ROLLERBALL (1975) MOVIE REACTION! FIRST TIME WATCHING!
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- Опубликовано: 11 ноя 2021
- ROLLERBALL (1975) MOVIE REACTION! FIRST TIME WATCHING! Polls, early access and full reactions on Patreon / reelreviewswithjen Watch me watch this 1975 sci-fi movie Rollerball, in this first time watching reaction video! Rollerball tells the story of a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes is out to defy those who want him out of the game.
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The film was written by William Harrison and directed by Norman Jewison. Rollerball stars James Caan as Jonathan E., John Houseman as Bartholomew, John Beck as Moonpie, Pamela Hensley
as Mackie, Maud Adams as Ella, Moses Gunn as Cletus, Barbara Trentham as Daphne, John Normington as Executive, Shane Rimmer as Rusty, Team Executive, Burt Kwouk as Japanese Doctor, Ralph Richardson as Librarian and Nancy Bleier as Girl in Library.
Check out this first time watching this bad sci-fi movie reaction video for Rollerball, and see if I can make it through this bad sci-fi movie. Horror is a genre I've barely explored, mostly because I'm a huge wuss. Typically my Halloween movie viewings consist of Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown. This year I decided to expand my horror movie knowledge and try and watch these horror movie fan favourites.
Check out my first time watching this classic 1975 sci-fi movie, Rollerball,, and enjoy my reaction video! Don't forget to like and subscribe for more videos! If you have suggestions for other horror movies I should watch, comment below!
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*Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. All rights belong to their respective owners. 
Развлечения
Who told you this movie is "terrible"? It certainly isn't. I saw it at the theater when it came out and it was a blast.
Actually there is a common opinion about mostly people who never saw this movie that it is bad or cheesy so it makes them skip it and never watch it.
Even some people who saw it find it bad becausr it's "slow" and not enough action and too intellectual, most people who first saw it in the 80s are of that mind.
Me, i fell inlove with this movie since i first saw it on TV and i own the DVD with the director's audio comentary which is brilliant and very informative.
The same people who, like Jen, said “Look at that computer-font for the title and jersey numbers, that’s so 70’s!”
Critics didn't understand this film. That is to their detriment.
Whoever put it on her "terrible movies" list probably had it confused with the 2002 remake. Which _is_ godawful.
This is an excellent movie just very out of place nowadays but if you want a terrible movie watch the remake.
The reason the Corporation wanted Jonathan to retire is because he was a champion in a game that was never meant to have champions. His very existence defeated the purpose of the game, which was to discourage individualism, so they needed to convince him to retire. Since Jonathan wouldn't retire, they kept changing the rules to make the game increasingly difficult and dangerous in the hopes that Jonathan would be permanently crippled or killed.
Right you are!
Well. More that he represented individualistic power which is a danger to the current world view.
More to make him quit, I think. Hence why they arranged Moonpie's 'retirement'.
Correct. The game was designed to impose the belief that the individual is worthless.
Rollerball was never considered a terrible movie, Jen. It's actually considered a classic, directed by the acclaimed, three time Oscar nominated director Norman Jewison... who's from Canada. 😉
Norman Jewinson, like you said, had a long and legendary career in cinema. He made many classics. I think Rollerball is one of his best films he made. You can tell the story was close to his heart as he directed and produced it.
And the game announcer was a real hockey announcer.
The remake was terrible
I think I get what happened - the REMAKE of Rollerball is terrible. The original has never been considered a bad film that I had heard.
The remake is indeed awful. Sadly many also though the same of the original and the word on the street is that it is a piece of 70s cheese, instead of the very good, very well crafted and intelligent movie that it is.
Debatable actually.
The original has certainly attained cult status and has grown a sizable audience of those who appreciate its dystopian message but at the time it was reviewed mixed-at-best to terribly. Many considered it empty meaningless violence. Now that clearly wasn't the intention of the movie but critics are gonna critic. It should also be noted that most of the fans of the movie when it came out loved it for the wrong reason. They missed the satire and hailed the gratuitous bloodsport.
