rollerball is a dystopian sci-fi sports movie from 1975. I found out I can watch it for free on something called a tubi and so I will be doing that now with updates every 10 or 15 minutes.
on a personal note: I hurt my lower back real bad yesterday. I was challenged to bench press the bar 100 times in a row (allowed to rest at the top but not rack it). I completed the challenge with a fair bit of yelling and writhing and afterwards I said, "I'm primed for an overuse injury" and then I climbed more after saying I was done climbing and noticed my back locked up in a way that was familiar but also unique. Anyway it's slowly getting better and I don't think I injured myself too bad.
A little background on this movie: I remember my dad telling me about this movie in a kind of abstract way. Like I couldn't tell you much about he said but I know he told me about it. I also have a memory of confusing Rollerball with Blade Runner. This is also similar to a point in my life when I couldn't quite remember who was Billy Joel and who was Bob Dylan and one time I said to my mom, "But Billy Joel is still pretty good, right?" And she sort of scoffed and said, "Billy Joel wishes he could be compared to Bob Dylan." Which I remember thinking was a sick burn. I also learned shortly after that that at one point Billy Joel drank furniture polish (this was in 1970, 5 years before the release of Rollerball which does not star or feature Billy Joel in any way). And from that point on I was able to keep the two straight.
The last thing I'll say is that I remember renting the Blade Runner DVD from my college library and watching it in my freshman dorm room and I was a little underwhelmed.
Anyway here we go:
First 10 minutes
The film opens with Bach's Toccata in D Minor which is an interesting choice because it reminds me haunted house music and looking on Wikipedia tells me that the use of this song in film dates back to the 30s where, even back then, it was already "a cliche to illustrate horror and villainy." Spooky. There's also an interesting insistence in the Wikipedia article for Toccata in D Minor that the music was used in the opening of Rollerball unironically.
At exactly 4 minutes and 35 seconds the head coach of the World Champion Houston Rollerball team (which is set to play Madrid) gives a vigorous windmill smack on the butt to player #17 but there's no accompanying sound effect and the coach's words are clearly dubbed in making the whole interaction feel weirdly quiet and jarring. I would definitely remake the whole movie but with a bass-boosted smack sound. It's also worth noting that at this point we've been introduced to the main character, #6 Jonathan E., played by James Caan who would go on to play the grumpy dad in Elf. Jonathan E. is the captain and leading scorer for Houston. His general appearance is sweaty and determined.
This movie takes place in the distant futuristic year of 2018 and at just past the 5 minute mark the announcer in the rollerball stadium has everyone rise for the playing of the corporate anthem. It is a generic sounding organ tune and the camera pans to the players who don't really seem to care but then it cuts to one particularly old and vampiric dude in a suit standing in a VIP box packed full of old vampiric dudes in suits and this one guy is super into the anthem. The visual language of the movie is telling you that this guy is sick and twisted. This sequence overall is really good and makes up for the silent butt smack from earlier.
10 minutes in: Rollerball the sport is a game played by burly men wearing studded football helmets and pads on rollerskates. As they skate around the banked rink a large metal ball is fired from a cannon from the perimeter of the ring. The players try to pick up the ball and jam it into the score zone of the opposing team. There's also motorcycles for some reason. It's incredibly violent with injuries happening every few seconds and it's clear that playing dirty is beneficial and easy to get away with. Also there is a large man named Moonpie on the Houston team and at one point he rolls in from the outside and trucks a bunch of Spaniards to the delight of the crowd. We've yet to see #17 again but know that I've been checking.
At exactly 12 minutes and 5 seconds the now beleaguered head coach for Houston once again sounds weirdly quiet as he complains to the Madrid team for having their motorcycle man run over when of the non-motorcycle Houston guys. The term I'm looking for here is ADR which is when dialogue is re-recorded or added into a scene in post-production. I think. I think this is bad ADR. The coach's lines sound weird and it bothers me. His words clearly don't match his lips.
The character Moonpie appears again. He is a wild-eyed mustachio'd man with a distinctive scar on his left cheek and is played by John Beck. John Beck is still alive but the last film he appeared in was Crash Landing in 2005 which is about army dudes who try to stop a terrorist plot to hijack a plane and take a billionaire's daughter as a hostage. I have a feeling that Moonpie would be disgusted by this being the premise of a movie. Anyway it is clear that Moonpie is also a star player and that Jonathan E cares about him.
Correction: Moonpie would not be bothered by the military making it their priority to save a billionaire's daughter. He loves prestige and wealth and importance. But still, Crash Landing feels like a movie that could exist in the Rollerball universe.
