Rollerball (1975 film)

Rollerball
Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak
Directed by Norman Jewison
Produced by Norman Jewison
Screenplay by William Harrison
Based on "Roller Ball Murder"
by William Harrison
Starring
Music by André Previn
Cinematography Douglas Slocombe
Edited by Antony Gibbs
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • June 25, 1975 (1975-06-25)
Running time
 129 minutes[1]
Country United Kingdom[2]
United States[3]
Language English
Box office $30 million[4]

Rollerball is a 1975 science fiction sports film directed and produced by Norman Jewison.[5] It stars James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, Moses Gunn and Ralph Richardson. The screenplay, written by William Harrison,[6] adapted his own short story, "Roller Ball Murder", which had first appeared in the September 1973 issue of Esquire.[7]

Although Rollerball had an American cast, a Canadian director, and was released by the American company United Artists,[8] it was produced in London and Munich.[9][10]

Plot

Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the veteran star of the Houston rollerball team. He has become the sport's most recognizable and talented player. After another impressive performance against Madrid, Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman), chairman of the Energy Corporation, announces that Jonathan will be featured in a "multivision" broadcast about his career.

Bartholomew tells Jonathan that he wants him to retire. He offers the rollerballer a lavish retirement package if Jonathan makes the announcement during the special. He then preaches the benefits of corporate-run society and the importance of respecting executive decisions, never explaining why he must retire. Jonathan refuses, and requests to see his former wife Ella (Maud Adams), who had been taken from him some time earlier by a corporate executive who wanted her for himself.

Suspicious of a forced retirement, Jonathan goes to a library and asks for books about the corporation and history. He finds all books have been digitized and "edited" to suit the corporations, and are now stored on supercomputers at large protected corporate locations.

Rollerball degrades into senseless violence as the rules are changed to force Jonathan out. Houston's semi-final game against Tokyo has no penalties and only limited substitutions. The brutality of the match kills several players including Houston's lead biker, Blue. Jonathan's best friend and teammate, Moonpie (John Beck), is left in a vegetative state. Despite the violence, Houston is victorious and will play New York for the world championship.

Bartholomew hosts an executive teleconference to discuss the game's future. They decide that the Houston–New York game will be played with no penalties, no substitutions, and no time limit in the hope that Jonathan, if he decides to play, will be killed during the game. The conference reveals why Jonathan must retire: Rollerball was conceived not only to satisfy man's blood lust, but to demonstrate the futility of individualism. Jonathan's popularity and longevity as a player threatens this purpose.

Jonathan makes his way to Geneva to access the world's central supercomputer, known as "Zero." While revered as the repository of all human knowledge, Zero is flawed, which is revealed when the librarian mentions that Zero has "lost" the entire 13th century. Jonathan's goal is to find out how the corporations make their decisions, but the result is indecipherable computer double-talk.

Afterwards, Jonathan receives a visit from his former wife Ella, who has been sent to convince him to retire and to make it clear the coming game will be "to the death." Jonathan decides, despite the dangers, that he will play.

The final match quickly loses all semblance of order as the players are injured or killed. The crowd, ecstatic at first, gradually become more subdued as the carnage unfolds and the game devolves into a gladiatorial fight. Jonathan is soon the only player left on the track for Houston, while a skater and a bikeman remain from New York. After a violent struggle in front of Mr. Bartholomew, Jonathan dispatches the skater and takes the ball. The biker charges, but Jonathan counters, knocking him off his bike and down to the inside of the track. He pins the biker down and raises the ball over his head, then pauses. Refusing to kill his fallen opponent, Jonathan gets to his feet and painfully makes his way to the goal, slamming the ball home and scoring the game's only point.

Jonathan skates around the track in silent victory. The coaches and fans of both teams chant his name, first softly then louder and louder as he skates faster and faster. Mr. Bartholomew exits the arena hurriedly, possibly fearing a riot as the chant of "Jonathan! Jonathan! Jonathan!" becomes a roar. The film ends on a freeze frame of Jonathan's face, as the beginning of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor plays over the scene.

Cast

Production

Rollerball's arena sequences were shot at the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich. This hall was selected because it was the only sports arena in the world with a near-circular profile, which the production could take over and re-dress for shooting.

The then-new BMW Headquarters and Museum buildings in Munich, Germany appear as the headquarters buildings of Energy Corporation at the Olympiapark, Munich. A number of scenes were also filmed at Fawley Power Station, near Southampton. The sequence where Jonathan E. visits Geneva to consult with Zero the computer concerning corporate decisions features exterior shots of the Palace of Nations.

Recognizing their contribution to the film's many crucial action sequences, Rollerball was the first major Hollywood production to give screen credit to its stunt performers.

