Norman Jewison (1975)

‘In the not so distant future’, says the poster, ‘there will be no more wars but there will be Rollerball’[1].  Norman Jewison doesn’t make clear, however, whether the violent sport of the title will also have replaced all other sports and culture.  Even the rules of the game are hazy.  Jewison is uncomfortably ambivalent about the material.  He dishes up gory violence then seems to scold the viewer for lapping it up.  James Caan stars as a top Rollerball player who, suspicious of a forced retirement, belatedly starts investigating the corporate giants that now rule the world and own the Rollerball teams.  John Houseman is the unacceptable face of corporatism.

9 February 1976

[1] Afternote:  The film’s ‘not so distant future’ is 2018 …