A mixed reception on release, something of a cult fave now, this dystopian fable imagines a world of Bread & Circus for the masses in a future run by a mysterious entity known as The Corporation. Meant as an anti-violence cautionary, it never gets past a William Harrison script with too many missing pieces (he barely worked again), there’s really nothing but RollerBall, a game for punk gladiators that’s half Roller-Derby/half Quidditch and all Death Race.* Even with a lot of second-unit work, director Norman Jewison not a fellow known for his action chops. When we finally do get cookin’ on a semi-finals match, he abruptly leaves the arena to hunt up deep explanations at Computer Headquarters. (No answers; but a neat comic turn from Ralph Richardson.) Elsewise, James Caan is the aging player whose refusal to retire threatens to arouse a docile public happily sedated by this ‘opiate of the people.’ (Caan wears #6, but there’s something very #9 Gordie Howe about him.) John Beck his bigger, hairier teammate; John Houseman dreadful as the corporate overlord (if only he & Richardson had swapped roles); Maud Adams the girl so we don’t get ‘ideas’ about Caan & Beck*; and the furnishings all leftovers from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. Cinematographer Douglas Slocombe emphasizing a Stanley Kubrick color scheme so we don’t miss the reference. And Jewison repurposing classical music cues also in Kubrickian fashion; Bach, Albinoni, Shostakovich, with André Previn at the helm.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *There really is something very Quidditch about this sport. J.K. Rowling a rollerball fan?
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *Indeed, just a hint of a Caan/Beck/Girl threesome at a massage session in Japan.
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