So while I for sure agree that its a wonderful movie, it was in fact considered not all that great at some point.
The remake was crap though, opinion on that is pretty unanimous from release to now :)
This is by no means a bad movie at all. It is in fact an excellent film. This movie was made when Holywood, in a rare moment of artistic boldness that lasted through most of the 1970s, made SF films for an adult audience.
This is one of the cleverest SF movie made by Holywood. This is one of the great 70s SF film ever made.
This was actually part of a larger trend in American movie making that excelled in intelligent and well-executed presentations from roughly 1967 to 1980 (the bookends being Bonnie and Clyde, and Heaven's Gate. 😎
I don't know how Rollerball can be described as a bad movie. It's one of the most thoughtful films ever made. It's theme of rebellion against the state has also been done in Fahrenheit 451 and 1984.
Along with Soylent Green, Silent Running, Zardoz & Logan's Run this is one of the great scifi films of the 1970s. I'm so happy 😊😊😊
Enthusiastic seconding for the entire quartet - although perhaps Zardoz is the one whose quality of vision is most open to question, these days. It is certainly eccentric, but it is a sci-fi film like no other, and I love it. Jen should too. 😎
@@goldenager59 That's because you have taste 😉👍
@@eddhardy1054
Why, thank you! I've often wondered, now and then, whether I did or not. (I'm still not sure, but the vote of confidence is most welcome.)
🤔 🤨 😯 😀
@@goldenager59 Mate anyone who can see through the outer weirdness of Zardoz to it's inner wonderfulness definitely has taste, of that you can be certain
@@eddhardy1054
And I think we see CRYSTAL clear. Eh?
😏 💎💍🔮
You might've noticed that Rollerball shares a lot of similarities with other dystopian science fiction stories like Fahrenheit 451 and Orwell's 1984. It's basically a totalitarian society run by corporations that control everything. Rollerball is a game created for three purposes: 1. To replace warfare as a means of settling economic and territorial disputes; 2. A method of dispelling civil unrest using brutal bloodsport as a distraction; 3. To discourage individual effort in favor of collectivism by creating a game so difficult and violent that no one man or team could excel at it.
Take it from me, unless you've actually read William Harrison's original short story "Roller Ball Murders", you don't know from difficult or violent. They actually toned it down for the movie. 😕 😣
100 percent correct
Oh the irony: "Audiences who saw the film so loved the action of the game that Jewison was contacted multiple times by promoters, requesting that 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.""
"Congratulations, your intentions backfired spectacularly. :D"
Mankind will always be drawn to sports like wrestling, football, boxing and the rest of the martial arts. (We always have been) 😀❤
Saw Rollerball in 1975 in a local theater a block from my High School. I saw it after classes during the week it was shown. Saw it about seven times! I was able to get a book during college that had the short story 'Rollerball Murder'. I studied Commercial Arts in college and one of my personal projects was doing a graphic novel of Rollerball! I am a freelance illustrator and I credit Rollerball as one of the movies that led me to a career as an illustrator.
I must say, a graphic novel version of Harrison's original short story really would be something, for as brutal as the game is in the film, it doesn't even come close to the literary version. 🙄 I'd certainly put down money for a copy - I'd even pay to collaborate on it with you! 😉
James Caan was the coolest Cat then and now in whatever movie he’s in
Sonny!! Love J. Caan.
Jonathan is James Caan from The Godfather and Misery. And, er, Elf.
And "Thief". One of my favourites.
Rollerball was based on a short story called ‘Roller Ball Murder,' which was published in Esquire Magazine in 1973. William Harrison, who wrote the short story, also wrote the movie screenplay.
In the story, the game is played on a high-banked oval track, the ball is more like a bowling ball (20 lbs.), it's fired (at a speed of 300 mph) in the same direction the athletes move, and there are three kinds of players - besides Bikers and Skaters, there are the Runners, who do all the catching of the ball with big lacrosse-like paddles that double as offensive weapons (hence their alternate name of Clubbers). The idea is for a Runner to somehow pass all the opposing Skaters, field the ball and somehow pass it to a Biker for one point. Simplissimus maximus. If your team can incapacitate all the Runner/Clubbers, you win. 2 hours' continuous play. No rest periods, no substitutions, and the penalty for being "lapped" by your own team is removal of your helmet.
