What an iconic image of 70's Sci-fi. What a powerful and iconic film that's still has so much to say all of these decades later. I knew of Rollerball because I read Action(1) and knew that Death Game 1999(2) was a crib on the movie. I got very excited a few years later when I discovered a handful of images in Sci-Fi Now and was most probably treated to my first viewing on a late night TV channel - It didn't disappoint.
There's only a handful of films that have travelled the years with me from TV to Video to DVD and Rollerball is one of them. You get older, you view it through different eyes and it tilts and shifts and gives you something new each time. As a youngster its the game and the violence and as an adult its the media and the politics and the power. Well worth a look if you never have or a revisit if its been too long since you last did. All the truths are still valid and the corruptions still relevant.
(1)
(2)
And who remembers The Goodies parody of Rollerball as featured in the 1976 episode "2001 and a Bit" in which the MCC cricket team take on the Rolleregg side. No? Oh well, it stayed with me.
Steve
(Pages 56,58 & 59)
I saw this on a double bill with Juggernaut, probably on its second release in that roasting summer of 1976. Luckily I was a tall enough 12 year old to get into a AA. A brilliant example of the 'cool' half of mid-seventies design - all hot oranges and NASA graphics. It was also the first example I remember of the immersive world building that reached its peak a couple of years later with Star Wars, they'd taken time to think about the rules and scoring of the game and the attention to detail of the props department was fantastic. Even though it was dystopic we spilled out of the cinema wanting to live in that world.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments and memories, Spiracle, they are greatly appreciated. I remember the scorcher that was 76,it became the bench mark for all future summers. I'm a little bit younger than yourself by about 4 years it seems so they would never have let me in at 8 so Rollerball was a TV first for me. Sci-fi of that period remains very watchable because it was issues lead; political, environmental etc. And raised concerns that still bother us today. And it was also incredibly well designed and almost sexy in its futuristic vision. Amongst the things I would like this blog to achieve is to go some way to defining the nature of these lost futures, that I for one feel very nostalgic about, if one can be nostalgic for something that never happened. It would be nice to have you along for the ride. Keep the comments coming
DeleteBTW have you seen this spaceman?
ReplyDeleteI have. I blogged it here;
Deletehttp://sayhellospaceman.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/public-service-broadcasting-gagarin-2014.html
on the; Say; Hello Spacemen, blog page but thanks for the thought any way