Rollerball

Jonathan: "I've been thinking...thinking a lot...and watching. It's like people had a choice a long time ago between having all them nice things or freedom. Of course, they chose comfort."
Ella: "But comfort is freedom. It always has been. The whole history of civilization is a struggle against poverty and need."
Jonathan: "No! No...that's not it. That's never been it. Them privileges just buy us off."

release year: 1975
genre: action
viewing setting: home DVD 9/12/15 and 9/7/06 and 4/13/03

synopsis: In a corporation-run future world, there's only one sport, and it's a doozy. When the game's star player becomes more idolized than the game itself, the corporations try to force him to retire.

impressions: This was another one of those weird visions of the future as filmed in the 1970s. It has some bizarre elements, but the good stuff is still good almost thirty years later: bone-crunching violence in the rollerball scenes. This sport is like roller derby with motorcycles and a lethal steel ball and violent fighting. As for the setting itself, and the way people act, it's an interesting future they've projected.

things to watch for: Any of the rollerball matches, especially the final one.

acting: James Caan gives one of those 1970s performances where you need subtitles to understand what he's saying - though I claim that 95% of movies made in that decade have this characteristic.

final word: Unusual enough that some people won't care for it...but violent, and thus worth seeing.

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