And that's just the STANDARD play. I'll let you discover for yourselves just what modifications are made as the season winds down and the Finals approach! 😮 😬 🤯
Major diff other than the game play itself is the game in the story was already designed as a death sport. Suitable candidates such as a young orphan named Jonathan (a Corporate War baby) were farmed into the RBM system, and made to play (there were armed guards at the tracks to ensure safety from the fans, and to discourage sluggish play on the track). Any rules in existence in the story (which there were basically none, except those relating to scoring) were eliminated soley due to the RBM Federation simply increasing the appeal of the game. RBM was primarily a substitute for conventional and "Corproate" war, and to appease a pharmaceutically-numbed world populations' bloodlust. Jonathan E in the story is simply an obsolete killer whose retirement is only suggested; he wasn't intended to last and actually doesn't: the story ends with the start of the NY Final. The implication is Jonathan dies on the track because nobody was intended to survive. The sci-fi horror of it is the dehumanization, which the story character has already gone thru simply by being alive in that type of dystopian system. He willingly just rolls out to his own death, because that is the Corporate Design. The film build's E's refusal to retire out of his loyalty to his team, especially as the rules change to eliminate him (they could just get rid of him easily another way). Any conspiracy existing in the film already happened in the story prior to the story taking place (the taking over by the Corporate Society and Executive Directory, the masses having to give up true apparent freedom for comfort), so Jonathan again really knows no better (he has only history for comparison, and there is no accurate history). Funny thing with "revolutionary" Jonathan in the film: nobody watching is going to walk away from the NY match seriously considering to overthrow a governing body providing comfort and pharmaceuticals (especially without any comparative basis, other than minor natural discomfort until comfort is reestablished - we never see the true system at wortk on the street in the movie); five minutes after Jonathan exits the NY track, he's gonna fall on a convenient bar of soap, or his transport will crash, or he'll eat a poisoned Soylent Green pretzel...If it wouldn't be Energy head Bartholomew saving face, or his replacement flexing muscle, Jonathan would be eliminated off the track soon after by Corporate Design. "Retired to the Island" or some such silliness. This doesn't even consider AI generated alternate realities, which would've only added to any messages of Corporate evil that ended up being sanitized from the RBM story to the film version. Interesting reading comparing the story, the original script, the shooting script, and the film. (skip the remake but read the MAD satire, issue 181 from 1976)
Terrible movie? Oh, no...no no no. This is a classic through and through. Love Rollerball!
Now if you want terrible, the remake is terrible. But not in a good way.
You don't recognize any of the cast, Jen? Jonathan E. is played by James Caan, who played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. He was also in the 1988 science fiction movie Alien Nation, which you should also check out. Jonathan's girlfriend is played by Pamela Hensley, who played Princess Ardala in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Bartholomew is played by John Houseman, who was in The Fog as the storyteller, Mr. Machen.
Not to mention Maude Adams, a model and actress.
Maude Adams most famous for starting in two James Bond films during the Roger Moore era.
Not to mention Sir Ralph Richardson as the Librarian who was also in Dragonslayer from 1981 which you should definitely check out!
I’m surprised she didn’t recognize Jimmy Caan at least. I hadn’t seen this since probably 1977-78, when I was a 10 year old kid. I didn’t remember John Houseman being in it. My dad was a big fan of The Paper Chase (movie & series), so Houseman made an impression on me at a young age.
@@rromano158 Yeah, but I don't think that Jen has seen any of the James Bond movies.
James Caan and the cast actually performed their own stunts alongside the stuntmen, Jen. In fact, Rollerball was so realistic that the cast, extras, and stunt crew played the game between takes. Director Norman Jewison and actor James Caan were even interviewed by Howard Cosell on ABC's Wide World of Sports, showing clips from the movie and explaining the rules of the game.
Jewison was so impressed by the stunt team, he got them credited at the end of the film.
