Rollerball (1975 film)

In 2018, Jonathan E. is the team captain and veteran star of the Houston Rollerball team. Mr. Bartholomew, chairman of the Energy Corporation - one of a series of corporations that now govern society - and team sponsor, offers Jonathan a lavish retirement package if Jonathan will announce his retirement during an upcoming television special detailing his career. Jonathan refuses, and requests to see his former wife Ella, who had been taken from him some years earlier by a corporate executive who wanted her for himself.

Jonathan goes to a library, where he finds that all books have been digitized and edited to suit the corporations, and are now stored on supercomputers at large protected corporate locations. Jonathan's friend and former coach Cletus, now an Energy executive, warns him that the Executive Committee is afraid of him, though he cannot find out why.

Rollerball soon degrades into senseless violence as the rules are changed to force Jonathan out. The semi-final match between Houston and Tokyo is played with no penalties and limited substitutions in the hope Jonathan will be injured and forced out. The brutality of the match kills several players and leaves Jonathan's best friend and teammate Moonpie in a coma, though Houston wins the game.

In a teleconference, the Executive Committee decides that the final match will be played with no penalties, no substitutions, and no time limit in the hope that Jonathan will be killed during the game.{{cite web |last1=Reed |first1=Philip J. |title=Trilogy of Terror: Rollerball (1975) |url=https://noiselesschatter.com/2018/10/24/trilogy-of-terror-rollerball-1975/ |website=Noiseless Chatter |access-date=23 March 2025 |date=24 October 2018}} Jonathan's popularity and longevity as a player threaten the underlying agenda of Rollerball: to demonstrate the futility of individualism.

Jonathan makes his way to Geneva to access the world's repository of all human knowledge, a central supercomputer known as "Zero," only to find its memory corrupted. Afterwards, Jonathan receives a visit from his former wife Ella, who has been sent to convince him to retire and to make it clear that the coming game will be "to the death". Jonathan realizes his wife's visit was set up by the Executives, and erases a long-cherished movie of the two of them, stating, "I just wanted you on my side." Jonathan decides that despite the dangers, he will play in the championship game against New York.

The final match devolves into a brutal gladiatorial fight. Jonathan is soon the only player left on the track for Houston, while a skater and a biker remain from New York. After a violent struggle in front of Mr. Bartholomew's box, Jonathan kills the skater and takes the ball. The biker charges, and Jonathan knocks him off the bike and pins the biker down. He raises the ball over his head, then pauses. Refusing to kill his fallen opponent, Jonathan gets to his feet and makes his way to the goal, slamming the ball home and scoring the game's only point. Jonathan then takes a victory lap as the crowd chants his name, first softly, then slowly rising to a roar while Mr. Bartholomew hastily exits the stands.

{{Cast listing|

• James Caan as Jonathan E.
• John Houseman as Mr. Bartholomew
• Maud Adams as Ella
• John Beck as 'Moonpie'
• Moses Gunn as Cletus
• Ralph Richardson as The Librarian
• Pamela Hensley as Mackie
• Barbara Trentham as Daphne
• John Normington as Ballard
• Shane Rimmer as Rusty
• Burt Kwouk as Tokyo Doctor
• Nancy Bleier as Girl In Library
• Richard LeParmentier as Bartholomew's Aide
• Robert Ito as Houston Strategy Coach

;Uncredited

• Dick Enberg as Pregame Announcer
• Bob Miller as Game Announcer
• Byron Morrow as Referee
• Tony Brubaker as Blue
• Robert Lee Minor as Gaines
• Angus MacInnes as Jonathan's Bodyguard
• Anthony Chinn as Reporter
• Yasuko Nagazumi as Masseuse
• Valli Kemp and Sarah Douglas as Party Guests
• Robert Lee and Mac McDonald as Executives}}

The film is based on a short story, entitled "Roller Ball Murder",{{cite news |last1=Harrison |first1=William |title=Roller Ball Murder |url=https://classic.esquire.com/article/1973/9/1/roller-ball-murder |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=Esquire {{!}} The Complete Archive |date=September 1973}} published in Esquire, by novelist William Harrison, who joined the University of Arkansas English department in 1964 and established the Creative Writing Program.{{cite web |title=William Neal "Bill" Harrison Interviews |url=https://pryorcenter.uark.edu/interview.php?thisProject=Arkansas%20Memories&thisProfileURL=HARRISON-William-Neal-636&displayName=William%20Neal%20%22Bill%22%20Harrison&thisInterviewee=636 |website=pryorcenter.uark.edu |publisher=Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History |access-date=23 March 2025}}{{cite web |title=William Neal Harrison (1933–2013) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/william-neal-harrison-1038/ |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |access-date=23 March 2025}} Norman Jewison bought the story and hired Harrison to co-write the screenplay with him (they shared an agent{{AFI film|54870}}), and made a deal with United Artists.{{cite web |title=Rollerball (1975) |url=https://nostalgiacentral.com/movies/movies-l-to-z/movies-r/rollerball-1975/ |website=nostalgiacentral.com – Nostalgia Central |access-date=23 March 2025}}