Random aside: James Caan was around 35 years old in this movie AND he shares a birthday with my dad.
At the end of the match in which all 3 of Houston's points are scored by James Caan he says to John Beck, "I love this game, Moonpie. I love it."
We then cut to a shower scene where there are exactly 4 butts visible as Jonathan and Moonpie talk about their upcoming game against Tokyo. From this point on, there are no more exposed butts.
In a post game locker room scene we learn that the creepy guy from the corporate anthem scene earlier is named Mr. Bartholomew and he congratulates his winning team. Mr. Bartholomew is played by John Houseman who, decades prior, was very close to a young Orson Welles. They had a tumultuous working relationship but Houseman was hired to "babysit" the screenwriter of Citizen Kane. Houseman also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1973 before going on to play the main villain of Rollerball.
Correction/Note: For some reason I thought this movie was a somewhat campy sci-fi action movie. It's not. It's a pretty serious drama that has a lot to say about the state of the world and says it pretty well.
Houseman gives a kind of creepy speech where he seemingly admits, in not so many words, that Rollerball is rigged and that Jonathan is the chosen star. He then gives either Altoids or drugs to Moonpie and tells him that the drugs/Altoids will make Moonpie believe he's an executive but that executives dream of being rollerballers. Houseman carries the scene well. He's off-putting but has a quiet warmth to him that's hard to place and you can tell that Jonathan and Moonpie are uncomfortable in ways they can't quite describe.
Jonathan and Moonpie leave the stadium mobbed by fans who are chanting their names. They are wearing sick white leisure suits with no shirt underneath. The creepy theme from the beginning plays again to contrast the adulation from the crowd and the camera rises up from the fans and zooms in on an ominous tower with a blood red circle on top of it. This is the skyscraper where John Houseman will have a meeting with James Caan the following day.
The interior and exterior shots of the Energy Corporation building are really good. The 70s version of 2018 is better than the actual 2018 and also better than the 2018 version of the future. James Caan is still wearing his white leisure suit and it is still sick.
At the meeting, Mr. Bartholomew tells Jonathan that the executives have decided that he should retire from the sport. Then there's some exposition about how in this future the corporations have taken over everything. There are no more nations. They've ended all conflict and need and created a society of abundance but in return the corporate overlords ask for zero questioning of their decisions. Jonathan returns home to his ranch and says that he will think about it.
I really appreciate how soft-spoken Jonathan is. His character loves the bloody brutal sport of Rollerball but he's not a violent guy in his regular life. He's almost painfully quiet.
By the 30 minute mark the stakes of the movie have been established. James Caan is a heroic figure who is now facing a forced downfall that he can't quite make sense of. He knows it's not fair but he also knows that he's powerless to stop it. All he's ever wanted to do is play the dang game. We've also been introduced to Caan's girlfriend Mackie, played by Pamela Hensley. Mackie is upset because she received a letter from the corporation telling her to get lost. I think this is related to Jonathan having to retire or maybe it's that Jonathan has a girlfriend at all and the corporation found out about it and doesn't like it. We also meet Jonathan's coach, Cletus, played by Moses Gunn. It seems like Cletus is in Jonathan's corner but when Jonathan tries to tell Cletus about how he's being forced to retire Cletus seems uneasy. Everything is beginning to crumble around James Caan...castles made of sand and all that...
It's not a mind-blowing scene by any stretch but there is a scene where Jonathan and Moonpie try to go to a "library" to get some books. We assume that Jonathan wants to learn about the history of corporations and the corporate wars that we've heard about. Jonathan learns that the books he wanted are "classified" and the only thing available to him are computer generated summaries. He's told the only place he can access "real" books are at computer centers in Washington and Geneva.
This is such a tired point but it's a good scene and it seems worth saying again that we know on a deep level and we've clearly known for a long time that stuff like AI is bad. We know the cost of having things automatically summarized and reduced into a little bite-sized chunks. It's bad!
SPOILERS:
my note on spoilers. I don't care about spoilers. I don't think you should either. I think it's dumb. I don't think the purpose of a plot is to serve some sort of twist or secret. I think you can know everything about a story and if it's done well, it doesn't matter. The execution is what counts. So stop being upset by spoilers. The little "ah-ha!" you get is just a cheap trick anyway.
SPOILERS: At exactly 49 minutes and 46 seconds we learn from fancy people at a fancy party that all the rollerball players are androids. This is revealed in a very casual way by people speaking off screen, as the Houston rollerball players walk around the party. Are they androids? Or is this what people are told to make the brutality okay?
