Rollerball | Short Bits Vol. 3

Rollerball (1975) – Director: Norman Jewison – 4/10 (passable/mediocre)
It requires quite a bit of patience to disentangle the jejune social commentary of Rollerball from the obstreperous reality of the game, the depiction of which dwarfs the rest of the storyline; the gratuitously bloated plot protracts film’s spuriously profound message ad nauseam until the theme starts to grate and get in the way of the action sequences, which may very well constitute the only real attraction of this pretentious sci-fi fare. While there is no fundamental issue with the general critique or the portrayal of commodification of human life and freedom within the modern capitalist society overseen by faceless corporations, the issue arises the moment it sinks in that the said social commentary easily could have been condensed into mere fifteen minutes; instead, the subject matter is instatiated by means of this elephantine edifice of social commentary which comes to weigh down on the rest of the storyline, effecting insupportably flabby composition and middling focus. In other words, the flick feels like an arthouse feature film and some exploitation extravaganza rolled into one, eventually becoming every bit as sanguinary as it is pretentious. Some of the topics the film broaches may very well warrant further investigation, but one cannot simply pretermit some of the more outlandish excesses given flick’s self-indulgence and its exceptionally dated look.

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