Rollerball
In the future there will be no war. There will only be Rollerball.
In the year 2018, national government is a thing of the past. The world is run by global monopolies whose decision-making process is presented as wholly benign, but not something the general population needs to know about. Giving them a near gladiatorial game - namely Rollerball - through which their frustrations can be, and are, vented and through which thoughts of individuality and freedom can be smothered, ensures the docility of the population.
But what happens if one of the players becomes bigger than the game - inspirational rather than cathartic? The answer is simple enough - get rid of him.
The player in question is Jonathan E (James Caan) who, after an unheard of ten successful seasons, is told to retire by Bartholemew (John Houseman), chairman of the Energy corporation - sponsors of E’s team. Clearly not used to being questioned, Bartholemew tells E that retirement is in his best interest and that he doesn’t need to know the details.
Jonathan E resists this demand and, against a background of increasingly desperate corporate attempts to get rid of him, embarks on a personal mission to discover why he has been told to retire and how the decision was reached - questions that the global decision-makers would prefer to remain unasked.
Rollerball is a film about growing corporate power, about individual liberty and whether sacrificing the freedom to choose on the altar of physical comfort is a fair exchange. Given our increasing obsession with logos and brand names and the ever-expanding role of large corporations into every aspect of our lives, these questions seem even more pertinent now than they did when the film was made nearly thirty years ago.
The action scenes are, of course, what most people remember from Rollerball, and these are spectacular. There are three games shown during the course of the film - each progressively more dangerous as the Energy Corporation attempts to remove Jonathan E regardless of the cost, both human and financial.
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.
On a final note there is a remake of Rollerball (not yet released in Europe). From what I’ve seen and heard of this film so far, the emphasis is very much on the game itself with the comfort vs. freedom storyline being completely dropped. This doesn’t really surprise me - as long as MGM are providing sufficient on-screen violence, we shouldn’t be asking who is deciding why there are so few original films being made nowadays.
Stop thinking at the back.
Thursday 11 Apr 2002 | Paul Pritchard | Action, Science Fiction