It's based on a short story called "Rollerball Murder" by William Neal Harrison.
Please do the 1970s dystopia trifecta: "Rollerball", "Soylent Green", and "Logan's Run"
The 70s SF trifecta should be Rollerball, THX-1138 and A Clockwork Orange.
She's seen "Soylent Green", she mentioned it in the video.
And Deathrace 2000
My personal one growing up was swapping Soylent Green for Death Race 2000
Silent Running is another 1970s dystopian classic.
Most of Rollerball was filmed in Munich, Germany, Jen. The Energy Corporation headquarters was actually the then-new BMW Headquarters in Olympiapark, Munich.
There was a 2002 remake of Rollerball, but it was horrible.
I think calling it horrible is giving it too much credit mate. Everything that was great about the original was ignored in the remake. They even managed to make rollerball itself look like a giant game of pinball 🙄
God yes, one of the worst remakes of all time. I'm not a person who's just reflexively hates on remakes. I actually like quite a few. But yeah, that one was a freakin' dumpster fire.
This movie takes place in 2018 according to the Wikipedia page for the movie. One of my all time favorite movies, RIP James Caan.
You should check out the original 1975 version of Death Race 2000 with David Carradine, Jen. It features Sylvester Stallone in an early role, one year before Rocky made him famous.
She's seen that; she mentions it in the video.
@@TTM9691 I don't think she has. She kept mentioning it was about prisoners trying to win there freedom, which is the plot of the remake Death Race from 2008. Death Race 2000 from 1975 is a dystopian future centered around a brutal cross country race.
The countries were replaced by corporations, and the control of the council that rules is based on the victories of the team representing the corps.
Jonathan did not care about the politics, he just "loved the game". He was becoming bigger the council..
I can't imagine a world 🌎 where creepy old elites control everything. Oh wait a minute, we're living in it 😫
Sort of like Rome. Using gladiator games to distract the masses
The remake sucked
I haven’t seen anyone mention him yet but another very recognizable actor is Robert Ito. His career goes back to the 60s. He was in the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, as well as Quincy, Star Trek the Next Generation, StarTrek Voyager, and just about every TV show made in the 90s.
I think you're confusing this with the McTiernan remake. That one was TERRIBLE.
"There's no crying in Rollerball" = brilliant
Thanks for watching!
One of the fun things about old movies that take place in the future is what they think the future is going to look like.
Yes! I love that about sci-fi movies, what predications come true or not
Norman Jewison is an amazing journeyman director. If I could ever make a top ten movie list, this movie would be on it.
Congratulations I think you're the only youtube channel that has done a reaction on this classic film. Thank you cheers
Thank you for watching! I really liked this film 🎬
The music you hear at the beginning and end of the movie is Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Jen. It's often used in horror movies.
John Houseman, who played Bartholomew, spent most of his career as a stage, movie, and television producer, notably working in partnership with Orson Welles. He became an actor late in his life when he played law Professor Kingsfield in the movie, and later the TV show, "The Paper Chase" for which he won an Academy Award for supporting actor.
I find it funny when people complain that this movie is slow and needs more action. This was never meant to be an action movie. It was a social commentary and the game was meant to be seen as brutal entertainment for the masses. Much like gladitorial combat. In fact, promotors approached Norman Jewison to buy the rights to the game and Jewison was disgusted and refused the offers. If they tried to create a remake for modern audiences, it would be given to Michael Bay or Zach Snyder and would be non-stop action, no plot and alot more explosions and perhaps a large robot or two. Bay would toss in an awkward love triangle to increase our viewing misery. (I am ignoring the 2002 disaster, since it deserves no mention in any context whatsoever.)
I was 14 when it was released in England in 1974 and I became obsessed with it. I had to watch it several times to really understand what it was about. The biker at the end was in fact the speedball from Manila who Jonathan dropped during the training sequence.
