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Reviews44
rabrenner's rating
In the not-so-distant-future, nations have been abolished and giant corporations—Energy, Food, Luxuries, etc.--rule. The masses are kept distracted with drugs and a deadly game called Rollerball: think roller derby crossed with gladiator sports. Motorcycles, spiked gauntlets, and a steel ball the size of a grapefruit and fired from a cannon are involved.
Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the league's leading scorer, who has incongruously survived ten seasons. Bartholomew (John Houseman) is the evil executive who wants Jonathan either retired or dead. The purpose of the game, he intones, is to teach people that individuals don't matter. Ella (Maude Adams) is ostensibly Jonathan's love interest, but his closest relationship is a bromance with teammate Moonpie (John Beck).
ROLLERBALL is one of a whole string of "message" sci-fi flicks made in the 1970s; others include SILENT RUNNING, SOYLENT GREEN, LOGAN'S RUN, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. It is also director Norman Jewison's sole entry in the sci-fi genre. Watch for the scene where the supercomputer Zero that stores all human knowledge loses the thirteenth century: "just Dante and a few corrupt Popes."
Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the league's leading scorer, who has incongruously survived ten seasons. Bartholomew (John Houseman) is the evil executive who wants Jonathan either retired or dead. The purpose of the game, he intones, is to teach people that individuals don't matter. Ella (Maude Adams) is ostensibly Jonathan's love interest, but his closest relationship is a bromance with teammate Moonpie (John Beck).
ROLLERBALL is one of a whole string of "message" sci-fi flicks made in the 1970s; others include SILENT RUNNING, SOYLENT GREEN, LOGAN'S RUN, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. It is also director Norman Jewison's sole entry in the sci-fi genre. Watch for the scene where the supercomputer Zero that stores all human knowledge loses the thirteenth century: "just Dante and a few corrupt Popes."