Rollerball{{'}}s arena sequences were shot at the Rudi-Sedlmayer-Halle in Munich, West Germany. This hall was selected because it was the only sports arena in the world with a near-circular profile, which the production could take over and re-dress for shooting.{{cn|date= March 2025}}

The then-new BMW Headquarters and Museum buildings in Munich appear as the headquarters buildings of the Energy Corporation at Olympiapark, Munich. The sequence where Jonathan E. visits Geneva to consult with Zero the supercomputer concerning corporate decisions uses exterior shots of the Palace of Nations.{{cite web |title=Filming Locations for Norman Jewison's Rollerball (1975), with James Caan, in Munich, Germany; and Switzerland. |url=https://movie-locations.com/movies/r/Rollerball-1975.php |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations}} Scenes were also filmed at Fawley Power Station,{{cite news |title=Fawley Power Station: Demolition of control room under way |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-64718777 |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=bbc.com/news |date=23 February 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/23344727.fawley-power-station-control-room-likely-gone-may/|title=Developer issues update on Fawley power station demolition|date=March 1, 2023|website=Daily Echo}}{{cite news |last1=Heathcote |first1=Edwin |title=Brave new town: inside the transformation of Fawley power station |url=https://www.ft.com/content/287f21ed-fee0-464e-9fcf-19bfb701fa34 |access-date=23 March 2025 |work=Financial Times |date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20201202042730/https://www.ft.com/content/287f21ed-fee0-464e-9fcf-19bfb701fa34 |archive-date=2 December 2020}} near Southampton, England.{{cite book |last=Booker |first=M. Keith |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00book_208 |title=Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction Cinema |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8108-5570-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/historicaldictio00book_208/page/n100 66] |url-access=limited}} The remainder of the film was shot at Pinewood Studios.{{cite book |last=Vaughn |first=Stephen |url=https://archive.org/details/freedomentertain0000vaug/page/55 |title=Freedom and Entertainment: Rating the Movies in an Age of New Media |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-85258-7 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/freedomentertain0000vaug/page/55 55] |url-access=registration}}

The film was shot in 35mm with a 1.85 aspect ratio but was released in some theaters in 70mm with a 2:1 aspect ratio.

As the titular sport was only referred to vaguely in Harrison's original short story, rollerball was created largely by Norman Jewison and his production designer John Box,{{Cite web |title=AFI{{!}}Catalog |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/54870 |access-date=2025-04-15 |website=catalog.afi.com}} who conceptualized it as a "blend of a roulette wheel and a pinball machine,"{{cite web |title=Rollerball 1975 - The Film |url=https://www.rb1975.com/the-film.html |access-date=23 March 2025 |website=rb1975.com}} combining elements of roller derby, hockey, football, motocross racing, and judo. A custom track was designed and created by Herbert Schürmann, who had previously designed the track at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Recognizing their contribution to the film's many crucial action sequences, Rollerball was the first major Hollywood production to give screen credit to its stunt performers. English pro wrestler Mark Rocco was one of the stuntmen, and would later use the "Rollerball" his ring name.{{Cite web |last=McGeorge |first=Alistair |date=July 31, 2020 |title=Mark 'Rollerball' Rocco dead aged 69: WWE stars pay tribute to wrestling legend |url=https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/31/mark-rollerball-rocco-dead-aged-69-wwe-stars-pay-tribute-british-wrestling-legend-13064833/}}

The game of Rollerball was so realistic that the cast, extras, and stunt personnel played it between takes on the set. At the time of the film's release, Howard Cosell interviewed Norman Jewison and James Caan on ABC's Wide World of Sports, showing clips from the film and with the two of them explaining the rules of the game. 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."{{Cite news |last=Sloan |first=Robin Adams |date=1975-10-20 |title=Jewison is Outraged by Reaction to 'Rollerball' |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/254103323 |access-date=2018-05-08 |work=Muncie Evening Press |via=Newspapers.com}}

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor is performed on organ by Simon Preston during the opening title sequence and again at the final scene, bookending the film.{{cite web |url=https://www.discogs.com/Andre-Previn-Rollerball-Original-Soundtrack-Recording/release/1188508 |title=Andre Previn - Rollerball (Original Soundtrack Recording) |website=www.discogs.com |year=1975 |access-date=May 19, 2017}} Adagio in G minor by Albinoni/Giazotto and the Largo movement from Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 are also used to establish tone, mood, and atmosphere for certain scenes in the film. The classical music was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn, who also wrote the "Executive Party" music for the film and the corporate anthems performed before certain matches.Rollerball – Original Soundtrack liner notes.