“Can you imagine, like, a hockey game with those things in place?" You saying that hockey isn't already like Rollerball, Jen? lol 😆 You Canadians are brutal. 😜
Haha we would probably apologize after though
@@ReelReviewsWithJen 😎🍩you want a terrible movie watch jem and the holograms it's not even like the cartoon series
Fabulous review. I found it refreshing that you didn't know anything about the film, the filming locations, the cast, the story, when the story was set and just reacted to what transpired. I saw the film in the theater in 1975 and with your review it was almost like watching it for the first time again.
James Caan (Misery) said he gave Rollerball 8/10. That he couldn't do much with Jonathan's character.
Which was the whole point, really. Jonathan is a man who is slowly waking up to the reality of the world he lives in already as a fully formed adult, not as a rebel teen.
Film is set in 2018. James Caan, the main man, was in Misery.
Watching the party scene, where Jonathan is milling around aimlessly while the other partygoers are watching his image on TV screens, I am reminded of the quote in Sense and Sensibility: "Brandon is the sort of man everyone speaks well of, but no one remembers to talk to." Jonathan is the celebrity gladiator who delivers brutal excitement to the masses, but remains an image rather than a real person.
It's also telling that Mackie says the executive she is at the party with, "wanted to know if I enjoyed you" momentarily reversing the normal social order and making Jonathan the (very uncomfortable) plaything.
James Caan during preproduction thought it was going to be a legit league. the director had to remind him that it's a movie.
Great choice a great film to watch , I would also suggest Soylent Green, THX-1138 and Logan's Run.
This is more violent than "Slap Shot" which came out 2 years later. I just rewatched that one, so funny with violence and a bit of nudity that isn't crass. Paul Newman stars, it also has Michael Ontkean and Lindsey Crouse who appears in "Buffy" season 4.
"Rollerball" has James Caan, very big in the '70s, he starred in "Misery" by Stephen King, "The Godfather" I and II, "Elf".
John Houseman appears in the classic "Scrooged" as what Bill Murray calls "America's favorite old fart". You MUST see that for Christmas.
Maud Adams was in 2 James Bond films "Octopussy" and "The Man with the Golden Gun".
Btw, that piece of music is quite famous, 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' by Bach. All madman scientist types play it, Dr. Phibes is one, probably Phantom of the Opera, it's also in "Fantasia".
"ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!!!?????...." - Gladiator
This was fun to watch. When my father took me to see Rollerball in 1975 I was nine years old, and the themes and prophetic warnings of this wildly under-appreciated film have never left my mind. Thank you to whoever pointed out, this a Norman Jewison picture, can you imagine a career where you direct Rollerball, Fiddler on the Roof, and Moonstruck? 😯
I always have to chuckle when somebody sees a forward thinking film like this and says "What if there was censorship/information control like this..?." That's our world now. Today virtual books are censored, films are censored, online searches are censored, news is scripted, fabricated, and censored to slant and direct what you see and think like a disneyland dark ride. And when somebody questions any of it they are violently beat down. Rollerball may have fudged some of the superficial details but it was startlingly accurate in predicting where humanity was heading.
It is eerie how prescient the film was in that aspect.
YES! This is a movie to react to! Surprised you didn't recognize James Caan! He was Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather"! Cage's nemesis in "Honeymoon In Vegas"! The lead actor in "Misery"! (maybe you meant you didn't recognize any of the rest of the cast)/Although this movie wasn't (and isn't) held in the same esteem of other 1975 movies like "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" or "Dog Day Afternoon" or "Jaws" for that matter..."Rollerball" wasn't considered terrible, it was a hit movie. It's dated in style, but in a fun way! :D (Now if you want to see something hilariously terrible - and yet cool futuristic dystopian blah blah blah - check out Sean Connery in "Zardoz"! An image search will quickly show you why!). / I love that you've seen "The Prisoner"!
Oi! Zardoz is a good movie! Campy, sure, but is a genuine good movie with lots of ideas and an interresting message to say. I guess most people get too distracted by Connery's loins.
