a5c7b9f00b In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game. The year is 2018. There is no crime and there are no more wars. Corporations are now the leaders of the world, as well as the controllers of the people. A violent futuristic game known as Rollerball is now the recreational sport of the world, with teams representing various areas competing for the title of champion. The defending championship team, the Houston team led by the determined ten-year veteran Johnathan E., is looking to repeat as champions. However, Bartholomew, the sinister corporate head, wants Johnathan to retire, even though he is the most respected athlete of his time. Johnathan's rebellious quest will not come out with complications, both for him and his teammates, after he decides to continue playing despite Bartholomew's threats. Under the usually mediocre direction of the vastly overrated, politically correct (hence why he's overrated) Norman Jewison, I had expected a far weaker movie. Nevertheless, far from me to imply that this is a very good movie...<br/><br/>There is an atmosphere of deadness in "Rollerball", which should not be mistaken with futuristic grimness, glumness, so successfully put on the screen in many other, better movies of the genre. ("Zardoz" comes to mind.) The movie is meant to be thought-provoking and even touching (all those great classical pieces seem totally out of place as a background), but its basic point/message is as old as George Orwell novel: in the future we might have an all-controlling tyranny which hinders man's individuality. Yawn. Even sillier, this tyranny offers a very comfortable existence and has corporations at its core. Evil, evil corporations. The much-hated corporations, much like all those corporations that finance nearly all Hollywood movies! (I never cease to be fascinated by this hypocrisy/irony, so typical of left-wing Hollywood.) What kind of a dictatorship could possibly result in a luxurious lifestyle for all involved? Whatever little worth the movie had intellectually was killed off almost totally with that absurd scene that involves a bumbling Ralph Richardson (a "scientist") arguing with a useless "super-computer". It wasn't even funny; merely dumb. Caan's attachment to his former wife (played by unattractive-as-ever Maude Adams) is there only on paper, i.e. in the script: we don't get to see it on the screen. In "Solaris" a man's past love is portrayed with utter conviction, but in "Rollerball" it is as convincing as a soap-opera plot-twist.<br/><br/>The basic premise also lacks credibility. If these corporations are so hell-bent on preventing man's individuality from coming to the forefront of society, then why would Houseman & co. wait for an entire DECADE for Caan to become an established celebrity? Why not retire him after one year of great playing? In fact, why even give the masses a game with survivors i.e. potential heroes and sports idols? Why not just establish gladiator games? After all, (mass) murder is allowed in rollerball, so it would make more sense for this future society to create a game that is far more likely to kill off most of the game's contestants, on a far more frequent basis.<br/><br/>Still, clocking at two hours, I was expected to be more bored by "Rollerball". I was not totally rollerbored, at least that much can be said...<br/><br/>Is it just me, or does the old guy, John Houseman, look a lot like 21st-century Elizabeth Taylor, i.e. post-massive plastic surgery?... The world of the future, if it was run by a corporation and its executives. In many ways I think this movie is still very relevant. The world is one where a select group of "executives" decide everything for the "good" of the people and the world at large. The corporation believes that everyone should listen to them and follow the system without question, because they're providing people with what they think everyone would want and need. The corporation has even gone so far as to take all information and digitize it in computers, which return the information in a summarized and abridged way for use by the general population. The world is one big corporate machine, full of corruption, censorship, and devoid of all freedoms.<br/><br/>James Caan plays Jonathan E. (which I think might be Evans, but I'm not certain, the movie makes it kind of ambiguous by only referencing it once indirectly) the star of the corporations' ultra-violent Rollerball league. Rollerball is supposed to supplant everyone's desires for violence and war by channeling all those energies into the games. Caan is a ten-year veteran of the sport, whose popularity has risen so high that the corporation's executives are beginning to fear him. As a result, they want him to retire because the corporation has decided it is time. I think it is fair to assume they want him to retire so his influence will diminish and he couldn't actually use his influence to upset their delicate structure of rules and regulations. Their plan to remove him backfires. It actually does more damage then just letting Jonathan play on would have done, because he becomes, in the end, more popular than ever.<br/><br/>This vision of the future is very plausible to the audience because the use of science and technology isn't out of reach versus what you see today in everyday life. The action is intense and brutal throughout the film. The images of tomorrow are sharp and crisp using architecture and interior design to highlight the very homogeneous look of the corporation's facilities further embellishing the idea that the corporation suppresses all forms of personal display outside of the Rollerball arenas. This is a great movie. Go watch it! Rollerball is a violent sport invented in a future society after a series of devastating corporate wars have left the world's major corporations with a monopoly on basic social services. Energy production, food supplies, water supplies, basic goods & other items are heavily controlled. To keep the masses from revolting, Rollerball was introduced. In the game, players wear roller skates and race around an inclined circular track, attempting to seize a small steel ball & score goals against the opposing team. Players are assisted by teammates who ride small motorcycles that can tow a player to build up speed. Despite being required to wear body armor & helmets, many players are severely injured or killed during matches. Rules change constantly, as in the last two matches depicted in the film where no substitutions are allowed and no penalties are called, even if a player cheats or commits another act of obvious unsportsmanlike conduct. The corporate directorate (a sort of board of directors) felt threatened by Jonathan's increasing popularity in the sport, which they felt may contribute to a rising feeling of individualism among the general population, a concept they were trying to discourage. By providing Rollerball, the corporate directorate hoped that the masses would be sufficiently distracted from the squalor in their own lives to not think at an individual level. Independent thought would lead to revolt and the possible loss of power. The hit United Artists film, Rollerball, opened in Chicago at the McClurg Court Theatre, 330 East Ohio Street, on Thursday, June 26, 1975. The film was rated "R." An ad reads: "Wars Will No Longer Exist . . . But There Will Be Rollerball!"<br/><br/>_________________________________ Rollerball is played by 2 teams over three 20 minute periods. Each team has a dozen players with 9 on roller-skates and three riding motorcycles. A steel ball is shot into a circular arena with an outer and inner zone. One of the teams must recover the ball and then attempt to place it in their goal at the side of the stadium, the ball held in plain view at all times. If the ball strays into the inner zone it is out of play and a new ball is fired. The roller-skaters hang on to the motorbikes to give them momentum and block other players.
Rollerball 720p Torrent
Updated: Mar 28, 2020