Rollerball (1975)

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Movie
German title Rollerball
Original title Rollerball
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1975
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 18 (original rating),
16 (2002)
Rod
Director Norman Jewison
script William Harrison
production Norman Jewison
music André Previn
camera Douglas Slocombe
cut Anthony Gibbs
occupation

Rollerball is an American science fiction film produced by United Artists in 1975 and based on a short story by William Harrison , who also wrote the screenplay.

action

In the near future, the nations of the world have been replaced by a conglomerate of global corporations , each specializing in a single “product”: energy, transport, food, etc. Individualism and self-determination come into play in favor of security and luxury guaranteed by the corporations' executives the background. Each corporation controls one city. A central means of keeping the masses calm and happy is the brutal sport of rollerball, a mixture of hockey, roller derby , motorcycle racing and football, which not only replaces war, but all other sports as well. At the same time, the corporations allow parts of the centrally stored knowledge of mankind to be forgotten; the past is lost, and every critical demand is thus deprived of its basis.

Cosplay performers at New York Comic Con, 2014

The game of rollerball takes place in a hall in which teams from two corporations compete against each other. The object of the game is to put a heavy metal ball into a funnel. The players wear armor and helmets, but also gloves reinforced with metal spikes. There are time penalties for fouls, but there are only marginal rules. It is inevitable that there are seriously injured people at every game, sometimes even fatalities. The aim of the sport is not only to entertain the masses, but also to keep people from reflecting on the prevailing sensitivities and causing an uproar. The brutal game and the associated short career of most players should show that individuality leads to nothing and that each person should only contribute his part to the whole.

One of the best players is Jonathan E. from Team Houston, who has been playing rollerball successfully for years due to his great skills, which was never intended by the inventors of the sport. He is celebrated and revered as a hero by the masses.

Houston-based CEO Bartholomew fears that Jonathan's popularity and success run counter to the sport's purpose of keeping the masses under control and preventing individualistic hero worship. He asks Jonathan E. to resign, but he refuses and continues to play. After the conversation with Bartholomew, E. started thinking more and more about the prevailing conditions and would like to find out more about the history of the corporations and the ruling powers. His influence allows him to do some research, but it turns out that all the history books have been destroyed and all the information they contain has been fed into a computer that is flawed. At the same time, the film shows the moral depravity and ignorance of the ruling class.

Since E. cannot be easily exchanged due to its popularity, the rules are constantly being changed in order to force it to give up. At the end of the game, the game has no time limit, there are no time penalties for fouls and substitutes are no longer allowed on the field.

In the final, Jonathan E. is the last active player, everyone else is either dead or injured. He is holding the cue ball. The masses hold their breath, the corporate bosses are sweating in anticipation of what E. will do now. Jonathan E. throws the ball into the funnel and scores the last hit. The crowds are silent at first, but when Jonathan does his laps on the track, they chant his name over and over.

equipment

The metal ball has an estimated 8 cm diameter, grooves like a boules ball and, similar to roulette, is tangentially shot in a groove on the outside of the round playing field and then runs around. The players ride on relatively narrow two-lane roller skates, the rollers of which are narrower than half the diameter. The motorcycles have semi-faired wheels and a bracket for pulling the players.

reception

“The film places this negative utopia in an environment that is outwardly very close to the present, but otherwise remains very indefinite in the depiction of the political and social environment. Implausible in many details, the perfect, but also very brutal, ripper in the action scenes hardly offers any starting points for dealing with an impending future. "

- Lexicon of international film

“It seems half-baked as a criticism of capitalism, but the cool action classic is captivating. [...] Conclusion: gloomy music of the future: sport as murder "

- Cinema .de

background

Jewison found during an ice hockey game that spectators were drawn less to the sport than to the violence. The highlight of the game was an accident in which one player was injured so badly that he became blind, but the crowd was thrilled, "as if the blood had revived them". In general, he was concerned about the increasing brutality of the audience. When he read Harrison's short story in 1973, he recognized rollerball as the sport he wanted to use in his film. Harrison insisted on writing the script himself, which Jewison accepted.

Locations

The rollerball arena was set up in the Rudi Sedlmayer Hall in Munich, which was built for the 1972 Olympic Games ; The BMW high-rise in Munich was used for the towering corporate headquarters, and the BMW Museum for the avant-garde curved information center . Other outdoor shots were shot in the Olympic Park .

Premieres

  • USA, June 25, 1975
  • Germany, September 5, 1975

Computer games

Computer games were also created based on rollerball . Among other things, the game principle of the Speedball series by Bitmap Brothers makes strong borrowings from the actions depicted in this work.

Award

The film won the Saturn Award in 1976 for the best science fiction film and for the best camera . James Caan shared his award for Best Actor with Don Johnson for his role in The Boy and His Dog .

Film music

The use of classical music to create the mood in the film is also remarkable. In particular, Bach's Toccata in D minor , which can be heard during the opening sequence, and later during the dramatic climax, the G minor Adagio by Albinoni / Giazotto and the Largo from Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony are highlighted here. The pieces were recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn , who also wrote his own music for the film.

Remake

In 2002, a remake of the same title but with a different plot, directed by John McTiernan, was released . The actors included Jean Reno , LL Cool J and Rebecca Romijn . The script was written by Larry Ferguson and John Pogue .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rollerball Official Trailer # 1 , 1:31–1: 32, October 5, 2012, accessed March 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ Rollerball. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 5, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Rollerball. Film 1975. In: Cinema .de. Retrieved August 5, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Inlet for DVD release