Good Sport

You don't have to watch "Rollerball," very long to start feeling uncomfortable. Not because of the seventies vision of the future supplied by art director Robert Laing, but because of the sadly prescient nature of this thirty-six year old B-movie. I was thirteen when I saw it the first time, and it seemed a little scary to think of a world that was controlled by corporations, with the extremely violent sport named in the title providing most of the entertainment as well as a method of solving disputes between factions. As the tagline promised, "In the future there will be no war. There will only be Rollerball."
The trouble begins when the globally recognized star of the sport, Jonathan E. begins to question his place in the scheme of things. He is given a luxurious lifestyle, and all of the comforts of the executive class, but none of the power. The executives, meanwhile, are concerned that a player has become more important than they are. Something must be done. If you haven't seen the movie, the last thing I want to do is to spoil it for you here, but I will say that it is odd how much of what seemed bizarre and futuristic thirty years ago now seems like part of the plan. For example, books have been transcribed into computers, and many have been classified. Men wear wear these great big collars, and the parties are out of this world. But it's not all jumpsuits and jetting around the world, playing a game. The executives want Jonathan dead because he reminds people that they are not corporations, and vice versa.
If it were a totally accurate portrayal of our dystopian existence, however, Jonathan would be forced into retirement by a union-related work stoppage. You wouldn't have to kill Jonathan, just make him play in Europe.