@@carlossaraiva8213 I like it! But it hasn't exactly aged like fine wine. I was more impressed with it in the 70s, whereas now I laugh at it. (in a way that I don't with, say, "Clockwork Orange" or "Fahrenheit 451".) ( I do laugh at "Sleeper" though! But I'm supposed to! :D)
If you liked this, you need to watch "Running Man" starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Also, another good James Caan sci-fi movie, "Alien Nation" from 1988. It's about an alien ship that crashes in the desert in California. It was carry millions of slave aliens that are living amongst human society, mostly in Los Angeles. James Caan plays bigoted cop who is partnered with an alien. Awesome movie. Please consider watching it.
The Running Man*
If you guys like “Cheese and Rice!” As a curse phrase, you’ll love “You Melon-Farming Cork-soaker!”
Wow, excellent pick. I have been waiting for one of the "Reviewers" to watch this. You win a prize, I just don't know what it is??? P/S this doesn't count as a terrible movie.
You don't recognize director Norman Jewison, Jen? 😮 The famous Canadian director of In The Heat of The Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, ...And Justice For All, A Solder's Story, and Moonstruck? A three time Academy Award nominee? They're gonna kick you out of Canada for not knowing him. lol 😂 He's a national treasure.
Also, "Hurricane".
Amazing that Norman Jewison directed both Rollerball and Jesus Christ Superstar. JCS had more jazz hands and snazzy dancing scenes.
James Caan played the father in Elf. He was also in the fantastic horror must watch Misery.
"Cheeze & Rice!!" Got to put that on a Tee Shirt.
Hey.... it's Cato 17:21 from the Pink Panther films.
Remember those names. You'll enjoy their other films. No actor should be forgotten.
Pretty sure one of the biggest trivia things about this movie was that it was among the first to include credits for the stuntmen that they used. Saw this during the pandemic myself for the first time and absolutely love it. Definitely a cult classic & absolutely brutal.
This film is rather outstanding. Well acted, fun, and has a greater depth.
Rollerball is a fantastic film. Also it is the first film ever to put the stuntmens names in the credits, all due to their work on this film.
Glad you enjoyed it, still makes me think!
This was the first movie to list all stunt players in the credits.
Where we’re going we don’t need coats “ hahaha Jen classic
The original Death Race 2000 is much different than the remake that you saw.
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Rollerball - the game of many bonks... If they'd had the foresight then... Greatest tag line ever! 🤣💕
Haha thank you for watching!
New tagline, "Rollerball : The Game of Many Bonks"
I am eating "cheese and rice" while watching this! Who knew ?
🍚🧀🍚🧀🍚🧀
Rollerball is a wonderful metaphor for life.
4:42 -- I didn't realize you'd watched The Prisoner.. Now I'm impressed. :D
The gun was the Gyrojet that fired a gyroscopically stabilized mini-rocket. It was very good at long distances, but at short distances it did not have enough velocity built up to do much damage. I do not know if they ever made any with explosive/incendiary ammo like was shown in the move though. It ultimately failed because of a manufacturing defect in an entire run of the ammo, which clogged up one of the angled exhaust ports that spun the round to stabilized the projectile. They are very valuable these days. I was given a choice between one of them in a collectors case with ammo or a H&K P7 as a Christmas gift, and chose the P7 because I could actually afford to shoot it.
In the short story the film is based on, "Roller Ball Murder", by William Harrison, the game is somehow even worse and more violent. In some games, there is more than one ball in play at a time, and often they are oblong instead of round, so that they tumble, and can smash into an unwary player. If a skater is skating slow enough that an opposing player laps him, the slow skater is penalized by having his helmet removed, pretty much a death sentence.
I remember the tag line on the preview trailer: In the not too distant future, there will be no crime. There will be no poverty. There will be no war. But there WILL be...Rollerball! (cut to scenes of violence on the rollerball track) I think the whole point was that the game was meant to fill humanity's need for violence after most actual violence has been eradicated from society.
Yes!!! Also ROLLERBALL is based on a book. It supposed to take place in 2015! There was even a 2005 remake that holds 3% on RT. The original film has 68% on RT
2018 😉
Yep. The remake was a turd made for idiots.
my favorite line was it was never meant to be a game never
We're gonna need that LOGAN'S RUN reaction now. : )
Dystopian future "evil corporation" and "evil government" movies were really popular in the 70s. Probably no coincidence that these types of movies were coming out right after the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal.