The game of Rollerball was so realistic the cast, extras, and stunt personnel played it between takes on the set. At the time of the film's release, Howard Cosell interviewed Norman Jewison and James Caan on ABC's Wide World of Sports, showing clips from the film and with the two of them explaining the rules of the game. Audiences who saw the film so loved the action of the game that Jewison was contacted multiple times by promoters requesting the "rights to the game" be sold so that real rollerball leagues might be formed. Jewison was outraged, as the entire point of the movie was to show the "sickness and insanity of contact sports and their allure."[11]

Music

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor is performed on organ by Simon Preston during the opening title sequence; it is heard once again at the end of film's final scene and over the first section of the end credits, bookending the film.[12] The Adagio in G minor by Albinoni/Giazotto, and the Largo from Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 is also used to establish tone, mood, and atmosphere for certain scenes in the film. The classical music was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andre Previn, who also wrote the "Executive Party" music for the movie.[13]

Reception

Box office

The film earned $6.2 million in theatrical rentals at the North American box office.[14]

Critical

Variety praised the film, calling the lead performances "uniformly tops."[15]

Vincent Canby was unimpressed, and his review stated:[16]

All science-fiction can be roughly divided into two types of nightmares. In the first the world has gone through a nuclear holocaust and civilization has reverted to a neo-Stone Age. In the second, of which "Rollerball" is an elaborate and very silly example, all of mankind's problems have been solved but at the terrible price of individual freedom.... The only way science-fiction of this sort makes sense is as a comment on the society for which it's intended, and the only way "Rollerball" would have made sense is a satire of our national preoccupation with televised professional sports, particularly weekend football. Yet "Rollerball" isn't a satire. It's not funny at all and, not being funny, it becomes, instead, frivolous.

TV Guide gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, saying that "the performances of Caan and Richardson are excellent, and the rollerball sequences are fast-paced and interesting."[17] James Rocchi of Netflix said in his review that "the combination of Roman Empire-styled decadence and violence mixed with a vision of a bizarre, loveless corporate future is evocative and unsettling."[18]

Jay Cocks of Time Magazine posted a negative review of the film, saying that Caan looked "unconvinced and uncomfortable" as Jonathan E.[19]

American Film Institute lists

In 1977 Caan himself rated the film 8 out of 10, saying he "couldn't do much with the character."[23]

Video game

In 1985, IJK Software produced a game called "Rocket Ball" for the Commodore 64 computer, with the scoring rules based on the game in the movie. Then in 1989, Microïds published an unofficial successor called "KillerBall" for the Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, and MS-DOS.

In 1997, Z-Axis Games was developing an official Rollerball video game adaption based on the film As part of MGM Interactive video game showcase lineup [24], The video game's promise to recreate the action of the futuristic game played in the movie. Set ten years after the events of the film in the 2098 Rollerball season, where the player would be in charge of managing their Rollerball teams around the world, made up of rollerball players with roles such as strikers, enforcers, guard, and other players who compete using jet bikes and magnetic in-line skates. Rollerball The video game was slated to be released for PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo 64 on the first quarter of 1998, But was delayed to mid-1998 [25] and then was canceled due to the publisher MGM Interactive going bankrupt.

In 2004, I-play developed and published a Rollerball game for mobile phones. It is based on the 1975 film rather than the 2002 remake of the same name.

Additionally, the award winning game Speedball, and its sequel Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, were heavily influenced by the film.[26]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ROLLERBALL (AA)". British Board of Film Classification. June 25, 1975. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Rollerball". ArchiveGrid. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
  3. ↑ Vaughn, Stephen (2006). Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 55. ISBN 0521852587.
  4. ↑ "Rollerball, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
  5. ↑ "Rollerball (1975)". British Film Institute. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
  6. ↑ "Rollerball (1975) Cast And Crew". MGM.com: Official website of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. 2000–2007. Retrieved October 3, 2007.
  7. ↑ "Contents Lists / The Year's Best Science Fiction No. 7". Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections, Combined Edition, by William G. Contento. 2003. Archived from the original on October 13, 2007. Retrieved October 1, 2007.
  8. ↑ Cook, David A. (2000), Lost illusions: American cinema in the shadow of Watergate and Vietnam, 1970-1979, History of the American cinema, Charles Harpole, 9, Simon & Schuster, p. 243, ISBN 0-684-80463-8
  9. ↑ Booker, M. Keith (2010). Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Cinema. Scarecrow Press. p. 66. ISBN 0-8108-5570-4.
  10. ↑ Vaughn, Stephen (2006), Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media, Cambridge University Press, p. 55, ISBN 0-521-85258-7
  11. ↑ Sloan, Robin Adams (1975-10-20). "Jewison is Outraged by Reaction to 'Rollerball'". Muncie Evening Press. Retrieved 2018-05-08 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ https://www.discogs.com/Andre-Previn-Rollerball-Original-Soundtrack-Recording/release/1188508. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
  13. ↑ Rollerball - Original Soundtrack liner notes.
  14. ↑ "All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 46
  15. ↑ "Rollerball Review". Variety.
  16. ↑ Canby, Vincent (June 26, 1975). "Futuristic World of 'Rollerball'". The New York Times. Retrieved March 5, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Rollerball". TV Guide. Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  18. ↑ Netflix - Rollerball review
  19. ↑ Time Magazine - Rollerball Review
  20. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees
  21. ↑ AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers Nominees
  22. ↑ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot
  23. ↑ James Caan's career hitting tough times. Siskel, Gene. Chicago Tribune (1963-Current file) [Chicago, Ill] November 27, 1977: e6.
  24. ↑ https://www.thefreelibrary.com/MGM+Interactive+to+showcase+deep+games+lineup+at+1997+E3%3B+Booth+No....-a019479012}
  25. ↑ http://www.ign.com/articles/1997/08/14/rollerball-delayed
  26. ↑ "Top 10 Most Influential Amiga Games". Wired. Retrieved 29 June 2018. Heavily influenced by Rollerball and other futuristic, high-contact sports
Awards
Preceded by
Soylent Green		 Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film
1974/75		 Succeeded by
Logan's Run
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