Welcome to Cyberpunk Cinema – the Definitive Dive into the Dark Future of Science Fiction. I am your host, Anthony La Pira, and I will be taking you on a cinematic journey through the sprawling cityscapes, the crippling datastorms, and the cybernetic implants that encompass all things Cyberpunk.
In this week’s episode, I will be breaking-down the 1975 proto-punk paranoid sci-fi thriller sports film ROLLERBALL – directed by Norman Jewison; written by William Harrison; starring James Caan, John Houseman, Maud Adams, John Beck, and Ralph Richardson.
A corporate dictator tries to oust the star player of a brutal 21st century spectator sport.
Rollerball is a dystopian sports movie wrapped up in a cautionary cyberpunk tale of a corporate governed world that strips away an individual person’s free will and replaces it with product, gladiatorial TV combat, and random female assignments to men. The film explores what it means to be human in a world that is dominated and controlled to eliminate hunger, pain, and disease. One man decides to become greater than the game and to show the citizens of the world that you can indeed fight to control your own destiny.
So, do me a favor – it’s time to access your cranial jacks, boot up your Ono-Sendai Cyberspace 7, and slap on your damn mirror-shades. You know what time it is! Cyberpunk Cinema starts…now!