It was partly in reaction to this spate of "isn't it terrible where we're heading" themed science fiction movies that George Lucas developed his escapist epic that took the Earth by storm. 👽 🤭
History buffs, take heed! Nation-states are based on real estate and are defended by citizens (whether volunteer or conscript). Corporations are based on money and can employ professionals - mercenaries - to further their aims. This was the exact situation in the third century BCE when Rome had her three-round bout with Carthage. You probably know (or can make a pretty good guess) which side won - but that doesn't necessarily mean that nation-states will always trump commercial empires. If the scenario replays itself in future, I know which side I'LL back - corporations may have morals where customers are concerned, but notoriously few as regards workers. To paraphrase Robert Asprin, when a corporation says "Jump!", you don't say, "How high?" You say, "May I PLEASE COME DOWN now, SIR?"
(Someone, please God *anyone,* tell me I'm wrong!) 😒 🤑
One of the best dystopian sci fi movies of the seventies.
Thanks!
A true classic, when sci-fi made you think and didn't have to be a blockbuster every time, what is the role of the individual in society? Apparently when they were filming the cast and crew used to play Rollerball for real during the breaks. Jonathon! JONATHON! Who needs the C13th century? That's MAGNA CARTA!
...and the Mongol Khans, and Alexander Nevsky, and the Children's Crusade, and St. Francis of Assisi, and the Albigensians, and Marco Polo, and the sack of Constantinople, and Thomas Aquinas, and Roger Bacon, and the fall of Baghdad, and Chartres Cathedral, and the Mamluks, and Sundiata of Mali, and ever so much more than "just Dante and a few corrupt Popes". 🤔 📖 😉
Yep. Real films, with real grit, before the whole schmaltzy Star Wars et al came around.
This was never a bad movie. It was a solid picture about individuality in an oppressive corporate controlled futureworld. There were no sequels. There was a really bad 2002 remake that was pure shit. The opening/closing music was Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Bach.
I like to think that because they changed the rules to have no time limit, Jonathan could just keep skating round as long as he wants and score a massive amount of goals, and really show how stupid the situation has become.
In the short story, the game ended either within the allotted time, or when the opposing team no longer had any scoring players left.
one of the great sports movie predicted the futre of sports owner ship , he was becoming a legend , wich was not aloud ...
The music at the start is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.
I saw this when it came out and loved it. The game sequences hold up well but the future view of society seems very dated. Still enjoyable to watch though.
What's the current statistics on book reading? Not blogs or tweets. Books. Knowing the ultimate Classic music themes, Bach's toccata or Chaykovski's Sleeping Beauty is not "a thing" anymore.
If anything the very thing that has aged even better is the depiction of a corporate world where the masses are sedated with overblown sports. The more time passes the more prescient the movie becames.
And i love the 70s aestetics. Small wonder shows like Legion and Loki are invoking it and there is happening a slow crawling return to 70s chic.
@@zvimur It is a thing. Check out reaction videos of youngsters listening to the classics for the first time and how mindblown they get. Dont be that guy who shouts get out of my lawn when even in your early 40s. The old farts hold us with the same contempt when we were kids, and i for one will not act like them. I might be getting older but i refuse to become old, if you know what i mean.
@@carlossaraiva8213 I'm in my midfifties, so...
@@zvimur I agree completely. I grew up reading books and even as a teen I'd easily read at least a book a week.
Just found your channel love your reviews
Great dystopian Sci-Fi film from the 1970's. Needlessly remade in the early 2000's. That ominous music is Toccata und Fuge by Bach. Main star James Caan appears in The Godfather and his on screen wife is Swedish actress and two time Bond leading lady Maud Adams. The eccentric English guy who shows him Zero is famous British actor Sir Ralph Richardson. The coach Shane Rimmer is a familiar character actor of the time and also voice actor in Gerry Anderson's puppet shows. We also see British/Asian actor Burt Kwok most known from the Pink Panther series, and Moonpie was the navigator in a comedy called The Big Bus... nice review
Star of movie is James can who played sonny in The Godfather
The purpose of the game is that it takes the place of wars.
