Rollerball 7/10

Rollerball (R) 1975
Reviewer’s Tilt (8)
Sci-Fi-125min
Special DVD Features worth a look- Jewison commentary

The year is 2018 and corporations have supplanted traditional governments. The corporations stifle individual achievement, and promote team effort, driving the point home with the bloodsport Rollerball. Rollerball is a violent cross between roller derby and ultimate fighting, played on a sloped circular rink with roller skates, motorcycles and a sold metal ball. A microcosm of the corporate environment, Rollerball rewards teamwork and punishes individual accomplishment. Against the odds, however, one athlete, Jonathan E. (James Caan) rises above his fellow teammates, unwittingly undermining the collective philosophy and becoming an inspiration to the proletariat.

Enter corporate head Bartholomew (John Houseman), keen to dial up the violence and vindicate the corporate philosophy. The conclusion is predictable, but the stunts are engaging and the special effects impressive, having been accomplished without any GCI. Ironically, director Norman Jewison uses this rough and tumble vehicle to vilify gratuitous violence and warn of the dangers of capitalism run amok. The film sanitizes the blood from the gore, focusing more on the cerebral carnage being done outside the rink.

The story plods a little, missing several opportunities to build suspense and create a truly creepy futuristic vision ala A Clockwork Orange and Metropolis. Rollerball is a valiant effort, but its failure to build suspense or move the action, along undermine a story with much unrealized potential.

Format: Color, Widescreen Anamorphic, Closed captioned.
Sound: (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Extras: Director commentary, trivia, behind the scenes featurette, interactive game, trailer.