Rollerball (1975)-Ben Dugas
Rollerball (1975)
By Ben Dugas
The year is 2018. There are no wars. There is no crime. There is only… the Game.
About a year ago I randomly picked up a VHS copy of Norman Jewison’s 1975 film Rollerball. I paid a hefty two dollars for this treasure (I know this because the price sticker is still on it) but I’ve since watched it a few times, shown it to some friends and picked up a copy on DVD as well as a copy of the remake (2002) on VHS (another bargain, might I add). I had never heard of the film at the time. I bought it based only on the name and the cover art, which was very much like this poster.
You know that album you have that would be one of your favorites if only it weren’t fifteen minutes longer than it should be or if only it didn’t have that stretch of two or three songs you hate? Well that’s sort of how I feel about Rollerball. Apparently the film wasn’t appreciated at the time of its release nor has there been anything resembling a resurgence in Rollerball appreciation since. In my opinion, there are some pretty serious flaws in the film, which might account for this lack of appreciation but there’s still a lot to like. Behold this awesome trailer:
As you can see, the rollerball action is tantalizing, the classical soundtrack is a nice touch and the font is, well I can’t quite do it justice, but I’ll just say it was way ahead of its time and leave it at that.
What else do I like about Rollerball? Well for starters the protagonist Jonathan E (played by James Caan and no he doesn’t have a last name – maybe the E stands for Everyman) has a right hand man who not only has a cool moustache but also goes by Moonpie (what a time to be alive)! Furthermore the sport itself looks incredible. The ball travels at speeds of up to 120 mph, is made of solid metal and looks like it weighs about ten pounds. The combatants ride around on otorcycles which they use to pull, push and run over their teammates and opponents. This often results in collisions, fire, explosions and sometimes death (the record for most deaths in a roller match is nine).
Later on in the story, Jonathan and his team (team Houston!) travel to Tokyo and hilarity ensues for a plethora of reasons. There’s a bizarre scene in which Jonathan and Moonpie get a massage from a small Japanese lady who afterwards settles down for a nap on Moonpie’s back. Team Houston is warned by (presumably) their half Japanese trainer that team Tokyo uses “various karate and tae kwon doe techniques” but rather than take the advice, team Houston advances creepily on the trainer chanting “Houston! Houston! Houston! Houston!” Lastly, the members of team Tokyo not only do these hilarious synchronized martial arts routine during their warm up but some of them also wear glasses. Glasses! They wear glasses in a sport where there’s a good chance your skull will be shattered and any glass objects on your face are almost sure to be destroyed. But I digress.
Believe it or not Rollerball clocks in at over two hours and within that stretch we get to see a mere three rollerball matches. What happens in between? Well we get to see a practice, Jonathan goes to a few libraries and complains when he can’t find certain books in physical or electronic format, Jonathan hangs out at his ranch and watches videos of the wife who was taken from him years ago, Jonathan goes to a talk show type thingy, management tries to talk him into retirement, there’s a bunch of meetings and yeah, they have this party where people get drunk and run around blowing up trees with their tree gun.
In fact there’s nearly a full hour between the opening match and the second one against Tokyo. Now I understand they’re trying to insert some subtext here regarding the struggle between the individual (Jonathan E) and the system (the sport itself and the corporate overlords who rule it), and to an extent it kind of works, but it is simply and absolutely unacceptable to have an hour long rollerball drought in a film called Rollerball with cover art promising all of the things that spiked gloves, metal balls and James Caan’s intimidating gaze can promise.
The only thing that holds your attention during this gap and the one that follows between the second and third matches is the hope that more rollerball action might be just around the corner. If that hope weren’t there you wouldn’t be watching.
So basically I think, if you can find it and have the time, you should by all means watch Rollerball but perhaps the lack of appreciation it’s received over the years is somewhat justified. Maybe the best way to watch Rollerball is to skip half of that hour-long gap between the first and second match and watch the Tokyo match (my personal favorite) twice, instead.
Copyright C. 2008 Ben Dugas