This was one of the first movies to include the stunt people's names in the credits.
That’s so cool! They definitely earned it! Thanks for watching 🎬
Rollerball is not a terrible sci-fi movie. It's a classic.
They literally explain it in the conference meeting why they want him to die in the game. The whole point is to show that no individual is greater than the whole.
Later Jonathan's dialogue with, I forget it was his friend or his wife, he says that in the past Humanity had a choice between freedom and comfort and they chose comfort.
No sequels or TV series that I know of, but a spiritual successor would be The Running Man.
And we got the excellent video game Speedball 2!
I started the morning off by listening to The Saturday Morning Freakshow Podcast,then came here to hear you talk about a science-fiction movie from the 70,so so far I’m having a pretty good day.To answer a question of yours,this movie was eventually remade by a different director,but This director,Norman Jewison,producing.I was not really a huge fan of this movie,but once I saw the remake,I gained a new respect for the original.I can also tell you this was based on a short story called The Rollerball Murders,which I can’t comment on because I’ve never read it.You mentioned Death Race 2000 and,from your description it sounds like you’re talking about the remake,but you should see the original from the 70s(It’s got an early career performance by Sylvester Stallone as the main-kind of comedic- villian,Machine Gun Joe Viterbo,and if that doesn’t pique your interest,then I don’t know what to tell you).I think there were some other things I wanted to say,but my hamster brain has forgotten them,so I’ll leave you by saying that if you intended to review a bad sci-fi movie,you should watch the remake(and yes,other commenters,I realize there was a point to the remake just as there’s a point to this one,but that doesn’t mean the movies good).Thank you very much for your reviews and your time.
It was filmed in Munich, Germany.
Oh this isn't a terrible movie it's a great one. 😀
Did this film contain the world's first Zoom meeting?...lol
At least one of the first portrayed on film, I should think. 😎
James Caan once said he couldn't do much with the character. It's set in the year 2018. It had mixed reviews, and James Caan and John Housman did the best they could with the story and script they had. Directed by Norman Jewison (several Doris Day movies, The Cincinnati Kid, The Thomas Crown Affair, Fiddler on the Roof, And Justice For All, Moonstruck). It's an acquired taste and not everyone will like it. But overall, it's not a bad movie. As a side note, the concept of Stop, drop and Roll dates back to a publication in 1973. The origins of it being a PSA is in the late 1970's as commercials with Dick Van Dyke.
This is a film that was always on late at night as a kid I'd stay up a watch it loved it James Caan he's been an actor in many films The Godfather,Misery,and Elf as the Dad great reaction anyway.
Mackie was Princess Ardala in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Rollerball was the first time that stuntmen got on-screen credit. AND they deserved it!!! The original idea came from a short story written in 1973. The author William Harrison, wrote s short story called Rollerball Murder. He wanted to write the screen play with Norman Jewison. They actually invented a professional playable sport. I don't think that has ever happened since. The track was designed by famous velodrome track designer and there was NO CGI.... 🤣. I could go on.... and on.... and on.... The move was WAY a head of it's time.
I think Rollerball is more of a take on what sports would be like in the future. Cooperations vying for power over a gladiatorial sport
Other films that I know James Caan appeared in were :- El Dorado 1966, The Godfather 1974, A Bridge Too Far 1977 & Elf 2003.
70's rollerball, woooooo!
Death Race 2000 (the 1975 original) starring David Carradine & Sylvester Stallone. I think it’s available on Tubi.
Death Race 2000 was made by legendary producer Roger Corman (king of cost-effective ripoff film making) in the wake of Rollerball. The latter is certainly the more intelligently conceived feature, but it's not exactly a crowd-pleaser; it's humorless and self-important in its message. Death Race 2000, on the other hand, is a satire that has as many cheerful send-ups of society as it has pointed comments. (Rather a bit more exposed flesh as well...) 😁 👍