Review: Rollerball

Set in a corporate-run dystopian future, James Caan is the aging top star player of the title roller-sport. When asked by the corporate heads (particularly John Houseman) to retire from the violent sport, Caan starts to question things. And in this tightly-controlled future, asking questions is a dangerous thing. There’s no place for individualism in a team sport after all. John Beck plays fellow player Moonpie, Moses Gunn is a former coach turned executive, Maud Adams is Caan’s estranged ex-wife, Barbara Trentham and Pamela Hensley play Caan’s lovers, and Sir Ralph Richardson pops up as a futuristic librarian.

 

One of the rare occasions where I saw the remake before the original, I actually think this 1976 futuristic sports movie from director Norman Jewison (“The Cincinnati Kid”, “In the Heat of the Night”, “…And Justice for All”, “The Hurricane”) and screenwriter William Harrison (“Mountains of the Moon”) is little better than the deathly dull 2002 flop remake. The sport itself is barely explained and thus any stakes are rendered meaningless, opening the film cold with a rollerball match was a dreadful idea. Sadly, the rest of the film surrounding it isn’t given enough emphasis for me to care about that either. That’s a shame, because although somewhat cliché, there’s some potential interest there with the anti-corporate dominance message and worldview. I think “The Running Man” did this sort of thing a thousand times better (there’s a bit of “Soylent Green” here too in the worldview depiction), here the game doesn’t even turn into something overly lawless and dangerous until the climax. By then it’s far too late.

 

I think Jewison is part of the problem. He is a fine director most of the time, but seems a bit lost in this kind of thing, and I was certainly lost watching much of it. The script isn’t so hot, either. The never-ending party/shooting scene, the useless reunion scene with Maud Adams’ character, and the ultimately pointless library computer scene are all expendable and inexplicable.

 

As for the cast, John Houseman has a nice line in creepy avuncularity and gentility, and a scene-stealing Michael Beck has charisma and is certainly more suitably cast as a Texan sportsman than lead James Caan. I’m sorry, but occasionally wearing a big white hat doesn’t convince me that you’re remotely Texan, Jimmy. He hasn’t the first clue how to pull off a Texan accent and forgets it entirely after a while. Worse, he’s a thoroughly uninteresting and unlikeable protagonist, and I don’t think it’s entirely to do with the script. Caan himself looks and acts miserable from start to finish, it’s not just character discomfort it’s an actor who doesn’t seem to want to be there. In smaller parts, Burt Kwouk has a good cameo as a doctor, and veteran Canadian-born bit player Shane Rimmer probably has one of his best and biggest showings as a rollerball head coach. Ralph Richardson’s cameo is weird and surprisingly uninteresting, Maud Adams is typically dull, and Pamela Hensley is pretty bland in a larger role.

 

In addition to the issues with both the story and the sport, miscast director Jewison has this thing running at a glacial pace. A film about a sport played at relatively swift speed really needs a motor under it, and I don’t think Jewison is the guy for that. I know this film has its many fans, but I was utterly bored by it. The game didn’t draw me in, and there wasn’t enough emphasis on plot to draw me into the rest. A few of the performances are good, a few not-so. Swing and a miss.

 

Rating: C-