Rollerball (1975) - 4/10

I love the way 70s cinema depicted the future. Sure aesthetically it’s often way off, but the bleak tone and corporate control here is bang on. To keep the masses subdued, we have the high speed spectacle of a brutal sport, Rollerball. Motorbikes and rollerskating warriors battle in a vicious roulette wheel velodrome, tackling each other with studded fists, to keep the iron ball and shoot for goal. There are rules, but they’re pretty flimsy, it’s a Bloodsport, deaths are common. There are no governing countries in this reality, but we still have a hero and he’s still American. Houston’s star player, Jonathan E. (James Caan). Orchestrators of the game, the ruling class, businessmen in grey suits, ‘executives’, like Bartholomew (John Houseman), live in a world of classically scored clean lines and automation, where six multinational bosses make all the decisions… including Jonathan’s retirement. He lives in comfort, everyone does to a degree, but only if they do what they’re told. Information is on a need to know basis, but Jonathan wants to know why he’s being put out to action. It’s largely style over substance sadly, but it gets away with it to start. It’s overly long though and several scenes drag on pointlessly. The more it goes on, the clunkier it gets. It’s quite annoying, there feels like there is a better film here with tighter execution. The trouble is despite its efforts, there’s little mystery. It’s obvious why they want Jonathan out, he’s become too popular and therefore too dangerous. As the game is a distraction for the masses, so too is it for this film’s audience, despite its base bluntness, it’s often the most compelling screen content. All in all, it’s a crushing disappointment. Crazy to think that director Norman Jewison was also responsible for Fiddler on the Roof and In the Heat of the Night. The best thing about it, by some distance, is the poster.

4/10