so according to this movie... in 10 years time keith will be fighting on roller skates, skate faster than a motorbike, eating a shit load of altoids, have a friend in a coma and make it his mission to bring down the establishment.
i wanted to like it so much for caan's sake and the love of 'the program'... but i kept gettin distracted by the world... that might be my mind telling me it not worth the watch!?
until the ending... no clue what is going on but the last 3 frames of the movie make up for it all!
This movie was made in 1975 but is set sometime in the early 21st century. I first saw it on TV in my dorm room in college with a bunch of other guys. It was supposed to be this great movie but it was so laid back that it kind of got boring during the parts between the rollerball matches. When I got the CD and watched it again it still puts you asleep. The rollerball matches are exiting but are mostly filmed close up so you can't see what's going on except for a bunch of guys fighting each other. The background of the story is a world were corporations have replaced governments and are running the world. The corporate leaders don't want a sports superstar to become too popular. The James Caan character Jonathan E. is becoming that popular so someone has decided he should retire. He refuses and so the game is changed to make it more dangerous in hopes that he will be killed. In the end he defies the odds and is the sole surviving player in the championship game. It's an interesting film to see how close we have come to the future predicted in the film. In the movie the corporations have ended all wars and use rollerball to provide violent entertainment for the common people. Today corporations own most of the professional sports teams and are going to local governments to finance new sports arenas. Local governments are using eminent domain to clear land for corporate strip malls that put small local businesses out business. Professional athletes were allowed to abuse their bodies with steroids for years in order to increase the number of fans. So in a way the movie is still relevant today.
I bought this at The Christmas Tree Shoppe for a dollar - so far so good! Eh, for everyone riding it's dick about it's stance against corporations it wasn't that amazing. The only good part was James Caan almost killing everyone while on rollerskates. Death Race 2000 had basically the same premise AND Sensei Kreese, so, let's not kid ourselves about which film is better.
The idea that corporations will rule the world one day seems very realistic. It is hard to understand the society in which the characters live in this film by just watching the film. Reading the plot online, I understood it better. The movie needs to have an explaination of the history behind the rollerball game and why they play it.
When I first saw this movie, I was too young to fully understand it. I just knew that it had guys skating around beating the hell out of each other, and that was enough for me. As I've gotten older and watched it again, I have a better understanding of the movie. It's set in the not-too-distant future (even less distant these days) in a world very different from the one we now live in. Instead of countries, the world is dominated by corporations (maybe not as different as I first thought). The sport of Rollerball has become a sort of substitute for the wars of the past. Players represent their cities, each controlled by a different corporation, in a hyper-aggressive sport. James Caan portrays Jonathan E, the best Rollerballer to ever play the game. He has become so powerful as to actually be seen as a threat to the executives and they try to convince him to retire. He refuses, so they conspire to make the game more violent in order to force him into retirement. It all leads up to a fairly predictable climax, but an entertaining one nonetheless. It's not the best or most thought-provoking movie, but a very entertaining one. And the action sequences are top-notch. Definitely worth a look.
In a corporate controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of it's powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.
The plot of this film is, to say the least, sketchy. I mean, basically it's like some guy said, 'Hey, I gotta great, high concept idea. Let's make a film centred around the star of an ultraviolent sport.' ...
'Right, okay. What's the story?'
'That's it. We'll just show this ultraviolent sport, and have the guy in some kind of career crisis or something.'
'Riiighhhtt...'
'And we'll cast James Caan.'
'Brilliant! Let's do it. What's the sport?'
'Umm. It's football meets basketball, meets roller-hockey meets motocross.'
'That's some mixed-up sport! What shall we call it?'
'How about baseketball?'
'Nah, thats some piece of pap, namby pamby comedy name. Only an idiot would use it. How about, 'Rollerball.''
'Cool.'
And that's it. Credit must go to James Caan for underplaying the role, and the production team for giving the film a naturalistic look and feel. The effect is almost to pull a decent bit of film out of nothing. But in the end, there is no story worth heck, and even the mechanics of the sport are left vague, so afterwards you are left with a somewhat underwhelming, 'Oh.' Still, I wouldn't actively avoid this film, unlike its more recent remake.
Forget the douche bag remake; this classic has it where it counts. Pulse driving action layered w/ social statement of violence in society as well as the political/corporate powers to be
As usual, I prefer this version of Rollerball over the remake without any hesitation. This is a great statement of one man trying to fight the entire system which, personally speaking, I think is the essence of the movie. And I love that idea. James Caan plays the burning-out everyman who finds his life in the spotlight in a lot more ways than one. This is a great, fun movie to watch, definitely.
Rollerball is an interesting and thought-provoking film with a truly unforgettable climax, and one that deserves to be seen. It is also a genuine science fiction film in that it attempts to extrapolate a future from present trends as opposed to the flashy CGI driven drivel that gives the genre such a bad name.
Whoever watched that trash remake of this great movie, should watch this one aswell, and than will realise why rhis is one of the greatest SF movies in seventies, and good even today...
This ones great! So much better than the remake that never should have happened. The game itself is violent and fast and I can see this kind of future really happening. This is one I need to get on DVD ASAP.
Strange in that it's a deep movie wrapped in a action-sports sci-fi shell. Once you get by the obvious Kubrick wanna-beisms and sluggish start you are rewarded with an engaging story, great acting on the part of James Caan and some damn good stunt work.
Fantastic concept! I thought it was absolutely brilliant. The only criticism I have is that it was a bit slow in the first half, so I wasn't really enjoying it untill the plot started to build up. But overall it's great. Meaningful, tense, and very insightful regarding human nature and the interplay of power.
Do not, under any circumstances, confuse this with the shitty 2001 remake - there's a big difference in that this film is actually worth watching.
A bit like 'A Clockwork Orange' in its use of classical music (mostly Bach, in this case) to highlight violence. For a film based on a short story ('Rollerball Murder' by William Harrison) this is about as good as dystopian sci-fi gets.
MCT:September 28, 2008
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MCT:June 30, 2007
