Rollerball

Rollerball (1975)

Runtime: 125 minutes

Directed by: Norman Jewison (RIP)

Starring: James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn

From: United Artists

RIP Norman Jewison

When this news broke yesterday that the legendary Canadian director had passed away on Saturday at the glorious old age of 97, one of his movies had to be seen that night. It was only then that I realized what a long, storied career he had—directing many popular feature films for four full decades. In the Heat of the Night was watched by me two years ago so what I chose was a cult favorite available to me for free as a Prime member. James Caan in a futuristic dystopian sci-fi movie about a version of roller derby w/ motorcycles where from all appearances it is the only sport left? Sure!

I do wish the film would have been more enjoyable in telling its tale of how in a world literally ran by corporations, they wish for its most famous & tenured player, “Jonathan E.” to retire… implicitly, it likely is due to those bigwigs wishing for new stars to rise as it’d be a better story. Then again, it may very well just be my cynical nature that wrote this part of the story in, as it was so open-ended an alternate explanation could have been, “They wish for this great warrior to retire on top rather than decline in skill then hang it up.” Regardless, he naturally is reluctant to do so. There isn’t much else to the film besides the standard “a totalitarian future totally sucks now, wouldn’t it?” sort of message.

The actual gameplay, rules, and machinations are irrelevant in this case as it’s more about characters like Jonathan E. and his hilarious friend-who has the even more hilarious name MOONPIE-standing up to tyranny, and blah blah blah. As others have dutifully noted, Caan probably should have just followed orders and retired as he has (except for those corporate types interfering w/ his love life) it all; wanting to be “a good teammate” will probably seen peculiar to many.

It's a shame the story to me had more than a few missteps and to reiterate, wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been. It’s always nice seeing the likes of Caan, Maud Adams, Burt Kwouk, and Moses Gunn; however, what kept my attention was the astounding look at the 1970’s version of the future… by the way, I really should have watched this film in 2018, as that was the year of its setting! That retrofuturism was a real gas and never not entertained me. This included the giant televisions where three small TV’s were above it-perhaps because the aesthetic-and chairs designed to be as uncomfortable & awkward as possible. 

In the future, it will naturally occur that I’ll finally discuss more films from the late Norman Jewison; hopefully those will be ones I think are better on a critical level. As this may be in the back of people’s minds… no, the reviled remake from 2002 has been avoided on purpose and don’t expect that to change—unless one day I decide to be self-masochistic and harshly punish myself!