Rollerball (1975)
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Rollerball Movie Review
Rollerball is a 1975 science fiction film directed by Norman Jewison and starring James Caan. It’s a problematic, but overall solid genre effort.
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“The game was created to demonstrate
the futility of individual effort“
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It revolves around the titular sport in the future which serves as the way from the corporations to control the populace and minimize the individualism. Let’s first talk about its themes. Yes, especially nowadays when corporations are the strongest ever, the movie is very much timely, and in that regard it aged flawlessly.
I also found its theme of sports being gladiatorial in nature and having an overly large influence on society excellent. However, no matter how smart this movie definitely is, it’s also annoyingly pretentious in the way it executes these ideas and messages. I just got that pretentious vie from it that I could not shake off easily.
Let’s talk about the game itself. It’s actually very interesting, and a lot of fun. I liked all of the rules, and I personally loved how violent it is as those gruesome scenes are very impactful on the story, and they are all quite memorable. The action/sports scenes are overly extended, but they are undeniably entertaining, and so well executed from the technical standpoint.
Rollerball is technically terrific. The direction from Norman Jewison is solid, but he has directed better movies for sure. I found the acting solid overall with James Caan being perfectly fine as the protagonist, but the character himself, as well as all of the others, is very bland. The characterization needed to have been much better.
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The movie has good dialogue, but again it can get pretty pretentious. The pacing is fine and the movie is engaging for a somewhat long runtime, but the structure is certainly not great as the sports scenes and the thriller sequences weren’t spread all that evenly. I did like the cinematography though, and I found all of those close-ups highly effective at generating true tension. The score is also great, especially the use of classical music in the beginning and the ending. I just wished for more emotion as the characters themselves are soulless.
Rollerball is a pretty strong commentary on capitalism and the dangers of the massive influence of sports on society, but it can also get pretty pretentious in how it presents its ideas and messages. The action can be overwhelming, but it’s undeniably superbly executed and a lot of fun. The cinematography is great, the sport itself is well imagined and the movie is a very interesting mix of action and commentary, but the structure should have been better and the characterization is very weak.
