Not to be confused with its lackluster remake,
Rollerball (1975) is the Greatest Movie EVER!
This movie contains:
Cesti. (Oooh, good Vocab word.)
Alfred Hitchcock Impersonators.
Stylin’ Seventies Fashion.
Coma-inducing Concussions.
“Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan!”
The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast 
Wait, is this movie what FutureSport is based on?
Is this pre or post woman slapping James Caan ?
Podcast needs more comments.
Rollerball is too effing good.
When I was in college I made my roommate buy it because I didn’t have any money, but then he moved out and now I don’t have Rollerball anymore. 😦
Man, I wish to all heck I had been in on this ‘cast, Rollerball is one of my fav ’70s Dystopia Sci Fi movies. With this, Soylent Green, Omega Man, Damnation Alley, Silent Running, ZPG, THX-1138 is there any wonder why we all exploded with joy over the positive and exciting Star Wars in 1977?
Random Thoughts on Rollerball:
Jonathan E’s cowboy hat is actually really significant. Note that, to the best of my memory, it’s the ONLY hat you see in the entire movie!
The super zappy tree bursting gun is a Ruger target pistol.
Good catch on the Soma. Funny how that’s just about the same as Tic-Tacs now, huh? And the message of today’s ads, ‘take this and you’ll feel good and maybe even get SEX!’..Hmmmmmm.
Shane Rimmer, the line coach for Houston, is a staple of the British TV biz, best known as the voice of Scott Tracy in Thunderbirds.
I think I’ve puzzled out the positions for the game, somewhat. Catcher, Scorer, Blocker, Bike. Catcher catches the ball, has to pass to the Scorer. Scorer has to make some number of rotations around the track before attempting to score. opposing team can attempt to drop the scorer and drop the ball. If they can grab it before it falls into ‘dead play’ they can attempt to score, if not the first team gets a fresh shot at it. If they score then the other team is up, and the idea is to move the ball fast enough to score more per period than the other guys, there’s likely penalties for running out the clock and stuff.
I have a feeling it was all worked out and somewhere they’ve got the complete rules (before the rules were changed) and a ton of unused footage sitting somewhere. This movie needs a two disc special edition.
One of the things I liked during the game scenes was the scoreboard that had a light for each member of the team; when a player was disabled/killed, their light went out. I can’t recall if it flashed when they were injured…
I just remember that scoreboard becoming an important part of the game’s visual direction when Jonathan takes on an entire Rollerball squad by himself.
Do you know, I’ve never seen the entirety of this film? I keep missing the first 30 minutes and the last 15 every single time. I made myself sit through that god-awful piece of crap re-make completely and I STILL prefer the James Caan version. Chris Klein can suck balls if he thinks that performance he put in will in some way put him on par with Cann.
If I had to say something about the original it would be this: if the film had came out today(yes for a minute pretend that the McTiernan version doesn’t exist) then major corporate sponsors would have been drafted in to prop up the films budget. Then the underlying message of company greed would have been washed down to nothing. James Caan wouldn’t have gotten the role, they would have put someone there who could sell lunch boxes AND appear on MTV for the kids. Dystopian future? Nope, we need for the Rollerball guys and at least three token girls to fight something BIGGER THAN JUST THE OTHER PSYCHOPATHIC TEAM! No, they need to fight a super computer(just like the Matrix, yeah!) or if no computer is available then an evil industry baron. Oh, and the love interest HAS TO BE ON THE OPPOSING TEAM! SPEED CUT EDITS EVERYWHERE! SHIT BLOWING UP THAT COULDN’T POSSIBLY BLOW UP! WE MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE TOKEN MINORITY CHARACTER!
Hey, wait a minute! That sounds awfully like a film that John McTiernan directed! What was the name of it…hang on..it’ll come to me…
Hey Dave, I have actually have the region 2 DVD lying around, if you want it. It’s a spare that someone gave me for Christmas but I’ve already stored the other copy in the attic for storage reasons. No difference in the UK edition against the US disc except no fullscreen on the disc, just only anamorphic widescreen.
I thought the gun was an AMT Automag.
Also, I remember reading some interesting speculation about the role of women in Rollerball. The female executive was the top executive of Luxury, who also was the department that Jonathan’s girlfriends and the women at the party belonged to. It was mentioned that the function of Luxury, much like Transportation could control the movements of people, was to provide inside agents to monitor people, not just whore out women to execs and VIPs. This is kinda why Jonathan keeps his girlfriend at distance. Also, the party sequence is said to be evidence of this: the girls are crack shots when shooting at trees, but slip back into “I’m-just-a-girl-hehe” mode when they take aim and start missing the last tree.
I’m trying to recall if the Automag was around in ’75, I’m thinking it wasn’t but I could be wrong. Some reasons I’m sure it was a Ruger. 1. Didn’t have the Automag’s visable recoil spring housing low on the frame. 2. .44 Automag would have been WAY too intense to fire, even with blanks. The Ruger is available in 9mm. 3. grip style was wrong for the Automag. 4. if you look at 01:02:38 you can clearly see the distinctive Ruger action and bolt at the rear. They did do one thing, replaced the grips with smooth steel. At 01:03:44 you can catch the action working.
Might just be right about Luxury and the way they use Corporate Cortisans as spies and controls. I assume not ALL woman are property in that way, just the most sleek and desirable because that’s valuable.
Man I like this movie.
the handgun in Rollerball (1975) used by the ladies was of large bore steel or silver plated & modified. however, being a prop & not using live ammo, the background of burning trees was a fill -in . it did look like a Ruger profile, no argument. there. weak blanks were used for recoil effect.
the ruger co. stated that they have never made a weapon that has been used in a movie. so the handgun in ROLLERBALL 1975 must be a mock up using whatever weapons the property master thought looked good. if anyone has the answer please indicate . thanx.
its a ruger .22 autoloader with a hollywood barrel glued on