Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Tweetienator The 70s got some of the best sci-fi movies ever done: Soylent Green, Colossus, Silent Running, Solaris, The Omega Man, Logan's Run, Westworld, Dark Star, Star Wars, The Black Hole, Alien, Mad Max, Stalker and and and.One of those classics is Rollerball with James Caan as the superplayer of a deadly game, made by the corporations who rule now the world to entertain the masses. Jonathan (James Caan) the hero of the masses got so famous and popular that the bosses get afraid of him.Many of those mentioned movies may look now a little old-fashioned or vintage compared to the modern sci-fi CGI galore productions but despite the very reduced special effects compared to the contemporary movies they got innovative ideas, good to superb directing and - imo the far better actors. Nowadays Hollywood darlings are imo really shallow to watch if I compare them with such titans like Heston and Cann and the many nameless good sidekick- actors.This one is the mother of all Gladiator movies in a sci-fi/dystopian context. Watch.

Red-Barracuda Set a few decades in the future, we find a world where violence has been outlawed and corporations are the new governments. The pacified population's primal blood-lust is serviced by viewing the ultra-violent and massively popular game Rollerball. Contestants regularly die during games and the longest surviving veteran of the sport has only lasted ten years; he is Jonathan E and he is the acknowledged superstar of the sport but his fame has reached levels that concern the leaders. They believe his popularity has put him on a pedestal and this hero worship goes against the intended message of the sport that individualism is doomed and collective effort is all. Because of this, the rulers insist he retires but he refuses and so new rules are implemented to make the game ever more nihilistic and deadly with the hope it results in Jonathan E's death.Rollerball is yet another movie which follows the 70's trend for dystopian sci-fi, or perhaps more accurately utopian sci-fi. Quite a few films of the period depicted utopian societies where many of the negatives of life have been eradicated but at a cost to individual freedoms. In fact, these films suggest that utopias and dystopias are just two sides of the same coin. In the future world of Rollerball illness, violence and poverty have been eradicated but so too are individualism and true freedom. There is no unrestricted access to knowledge and the people live strange soulless hedonistic lives. In one stand-out scene we see a group of affluent young people venture out into the grounds of a large estate during a party to fire an extremely powerful handgun at large trees, setting them ablaze. This is the kind of activity that the people indulge in for kicks in this brave new world.The social commentary is always welcome in sci-fi films like these and this one is no different but it's probably the Rollerball sequences themselves that offer up the true highlights of the movie. The game is set in an arena with combatants kitted out in helmets and heavy protective gear, with some on motorbikes. A steel ball is fired into play and it is them a case of anything goes with all manner of violence actively encouraged. These scenes are very well shot and edited together and make for dynamic and exciting stuff. The acting overall is nothing especially too memorable it must be said. This is mainly because the underplayed nature of performances which underline the downbeat nature of the world that they exist in. James Caan does what he can with his role but his character is limited really. Overall, Rollerball's combination of dystopian pensive sci-fi with high octane action is its secret weapon. Both threads complement each other and feed off one another, resulting in a very distinctive bit of 70's sci-fi that gets you fired up while simultaneously makes you think. It was remade in 2002 in a hilariously misguided fashion; needless to say, the original towers over that one.

Spikeopath Norman Jewison and William Harrison expand Harrison's short story into a full length feature film, with great results. Story takes place in 2018 and the world is a global corporate state, a hegemony of six ruling cartels. There are no wars, poverty and etc, so the cartels provide the antidote to pent up frustrations with Rollerball, a bloodthirsty arena sport where no quarter is given or taken. But when the sports number one star, Jonathan E, becomes a free spirit and too big for the sport, the corporations aim to retire him…Headed by a superb James Caan as Jonathan, the performances are from the high end, the photography superb and the action during the games themselves is beautifully choreographed. The use of classical music to run concurrent with the themes in the narrative is smartly rendered to the tricksy plot, while the writing is sharp and deserving of the utmost attention from the viewer. It's folly to suggest that when the film is away from the Rollerball ring it sags a touch, so patience is required and a respect of literate posturing is also expected to get the most out of it.A deftly crafted dystopian sci-fier with literate smarts and lusty blood letting. 7.5/10

poe426 I don't have to tell anyone who's made it this far that ROLLERBALL, in retrospect, seems prescient. Corporate team sports have become the norm, with athletes proudly adorning themselves with corporate logos and tap-dancing to the tunes of their corporate masters as fast as they can. (There may come a time when the corporations will require the athletes they sponsor to tattoo the company logo on their hides...) Individuality (of the sort found in sports like boxing) has pretty much fallen by the wayside, for the most part (the odd fight turns up on cable or pay-per-view, but NEVER on Corporate Networks any more; and only superstar fighters with Brand Names are known to the general public). Jonathan E is the Muhammad Ali of his era, an individual who stands out- and, like the proverbial nail that must be hammered down, he finds himself under assault from The Corporation(s). Like the so-called Rules of Engagement meant to lessen the murder(s) in warfare, there are penalties in Rollerball, but those penalties are waived in response to Jonathan's celebrity to allow for greater carnage- which the Rollerballers promptly deliver (like the grunts who kill nowadays in the name of Corporations). Whether it's Team Sports like football or basketball or the military, it's ALL carefully designed to foster The Group Mind approach to winning. It's the individual who's NOT a Team Player that must be hammered down.