I just watched the original Rollerball (1975, produced and directed by Norman Jewison, written by William Harrison, starring James Caan).
I'd seen it on TV when I was MUCH younger, about 20 years ago, and wasn't impressed.
I haven't been that immediately effected by a movie since I saw "Falling Down", while I was an unemployed engineer who worked in defense.
It has a profoundly dystopian view of the future, where the corporation, and profit, run the world, and the idle wealthy amuse themselves by blowing up trees.
All of this is juxtaposed against a sport, Rollerball, which is intended to reinforce the perception of the individual as irrelevant, and it's greatest star, Jonathan E.
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Perhaps I'm being pessimistic, but what I once saw as a contrived plot device for a sports/action film now looks remarkably prescient.
It appears to be OUR future now.
Look at reality TV, the corporatist agenda between NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, etc.
Our current definition of democracy is not letting the people have a voice, but "Our guys stole it (privatization), you have to let them keep it."
Could someone please tell me that I'm wrong?