Don't listen to the negative reviews

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

In a way I waited for about 30 years to see this movie and finally caught it on a local art house cinema. It was shown from a 16mm print. Even in the 80s when I was a kid and growing up with the movies this had a bit of a cult reputation. Very violent, so no one was allowed to see it so it became a bit of a curiosity. Later I just never ran across it, no video or dvd rental seemed to have it nor was it shown in TV. Later I have also built up a major affection for 70s sci-fi movies, especially those that have something to say, so I was pretty excited to see it.So.. did it live up to the expectations I had built? Not really. The rollerball action scenes were amazing and I was very drawn into the movie early on. Very well made. But when the actual plot started to reveal, I kind of lost interest. The movie is about corporations ruling the globe and the corporations apparently don't like the fact that a rollerball player (James Caan) is starting to gain individual following and hero status over a "team effort". So they try to get him to retire and as he doesn't want to, they change the game rules to get him out of the game "natural way". James Caan's character starts to question the whole system and goes on to find answers and keeps playing.It kind of sounds interesting, but it never really is. The motives - for everyone - are pretty vague. We don't see much of anything about the so called dystopian future, so it's difficult to put any actions into a proper context. Why don't the executives just ditch Caan, he gets to play as if no one really cares if he plays or not. The same when he goes to an "all knowing" computer to seek answers. He just walks in. But doesn't get any answers. The whole scene is pretty awkward.The music is also somewhat overly dramatic many times with well known classical pieces like Albinoni adagio. They kind of work, but then again they don't quite fit every time.There are good stuff too. The cinematography is amazing by Douglas Slocombe, one of my favorite cinematographers. There are very nicely directed scenes, very effective stuff. I'm not a huge action fan, but the rollerball scenes were very well done.So definitely a mixed bag. I wouldn't rate this among the best dystopian future movies, but it's nevertheless an interesting catch. Maybe it would require another go to really get into it.

People will see what they want to see in films, especially when it comes to metaphorical sci-fi, and many clearly see profound greatness in this dystopian 1975 film set in, amusingly, 2018. But what I saw when watching "Rollerball" was an inert, dreary film that establishes a central conceit early on and then spends the rest of its lengthy running time not developing that conceit at all.James Caan is zoned out in the central role of a celebrity Rollerball player who is asked by the shadowy corporate entities who seem to run everything, and who are represented by John Houseman, to retire because he has become too famous and is setting a bad example of an individual who is becoming more powerful than the masses. Individuality is to be avoided at all costs in this Orwellian world, apparently. Of course, if Caan gave the main character anything remotely resembling a personality, this premise might be more compelling. As it is, he wanders around looking confused and mumbling barely audible lines, and we're supposed to accept that he is a symbol of individualism because.....well, just because we are. Houseman is far more watchable, if only because he varies his inflections from time to time. He and his corporate cronies are supposed to be scary, but they're not very, because when Caan refuses to retire, they seem not to have any kind of backup plan for the eventuality that he might simply refuse. The laconic torpor of the movie is somewhat alleviated once in a while by scenes of Rollerball games, but these don't do a whole lot to engage our interest because we don't know what the hell is going on during them. There's a ball, and some dudes on roller skates, and some other dudes on little scooters, and they go round and round a circular ring, and they're supposed to get the ball into a target, but beyond that we've got nothing. "Rollerball" is an example of what happens when absolutely nothing about a film works at all.Grade: D

Set a few decades in the future, we find a world where violence has been outlawed and corporations are the new governments. The pacified population's primal blood-lust is serviced by viewing the ultra-violent and massively popular game Rollerball. Contestants regularly die during games and the longest surviving veteran of the sport has only lasted ten years; he is Jonathan E and he is the acknowledged superstar of the sport but his fame has reached levels that concern the leaders. They believe his popularity has put him on a pedestal and this hero worship goes against the intended message of the sport that individualism is doomed and collective effort is all. Because of this, the rulers insist he retires but he refuses and so new rules are implemented to make the game ever more nihilistic and deadly with the hope it results in Jonathan E's death.Rollerball is yet another movie which follows the 70's trend for dystopian sci-fi, or perhaps more accurately utopian sci-fi. Quite a few films of the period depicted utopian societies where many of the negatives of life have been eradicated but at a cost to individual freedoms. In fact, these films suggest that utopias and dystopias are just two sides of the same coin. In the future world of Rollerball illness, violence and poverty have been eradicated but so too are individualism and true freedom. There is no unrestricted access to knowledge and the people live strange soulless hedonistic lives. In one stand-out scene we see a group of affluent young people venture out into the grounds of a large estate during a party to fire an extremely powerful handgun at large trees, setting them ablaze. This is the kind of activity that the people indulge in for kicks in this brave new world.The social commentary is always welcome in sci-fi films like these and this one is no different but it's probably the Rollerball sequences themselves that offer up the true highlights of the movie. The game is set in an arena with combatants kitted out in helmets and heavy protective gear, with some on motorbikes. A steel ball is fired into play and it is them a case of anything goes with all manner of violence actively encouraged. These scenes are very well shot and edited together and make for dynamic and exciting stuff. The acting overall is nothing especially too memorable it must be said. This is mainly because the underplayed nature of performances which underline the downbeat nature of the world that they exist in. James Caan does what he can with his role but his character is limited really. Overall, Rollerball's combination of dystopian pensive sci-fi with high octane action is its secret weapon. Both threads complement each other and feed off one another, resulting in a very distinctive bit of 70's sci-fi that gets you fired up while simultaneously makes you think. It was remade in 2002 in a hilariously misguided fashion; needless to say, the original towers over that one.

In a corporate-controlled future, an ultra-violent sport known as Rollerball represents the world, and one of its powerful athletes (James Caan) is out to defy those who want him out of the game.So, the film is known for its stunts and being the first film to give credit to the stunt performers in the credits. This film is also known for its classical music -- an idea borrowed from Kubrick's "2001" and "Clockwork Orange", which allegedly stops the film from dating. (This concept does seem to be true -- the lack of 1970s music does make it harder to pinpoint as a 1970s film.) There is some social commentary here about corporations, the violence of certain sports and more. How seriously we should take any of this is unclear because it really does just end up being a lot of fun, and one could actually see a game like this being invented (is it really all that different from roller derby?).