After the world’s nations have gone bankrupt and after the corporate wars the few remaining corporations now take care of everything. Each city-state is run by a different corporation. There are six city-states; transport, food, communication, housing, luxury and energy. They make all decisions for everyone. They are essential to everyone’s life. Houston is run by the Energy Corporation. In the city-states are three classes of people, the executives that have everything and make all the decisions, the celebrity athletes that have a good life and everybody else. The “everybody else” is taken care of but just enough so that they don’t complain.
In the year 2018 the most popular sport is not Baseball, Football or Basketball but Rollerball. It’s the playoffs. Jonathan E. (James Caan) is the Captain of the Houston team. They are playing against Madrid. Before the game they play the Corporate Anthem. Houston wins. Only two games left and they will win the championship. Next they play Tokyo, if they win they go on to play New York.
After the game the chairman of The Energy Corporation Mr. Bartholomew (John Houseman) addresses the team congratulating them on their win. Jonathan has become the most recognized player and very popular. Bartholomew tells the team that a special show will be broadcast about his career. Bartholomew tells Jonathan to come see him the next day.
Bartholomew tells Jonathan that the corporations have decided he should retire. Promises of benefits and a retirement package are made. They want to make the announcement during Jonathan’s special broadcast. Jonathan doesn’t want to retire. He is suspicious of the corporations offer. This is the same corporation that took his wife Ella (Maud Adams) because an executive in Italy wanted her.
Jonathan talks to his former trainer, who is now a corporation executive, Cletus (Moses Gunn) and asks him to see what he can find out. Jonathan also tries on his own to find out what’s up. His foray to the library only nets him the information that any books about the corporation have been edited and digitized to reflect what the corporations want people to know. Cletus also has come up with nothing other than the decision has come all the way from the top and that they are afraid of Jonathan. Why they would be afraid of a Rollerballer he doesn’t know.
To try to force Jonathan out the corporation changes the rules of the game. There now no penalties and there will be limited substitutions. The violence escalates to the point where several players are killed in the Houston-Tokyo match. When Jonathan still refuses to retire all the stops are taken out.
“Rollerball” was released in 1975 and was directed by Norman Jewison. It is based on the 1973 story “Roller Ball Murder” by William Harrison. Harrison also wrote the screenplay. Reviews were mixed but people loved it. It has a large cult following. The whole thing is like Roller Derby, Roulette and Jai Alai with motorcycles.
There are quite a few theories as to what Rollerball is really about. Would the film have been less criticized if it didn’t have so much blood and violence or was the blood and violence the point? And believe me, the film is chock full of blood and violence. It’s a strange movie. It’s mostly a guy flick. It’s also racist and sexist along with the violence but is there a deeper message to it? Is it a criticism of society and what freedoms we would give up for material things or is it just exploitive? Are we closer than we think to having corporations run the world? Today, writing this, the CEOs of the four largest tech companies will be testifying before the House Judiciary’s Antitrust Subcommittee which is examining the market dominance of Apple, Amazon, Face book and Google. Questions about discrimination and civil rights will be asked. Are we now, as a society, already giving away our rights? Will life and liberty be dependent on an algorithm? I have already had some issues with algorithms myself. I like to think that William Harrison intended for Rollerball to mean more than just a gore fest. The main question is, are we listening?
The Game: In Rollerball two teams of 10 players each, five roller-skaters, two catchers and three motorcyclists are pitted against each other. The game consists of three 20 minute periods making for one hour of total playing time. The arena is circular and angled similar to regular a roller derby rink. The sidelines are the middle of the rink. A steel ball is fired into the arena. A catcher must capture the ball before it goes into the gutter. Should the ball end up in the gutter the ball is considered dead and a new ball is fired. The ball must also be in plain view at all times or it is declared dead. Then, again, a new ball would be fired. When a catcher gets the ball he must pass it to a roller skater. The skaters aim is to place the ball into the defending team’s goal. The defending team tries to protect their goal to prevent that.
Skaters may gain momentum by holding onto their own team’s motorcyclists. Motorcyclists may block the opposing team's skaters. Skaters can use force against each other but not against motorcyclists. Motorcyclists are not allowed to use force against skaters or each other. Skaters are not allowed to engage with fallen players. If a player is injured they are removed by medics and a new player is put into the game. The punishment for violation of any of the games rules is a three minute play penalty for the violator. Repeated violations may result in the player being removed from the game.