The film was released in the United States on June 25, 1975. It had its European premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in London on September 3, 1975, before opening to the public there the following day.{{cite news|newspaper=Evening Standard|date=3 September 1975|title=Entertainment|page=15}}

The film earned $6.2 million in theatrical rentals at the box office in the United States and Canada.{{cite magazine|title=All-time Film Rental Champs|magazine=Variety|date=7 January 1976|page=46}}

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 69% based on reviews from 45 critics, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The site's consensus reads: "In Rollerball, social commentary collides with high-speed action – and the audience is the winner."{{cite web| title = Rollerball| url = https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1017814_rollerball| work = Rotten Tomatoes| publisher = Fandango Media |access-date= 2025-06-03 }} On Metacritic the film has a score of 56 out of 100 based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".{{cite web |title= Rollerball |url= https://www.metacritic.com/movie/rollerball-1975 |website= Metacritic |access-date= 2020-05-04 }}

Most major critics were negative about the film upon its original release.{{AFI film|54870}} Vincent Canby of The New York Times was unimpressed:{{cite news| url= https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A01EFDD103CE034BC4E51DFB066838E669EDE | title= Futuristic World of 'Rollerball' | first= Vincent|last= Canby| author-link= Vincent Canby|date= June 26, 1975| newspaper= The New York Times| access-date= March 5, 2014}}

All science-fiction can be roughly divided into two types of nightmares. In the first the world has gone through a nuclear holocaust and civilization has reverted to a neo-stone Age. In the second, of which "Rollerball" is an elaborate and very silly example, all of mankind's problems have been solved but at the terrible price of individual freedom. ... The only way science-fiction of this sort makes sense is as a comment on the society for which it's intended, and the only way "Rollerball" would have made sense in a satire of our national preoccupation with televised professional sports, particularly weekend football. Yet "Rollerball" isn't a satire. It's not funny at all and, not being funny, it becomes, instead, frivolous.

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and called it "a movie in love with itself" and "vapid, pretentious, and arrogant. Not even John Houseman's fine performance as a villainous corporate director is sufficient to make Rollerball tolerable. The only way to enjoy it, I suppose, is to cheer at the rollerball game's mayhem."{{cite news |last=Siskel |first=Gene |author-link=Gene Siskel |date=June 27, 1975 |title='Rollerball's' points dull the mind |work=Chicago Tribune |at=Section 3, p. 3 }} Arthur D. Murphy of Variety, wrote that it "packs an emotional and intellectual wallop" and that James Caan gave an "excellent performance".{{cite magazine |last=Murphy |first=Arthur D. |date=June 25, 1975 |title=Film Reviews: Rollerball [abridged version online]|magazine=Variety |page=23|url=https://variety.com/1974/film/reviews/rollerball-2-1200423395/}} Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times was also positive, calling it "a fresh, unusual and stimulating movie. In its portraying of the vast and essentially stateless multinational corporations, Rollerball plays off developments which have come since Huxley's and Orwell's time."{{cite news |last=Champlin |first=Charles |date=June 22, 1975 |title=It's Hell on Wheels in 'Rollerball' |work=Los Angeles Times |at=Calendar, p. 1 }} The Hollywood Reporter claimed that it was “the most original, and imaginative and technically proficient peek into our future since 2001: A Space Odyssey.” Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Monthly Film Bulletin panned Rollerball as "A classic demonstration of how several millions of dollars can be unenjoyably wasted ... this glib fable seems to be aiming at a simplified version of A Clockwork Orange without any intimations of wit or satire to carry the vague moralistic message."{{cite journal |last=Rosenbaum |first=Jonathan |date=October 1975 |title=Rollerball |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=42 |issue=501 |page=224 }}

James Monaco wrote that Rollerball "like most paranoid fantasies offers no hope: If James Caan can't beat the system, who can?"{{cite book |title=American Film Now|last1=Monaco|first1=James |year=1979|pages=285}}

TV Guide gave the film three out of four stars; it said "the performances of Caan and Richardson are excellent, and the rollerball sequences are fast-paced and interesting."{{cite news | title=Rollerball | url= http://movies.tvguide.com/rollerball/review/116237 | work=TV Guide | access-date=September 27, 2013 }} Jay Cocks of Time said Caan looked "unconvinced and uncomfortable" as Jonathan E.{{Cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913247,00.html |title=Time Magazine – Rollerball Review |access-date=June 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090922090039/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913247,00.html |archive-date=September 22, 2009 |url-status=dead }}

