Rollerball

Set in a future so brutalised that speed skating homicide barely registers, Norman Jewison's Rollerball tells the tale of a rootless sportsman muscling through Mega-Corp rule to become a vague symbol for individuality. In this world nations have long been abolished, as has war and any formal currency. All that exists is the gladiatorial Rollerball matches, and the privileges long-time practitioners can hope to amass. The titular sport is portrayed as a loosely structured meat-grinder, rules constantly evolving and constricting to better suit the agendas of the shady businessmen who run the show.

Team members have the lifespan of World War II fighter pilots - a constant stream of new players are drafted in after matches before disappearing amongst the following game's casualties. James Caan's Jonathan E is the anomaly. He has survived. Despite Rollerball being designed as unwinnable entertainment for the prole class, Jonathan has adapted and maintained. This presents a problem for the corrupt ruling class. They don't want the citizens getting a whiff of self-determination, so an extermination plot is devised for the season finale. Rollerball rules are to be focused on sustained lethality until the E problem goes away.

What makes Rollerball so interesting is that Jonathan's triumph involves very little self-actualisation. Caan breezes through much of the film as a hopped up thug, his outlook the product of ingrained anti-education. His victories are not intended to strike a blow for his own personal philosophy, he simply does not want to lose. He's found something he excels at, and won't allow it to be taken away from him. This presents something of a problem for Rollerball as a popcorn narrative, Jonathan puzzles through the corporate conspiracy at snail's pace, with only the barest of comprehension. Overarching deceit is viewed only in relation to Jonathan's career. Why won't they let him participate? The audience does find out the deeper complexities at work, and Jonathan contextualises the situation only in how he is allowed to compete. There is no underground resistance at work, desperately pleading with Jonathan to strike an anti-authoritarian blow, instead there is just a violent, wonderfully simple man-child refusing to be beaten.