Movies - Rollerball

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	Movies - Rollerball

Rollerball is a 1975 science fiction film directed by Norman Jewison from the short story Roller Ball Murders by William Harrison.

In the film, the world of 2018 is a global corporate state, containing entities such as the Energy Corporation, a global energy monopoly based in Houston which deals with nominally-peer corporations controlling access to all Transport, Luxury, Housing and Food on a global basis.

The film's title is the name of a violent, internationally popular sport around which the events of the film take place. It is similar to Roller Derby in that there are two body armor-clad teams that skate on rollerskates around a banked, circular track. There, however, the similarity ends. The object of the game is to score points by throwing a softball-sized metal ball into their goal, which is a cone-shaped area inset into the wall of the arena (the opposing team's goal being on the opposite side of the track). It is a full-contact sport in which players have considerable leeway to attack opposing players in order to take or maintain possession of the ball and to score points; in fact, in this overpopulated future, the object of the game in the original short story is to kill off the players. In addition, each team has two players who ride motorcycles and to which teammates can latch on and be towed. The player in possession of the ball must hold the ball in plain view at all times.

Rollerball teams, named after the cities in which they are based, are owned by the various arms of the global corporation. Energy Corporation sponsors the Houston team. The game is a substitute for all current team sports, and for war. While its ostensible purpose is entertainment, it also serves to demonstrate a valuable lesson: the individual athletes pale in importance to the team itself, just as the individual is meaningless compared with the coporation-centered society, which is paramount.

Plot summary

The film tells the story of Jonathan E, the veteran star of the Energy Corporation's Houston team, played by James Caan. By virtue of his stellar performance over the years, Jonathan has become the most recognizable Rollerballer in history, to the point where random civilians all over the world recognize him on sight. Naturally, this is problematic for the hegemonic corporations and their Brave New World-esque "Everybody belongs to everybody else" rubric, and so, after another stellar performance in Houston's season-ending victory over Madrid, he is encouraged to retire by Energy Corporation chairman Mr. Bartholomew, played by John Houseman, being offered a nice retirement package including a televised highlight show and an incentive package featuring "privileges", the currency of the society.

The film revolves around the struggle of Jonathan to understand why he would be facing so much pressure to retire, with the incentives turning into a gradual degradation of the game itself into so much senseless violence. It is announced that the semi-final game versus Tokyo will be played with no penalties and limited player substitutions, yet Jonathan refuses to yield and plays in the game; the brutality claims the lives of several players and leaves his best friend and teammate Moonpie (played by John Beck) in a coma.

The Corporations hold an emergency meeting to discuss Jonathan's obstinate refusal to retire, and it is decided that the championship game against New York will be played without penalties or a time-limit, in a last-ditch effort to dissuade Jonathan from playing in it.

After much personal introspection, and further delving into the true nature of the Corporations that run the world, Jonathan decides he is going to play in the game despite the obvious dangers. Naturally, the final game quickly loses all semblance of order as players are crippled and killed in swift order. The crowd, raucous and energetic at the game's beginning, gradually becomes more and more subdued as the carnage builds.

In the end, Jonathan and one lone player from New York are all that are left, and after a brief and violent struggle, Jonathan gets possession of the ball, grabs the helpless New York player by the collar and prepares to fatally smite him as the crowd, both coaches and Mr. Bartholomew all watch in complete silence.

With a moment's pause, Jonathan releases his opponent, slowly gets to his feet, and painfully circles the track before throwing the ball into the goal. Some see this as showing in the end that his love of the game means more to him than even his certain demise. Others see it as his rise above the carnage and his refusal to buckle under the pressure of the Corporations. He "wins" in a game where there is to be no winner, showing that individualism can win out.

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Movies - Rollerball

Plot summary

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