese Doctor and Richard LeParmentier as Bartholomew's Aide. Caan as the loner champion going against the system is good, Houseman does well in his moments as the vicious corporate villain doing whatever it takes to get rid of him, most of the film is a bit slow with chatty sequences about corruption and politics, but the pace is just about kept up by the energetic and brutal games of rollerball, a lethal mix of hockey, roller derby, motorbike racing and gang warfare, it's a reasonable dystopian science-fiction sports action film. Worth watching!

Norman Jewison and William Harrison expand Harrison's short story into a full length feature film, with great results. Story takes place in 2018 and the world is a global corporate state, a hegemony of six ruling cartels. There are no wars, poverty and etc, so the cartels provide the antidote to pent up frustrations with Rollerball, a bloodthirsty arena sport where no quarter is given or taken. But when the sports number one star, Jonathan E, becomes a free spirit and too big for the sport, the corporations aim to retire him…Headed by a superb James Caan as Jonathan, the performances are from the high end, the photography superb and the action during the games themselves is beautifully choreographed. The use of classical music to run concurrent with the themes in the narrative is smartly rendered to the tricksy plot, while the writing is sharp and deserving of the utmost attention from the viewer. It's folly to suggest that when the film is away from the Rollerball ring it sags a touch, so patience is required and a respect of literate posturing is also expected to get the most out of it.A deftly crafted dystopian sci-fier with literate smarts and lusty blood letting. 7.5/10

Watched this as a kid and was totally engrossed in the game, really wanted to play Rollerball for real although I'm a lousy skater (maybe I could have ridden one of the motorbikes?). Reputedly the cast and crew actually did play Rollerball (presumably with penalties, substitutions and time limits rather than the ultimate no holds barred version we see at the end?) in between takes and really got into it. I wonder if there's any film of that? In the 70s 2000AD magazine had a comic strip 'inspired' by Rollerball where the players wore jetpacks which is about the only way you could make the game more exciting.What makes it special though is that it's not just a glorification of a brutal futuristic sport but a study of the role of the individual in a civilized society. Thomas Mann would recognise the concept although he probably wouldn't have included motorbikes in it. The future is depicted as a quasi-benign dictatorship as Plato always advocated. We have no wars, no crime, no poverty, corporations run the show and conflicts are confined to the boardroom and stock exchange. People are free within the system as long as they don't question the established order. Some have described it as fascist but actually it strikes me as more communistic, the individual sublimated for the sake of the greater good. However mankind never changes so an outlet is needed for aggression and populist entertainment. Hence we have Rollerball. Problem is in a society which values conformity Jonathan E has become an individualistic superstar and that threatens the whole nature of society. Great performance from James Caan and equally great from John Houseman who isn't exactly the villain, it's very subtle on his part, you can't really be sure who's right or wrong in all this (noticeably Houseman's character doesn't want Jonathan to have an 'accident'). Also like Shame Rimmer as the team manager, the obedient corporate stooge who tells it as it is but still cares about his team, trying to prevent an injured Jonathan E from going back out to probable death during the final game (the New York manager noticeably succeeding in doing the same for one of his players). Fantastic music too, the classical influence contrasting with the sheer brutality of the game. And it is still shocking after all these years, the scene where the injured player slides down the rink leaving a bloody trail behind him still makes you cringe. You're so happy that Jonathan spares the final New York player and then goes on to score the final point, to him it's still all about the game rather than the violence. No offence to Star Wars but it rather killed the more thoughtful sci-fi we had in the 1970s, Silent Running, Dark Star, Logan's Run, THX 1138, Westworld, Solaris, The Omega Man etc. The only bad thing is Jonathan's trip to the the computer bank in Geneva which is utterly baffling.