Norman Jewison
Rollerball

"In a not too distant future, wars will no longer exist. But there will be Rollerball"

In 2018, the world is governed by corporations that, after a long war for power, have decided to establish peace on planet Earth. In 1975, when Norman Jewison decided to direct this science fiction movie (riding the loud success he had a couple of years earlier with the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical "Jesus Christ Superstar"), a vision of a world controlled by multinationals seemed utterly fantastical... today, we see how the prediction made by screenwriter William Harrison (who adapted one of his stories entitled "Roller Ball Murder" for the big screen) is not so absurd, aside from some convoluted conspiracy theories.

Dark and technological, the world depicted in the film is built to fit humans, where the individual has completely lost their centrality, delegating all aspects of their life to the executives of the corporations that govern them. The history itself has been rewritten to suit these entities that have an absolute fear of individuality and thought, claiming that these in the past led to pain and death, wars, and destruction. The only concession made to the people is Rollerball, a modern version of the ancient Roman circus. The "game" takes place in an arena, where two teams face each other on the circular track, and the goal is to score points by shooting a metal ball into a magnet cone placed right under the podium of honor.

To achieve their goal, there are, apparently, no rules, so much so that the players are modern gladiators ready to give their lives for the metal ball, even aided by some of their own on motorcycles. The team of the Energy corporation (based in Houston - Texas) is led and captained by veteran Johnathan E., a true icon of the "sport." His highest executive, Mr. Bartholomew (who defines Rollerball as meant to demonstrate the futility of individual efforts) realizes the danger of the champion's success, who can alone challenge the entire corporate system; and so he "proposes" a nice retirement with a long television special (the small screen plays a central role in mind control, so much so that there is one in every room of the ranch where Johnathan lives...) entirely dedicated to him, but he refuses.

The reaction will be a progressive reduction of rules and protections for the players so that the champion might fail to finish a match... and this increased harshness will lead Johnathan's best friend, Moonpie, to live inside an iron lung due to brain death caused to him by the "kamikazes" of the Tokyo team during the semifinals.

This event does not stop Johnathan, who in the meantime does not stop searching for the true history of humanity, erased and rewritten in the electronic brains managed by the stereotype of the mad scientist. Not even love is a relief, female-spies sent to satisfy his every bodily desire but unable to erase in him the wound left by his ex-wife Ella, snatched away by the desires of an executive (the party scene is fantastic, where he meets her and sees these executives high on synthetic drugs and moral emptiness, whose greatest amusement is shooting at cypress trees with rocket-launcher guns).

By now, Johnathan has surpassed even the game itself and is a problem that can only be solved with his death... we are at the final Houston vs. New York, where it is decided that there are no more rules or even player changes, in a sort of Last Standing Match to the last blood. Johnathan decides to face it.

It is a beautiful story that tells of a man perpetually at war with himself, wherever you put him and with whatever means at his disposal.

In 2002, an (abominable) remake was made, where the game becomes almost completely the protagonist, stripping the story of the dark vision the original had about the future fate of the world and mankind. Absolutely dispensable.