Post by doomedbloodwork on Sept 26, 2004 7:24:28 GMT -5
Originally touted as a prediction of what the world is becoming in the year 2018, thirty years after it's original release sees ROLLERBALL maintaining a surprisingly timely and timeless quality, as virtually most big successful companies have been gobbled up by a corporation of one sort or another.
Although United Artists - A TRANSAMERICA COMPANY - was not a victim of corporate greed, but creative greed in the form of Michael Cimino when HEAVEN'S GATE nailed the coffin shut on a prestigious company started up by Chaplin, Pickford and Fairbanks (the irony being that star power may create success, but it is star egos that can destroy it), it was a bold move to put a science-fiction movie on the map with such thought-provoking psychological values, especially in 1975 when the genre was flagging and the light at the end of the tunnel (or should I say, light sabre at the end of it?) was two years away....
Adapted from a short story by William Harrison called THE ROLLERBALL MURDERS (which is 18 pages long and focuses on the thoughts of a player about to enter the game), the story was expanded for the big-screen by Harrison in screenplay form and tells the story of Jonathan E (James Caan) the Michael Jordan of the future, who has another outstanding season of Rollerball and then is being forced out by the head of an American corporation (John Houseman) because of his increasing influence on the world he inhabits. Jonathan is given a tribute show, unaware that a more subtle reason is behind it.
Although many years later director Norman Jewison said that he couldn't make a movie involving spaceships, only people around the time of his Oscar-nominated film A SOLDIER'S STORY in 1985, ROLLERBALL is possibly the closest that he has ever done something like that.
Unlike the John McTiernan remake, which missed and dismissed the point of the original film in favour of MATRIX / 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS style visuals, ROLLERBALL has some excellent virtues. The action sequences on the track are exceptional, but in the context of what the film says are even more so now in light of the emergence of player cams and stat-fax on cable and satellite transmissions, in this case the fictional broadcast channel Multivision.
The performances and costume designs are sexy and the social climate portrayed in the film where executives offer drugs to players and parties are the norm is consistent with today's headlines. The use of classical music is also innovative in this case, although it is 2001 that holds the prize for introducing it in the context of motion picture entertainment.
Although United Artists - A TRANSAMERICA COMPANY - was not a victim of corporate greed, but creative greed in the form of Michael Cimino when HEAVEN'S GATE nailed the coffin shut on a prestigious company started up by Chaplin, Pickford and Fairbanks (the irony being that star power may create success, but it is star egos that can destroy it), it was a bold move to put a science-fiction movie on the map with such thought-provoking psychological values, especially in 1975 when the genre was flagging and the light at the end of the tunnel (or should I say, light sabre at the end of it?) was two years away....
Adapted from a short story by William Harrison called THE ROLLERBALL MURDERS (which is 18 pages long and focuses on the thoughts of a player about to enter the game), the story was expanded for the big-screen by Harrison in screenplay form and tells the story of Jonathan E (James Caan) the Michael Jordan of the future, who has another outstanding season of Rollerball and then is being forced out by the head of an American corporation (John Houseman) because of his increasing influence on the world he inhabits. Jonathan is given a tribute show, unaware that a more subtle reason is behind it.
Although many years later director Norman Jewison said that he couldn't make a movie involving spaceships, only people around the time of his Oscar-nominated film A SOLDIER'S STORY in 1985, ROLLERBALL is possibly the closest that he has ever done something like that.
Unlike the John McTiernan remake, which missed and dismissed the point of the original film in favour of MATRIX / 2 FAST 2 FURIOUS style visuals, ROLLERBALL has some excellent virtues. The action sequences on the track are exceptional, but in the context of what the film says are even more so now in light of the emergence of player cams and stat-fax on cable and satellite transmissions, in this case the fictional broadcast channel Multivision.
The performances and costume designs are sexy and the social climate portrayed in the film where executives offer drugs to players and parties are the norm is consistent with today's headlines. The use of classical music is also innovative in this case, although it is 2001 that holds the prize for introducing it in the context of motion picture entertainment.