Filmink said the film "launched the dystopian sports movie genre and a series of rip-offs (Death Race 2000, etc) – most of which, to be frank, were a lot more fun than Rollerball, which could have stood to be a little less important and a little trashier."{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/the-stardom-of-james-caan/|title=The Stardom of James Caan|first= Stephen|last= Vagg|date=September 27, 2022}}

In 1977, Caan himself rated the film 8 out of 10, saying he "couldn't do much with the character."{{cite news |title=James Caan's career hitting tough times |last=Siskel |first=Gene |work=Chicago Tribune |date=November 27, 1977 |page=e6 }}

In 1985, IJK Software produced a game called Rocketball for the Commodore 64 computer, with the scoring rules based on the game in the movie. In 1989, Microïds published an unofficial successor called Killerball for the Atari ST, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, and MS-DOS.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

In 1997, Z-Axis Games was developing an official Rollerball video game adaptation based on the film As part of MGM Interactive video game showcase lineup.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thefreelibrary.com/MGM+Interactive+to+showcase+deep+games+lineup+at+1997+E3%3B+Booth+No....-a019479012|title=MGM Interactive to showcase deep games lineup}} The game's promise was to recreate the action of the futuristic game played in the movie, and it was set 10 years after the events of the film in the 2098 Rollerball season, where the player would be in charge of managing their Rollerball teams around the world, made up of Rollerball players with roles such as strikers, enforcers, guard, and other players who compete using jet bikes and magnetic in-line skates. Rollerball: The Video Game was slated to be released for PlayStation, PC, and Nintendo 64 on the first quarter of 1998, but was delayed to mid-1998{{cite web |url=http://www.ign.com/articles/1997/08/14/rollerball-delayed |title = Rollerball Delayed - IGN| date=August 14, 1997 }} and then was canceled due to the publisher, MGM Interactive, going bankrupt.

In 2004, I-play developed and published a Rollerball game for mobile phones. It is based on the 1975 film, rather than the 2002 remake of the same name.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}

Speedball and its sequel Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe were influenced by Rollerball,{{cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/2007/05/gallery-amiga0411/ |title=Top 10 Most Influential Amiga Games |magazine=Wired |access-date=29 June 2018 |quote=Heavily influenced by Rollerball and other futuristic, high-contact sports}} though Bitmap Brothers co-founder Mike Montgomery denies this, saying Speedball's similarities to the film are more of a coincidence.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}

The developers of the 2022 game Rollerdrome cited the film as a major influence.{{cite web|url=https://www.comingsoon.net/games/features/1232243-roll7-rollerdrome-olliolli-world-interview|title=Interview: How Roll7 Released 2 Games in 6 months Without Falling Apart|first=Michael|last=Leri|website=ComingSoon|date=July 27, 2022|accessdate=August 10, 2022}}

{{main article|Rollerball (2002 film)}}

A remake film of the same name was released by MGM on February 8, 2002. The film was directed by John McTiernan, and stars Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, and Rebecca Romijn. The film was critically-panned and a box office bomb. William Harrison stated "I've never watched the 2002 incarnation of Rollerball, and have no interest in it."

• List of American films of 1975
• Death Race 2000, a dystopian science-fiction sports film released two months before Rollerball
• Futuresport, a 1998 TV movie with a similar premise
• Rollerball (chess variant), a chess variant inspired by the film

{{Reflist}}

• {{AFI film|54870}}
• {{IMDb title}}
• {{TCMDb title}}
• {{ISFDB title|id=97590|title=Roller Ball Murder (1973)|short=yes}}

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{{succession box |

| before = Soylent Green

| after = Logan's Run

| title = Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film

| years = 1974/75

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{{Norman Jewison}}

{{Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film}}

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Category:1975 films

Category:1970s science fiction action films

Category:1970s dystopian films

Category:American science fiction action films

Category:1970s English-language films

Category:American dystopian films

Category:Fictional ball games

Category:Films about competitions

Category:Films based on science fiction short stories

Category:Films directed by Norman Jewison

Category:Films scored by André Previn

Category:Films set in 2018

Category:Films set in Houston

Category:Films set in New York City

Category:Films set in Tokyo

Category:Films set in the future

Category:Films shot in Munich

Category:Films shot in London

Category:Roller derby films

Category:Roller skating films

Category:Films shot at Pinewood Studios

Category:United Artists films

Category:Films about death games

Category:1970s American films

Category:Films produced by Norman Jewison

Category:1975 science fiction films

Category:English-language science fiction action films

Category:Saturn Award–winning films