It occurs to me that another reason I might have confused Rollerball and Blade Runner beyond the fact that they both are compound words related to skating that have the letters R and B is that a major plot point of both movies is whether or not people is people or people is robots and are the people we think are people and they think they are people are they actually robots tho?
note: other than these lines in the film, the question of whether or not the Rollerball players are androids is never brought up again. one assumes based on later events that they are human.
All of the characters we've been introduced to in the film are at this party and there's a scene where John Houseman walks in and greets people and I don't know why but it's just cool. He's just a good villain.
Who's the Crocodile? (note: we never learn who the crocodile is. this name never appears again)
John Beck has a chin that could split an OAK!
This is a very minor point but at the party everyone gathers around the screen to watch a highlight reel of Jonathan's career and they make a big point of showing lots of big hits with, I kid you not, BASS BOOSTED SOUND EFFECTS OF THE HITS! They're really over the top. AND! I think this is connected, stay with me now. I think the movie knew how affected we all were by that muted butt slap and the silent coach--as the dramatic obvious sound effects are playing we get a muted shot of the very same coach reacting to the hits and carnage on the screen. I said this is a minor point but it is actually a very big deal to me.
This is how you should watch a movie. It should take you three hours to watch one hour of a two hour movie. I'm doing it right. If you aren't doing this then I think you're doing it wrong.
After the party there's two scenes that are interwoven. The first scene is Jonathan and Mr. Bartholomew discuss Jonathan retiring from the game. Prior to this conversation we learn from Cletus that there are people above Mr. Bartholomew called the Executive Directorate and no one knows who they are but they have finally say and they want Jonathan out because they're scared of him. But Jonathan doesn't even know why they're scared of him. Anyway, Jonathan tells Mr. B that he wants to see his wife again (I didn't mention this but earlier we learn that the corporate executives took away Jonathan's wife because an executive wanted to be with her.) At the same time this is happening we are cutting back to this group of party-goers which feature Mackie and they're all following this guy who is holding a shiny pistol. Mackie shoots the small gun at a pine tree and the whole tree erupts in a giant fireball. All of the strung-out party-goers squeal with delight and laughter. Mackie continues shooting trees.
What is the movie telling us?! Why contrast the two???
The scene ends with Jonathan insisting that he will play in the upcoming game and Mr. Bartholomew yelling, "You can be stopped!" We cut back to the group with the fire pistol and Mackie looks on with horror and distress at the six trees (Jonathan wears #6 on his uniform) that have been burnt to a crisp in seconds. The executive class wields a godlike destructive power that they use just for fun.
Jonathan Evans begins to gnaw at the bars of his enclosure!!!!!
"I think I'll go to one of them computer centers. See what I can find out. Yeah. Finding out things it's-- that's the the thing, Moonpie. "
Two things are on a collision course. Jonathan needs to know why he's being forced to leave and the Executive Directorate needs to destroy him for needing to know.
Around 70 minutes is the big match between Tokyo and Houston. During the playing of the corporate anthem (this time called a corporate hymn) there are charged glances made between the Tokyo and Houston players. Are the Tokyo players trying to communicate something to Houston? Are they sizing them up? Are they expressing that even though they are opponents, they have much more in common with each other than they do with anyone outside the arena?
Also, the Tokyo players do this awesome punching strut thing when they roll around the ring. It's really cool and fun.
The movie keeps repeating that there will be no penalties called and limited substitutions so you know this is about to be an absolute bloodbath. Will the violence finally get to Jonathan? How bad is it going to get?!
One assumes that it will get very very bad.
Update: It got very very bad.
But
Houston wins!
After the game we get a scene of John Houseman talking to the Executive Directorate (we finally see them!) on what looks like the 1975 version of a Zoom call and he says,
"The game was created to demonstrate the futility of individual effort. Let the game do its work."
The Zero computer scene deserves its own post but, in short, ain't no answers to be found about how corporations work :/
I don't have anything to say right now about the final match. It took me about 5 hours to watch this two hour movie. It's a good movie! You should watch it. It's free on Tubi.
Update: I struggled to keep my eyes open the last 10 minutes of the movie, not because it was bad or boring but because I was very sleepy. As it happens, having the feeling of really heavy eyes before giving in to the sweet embrace of slumber is my favorite way to fall asleep.
Final Thoughts: There's some connection to be made about the "liquid computer" Zero and concepts we have today like "the cloud."
The very final shot of the movie pre-dates meme culture by about 30 or 40 years. Look it up yourself.
I've been thinking a lot about how the movie plays with the elements of violence, visibility, and control/autonomy.
