Rollerball (1975)

“Corporate society was an inevitable destiny. A material dream world. Everything man touched became obtainable.”
– John Houseman, as Bartholomew.




In the modern world, we are more fortunate than those who struggle under the strangle-hold of dictatorships and feel that we are free. But what if the freedom we enjoy was just an illusion? What if comfort and privileges were used to lull us into a false sense of security and ultimately as tools to control us?

Rollerball (1975), the movie adaptation of William Harrison’s futuristic short story, Roller Ball Murder, is one of the most prophetic and realistic visions of the fate of society put to film.
James Caan, at that time a keen rodeo rider, plays Rollerball champion Jonathan E. His team is Houston, the Energy city, in a world where multi-national Corporations have taken over from all collapsed systems of government. A league of Executives now run everything and make decisions on a global basis, for the supposed good of everyone. They are split into six factions: Energy, Food, Luxury, Transport, Communication and Housing. Poverty, need and sickness are a thing of the past. However, not all is as it seems; this warm and cozy world is superficial and Jonathan E discovers that no one is really free at all.

The game of Rollerball is a ferocious, high-speed, full-contact, bloody and often lethal sport where bikers and skaters speed along a slanted hard-wood track. Steel balls are fired from cannons at the top of the track and the two opposing teams battle to score the most points by throwing the ball into a cone-shaped magnet.

This game has replaced war and is used as a spectacle to placate the masses, providing them with an outlet for their aggressions and subsequently making them easier to control. When they aren’t cheering to the violence in the Rollerball arena, they are taking happy pills to give themselves another high. It is a game of the future but parallels to the Roman era and the blood sports held in the coliseums are evident, even down to the detail of the Rollerball players/gladiators being “assigned” women companions to keep them happy, reminiscent of Spartacus (1960). During the party scene, one woman gazes admiringly at the players and comments: “They’re really quite beautiful in a wild kind of way. You can almost smell the lions.” To which her male companion sarcastically retorts: “Don’t be silly. They’re made in Detroit.” The cruel, destructive side of human nature is cleverly demonstrated during the scene where a group of revelers leave the party and excitedly take turns shooting explosive bullets at a line of trees, laughing and cheering as they watch them burn. In the end game, as Jonathan E floors an opposing biker, then raises the ball as if to smash it into the biker’s face, he pauses to look up, as if waiting for the Caesar to give him the thumb up or down verdict on the biker’s life.

Although few other than the controlling Executives know it, they are living under tight control and Jonathan E, by excelling in the game, is defeating the purpose for which it was created: to show the futility of individual effort. For this reason, the Executives at first simply demand that Jonathan retires from the game. When Jonathan resists, they bring pressure to bear by making the game more difficult, hoping that he will either see sense and quit, or actually be killed during the course of the game.

John Houseman plays Mr. Bartholomew, in a brilliant performance that commands the movie, by turns patronizing and threatening to those he manipulates for the benefit of the Corporation. There are excellent performances throughout and the supporting cast includes many fine actors: particularly John Beck, as Moonpie, Jonathan E’s best friend and team mate, who falls victim to his own arrogance when he underestimates the deadly skill of the Tokyo team. Maud Adams, as Ella, Jonathan E’s ex-wife, ordered to leave him because an Executive wanted her. Real-life hockey announcer Bob Miller lends his voice to the game commentary, making the game more authentic to the viewer. Pamela Hensley, as Mackie, one of the women companions assigned to Jonathan E. Shane Rimmer, as Rusty, the Executive for the Houston team who urges Jonathan to keep his mouth shut and get out for his own good. Barbara Trentham, as Daphne, another companion who replaces Mackie and who turns out to be a spy for the Corporation. Moses Gunn, as Cletus, Jonathan’s friend and trainer. Burt Kwouk as a Japanese doctor who attempts to get permission from Jonathan to turn off Moonpie’s life-support system, and Robert Ito, as a strategy coach brought in to advise the Houston players about the Tokyo team’s martial arts-based game strategy, only to be jeered at.

In desperation, after discovering that books have been censored by the Corporations, Jonathan E flies to the computer centre in Geneva. During this scene, Ralph Richardson gives a comedic touch to the story with his cameo role as an eccentric librarian. Zero, the worlds most advanced computer, runs on “fluidics”, its waters flow out into its memory banks, touching all knowledge. At least, that’s the theory. It often fails, as the librarian confides to Jonathan that it had glitched again the morning he arrived and lost all information it held on the thirteenth century. When Jonathan puts to Zero his question about Corporate decisions, how they’re made and who makes them, the computer is suddenly trapped, much like HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and implodes on itself, the fluid inside seeming to boil as the librarian kicks the panels housing it and demands that it gives Jonathan a straight answer.

The last straw for Jonathan comes when Ella returns to him, but he discovers that she is just another pawn of the Corporation, sent to convince him to quit and stay with him as a reward if he agrees. In disgust, Jonathan erases a collection of home movies he has collected, of happier times with Ella, in an act of self-destruction, signifying to Ella and the audience that their relationship is over.

Jonathan E has only one option left: to face possible death in the Rollerball arena, in a final game where the rules have crumbled to the point where there are no penalties, no substitutions, no time limit and the game will go on until the Corporate-sponsored slaughter leaves only one player standing – or everyone dead.

Technically, the movie is brilliant. In 1975, there was no blue screen or CGI effects, so they built the Rollerball arena at Munich stadium and they played the game for real. The actors and stunt men enjoyed the game so much they played it in between filming.

As brutal as the game is depicted in the movie, it is still nothing compared to that described in William Harrison’s original short story, in which the shape of the ball is changed so that it ricochets in every direction. As the game rules crumble, multiple balls are then used at any one time, so players spend more time dodging hits by them than from the opposing players. After reading the short story again recently, I realized that there’s no way they could have filmed this back in 1975 and ensure the safety of the actors and stunt men, without the safety net of special effects.

Science fiction has often been prophetic and much in this movie has been realised: like the large ornate fireplaces with the gas-fueled flames burning through decorative stones. Business meetings and conferences are held via video link, made easier today with the invention of the internet and webcam. So many homes now have large, wall-mounted TV monitors. How many of us go to sports events as a break from the routine of our lives? Athletes are often given star-status, high-earnings and media exposure.

I was just 12-years-old when I first watched Rollerball, and it instantly became a favorite of mine. It was also the first time I heard the beautiful Adagio, by Tomaso Albinoni, music that has since become a permanent part of my own collection, along with the DVD of this movie.
I have only one comment to make on the atrocious 2002 remake: it deserves to be ignored and forgotten!

Take a long look at where we are as a society and where we’re heading.

Hopefully, our fate is not destined to be played out on a hardwood track slicked with blood.

How many of us will be like Jonathan E and take a stand against it?