The "Corporate Wars": The Forgotten Premise of the Original Rollerball Film of 1976

ROLLERBALL takes place in a near future in which nations, bankrupt and defeated in the “corporate wars” no one quite remembers, have been replaced by the “majors,” multinational monopolies dividing control of the six sectors of the economy: Transport, Food, Communications, Housing, Luxury, and Energy. A superficially reasonable (in the sense that laissez-faire capitalism is also “reasonable”) premise here is that the abolition of nations, with their “tribal warfare,” and the establishment of sound business practices in the running of the world could and would lead to an economy of abundance, in which some are privileged, but in which all are provided for. “Corporate Society,” in the words of Energy executive Bartholemew, “was an inevitable destiny, a material dream world.” Most everyone we see agrees. Moonpie, a rollerball player, says, “We're livin’ good, you know we are,” and Ella, former wife of superstar Jonathan E. (James Caan), favorably presents the ruling, ideology: “They have control, economically and politically, but they also provide.”

And provide they do. No scene between the games reveals less than conspicuous luxury. But the ideological line is drawn late in the film. by Jonathan, answering Ella’s statement above: “People made a choice back then between having all them nice things, and freedom.” “But comfort is freedom,” Ella answers, and he adds, “Them privileges just buy us off.” As Bartholemew puts it, “All [Corporate Society] asks, all it has ever asked of anyone, is not to interfere with management decisions.”

www.ejumpcut.org...

Sound familiar? It should. It's the world we live in now, the exception being we're not far along enough in the New World Order to have "forgotten" how we got here. But that's coming soon. The dumbing down will continue, internet sites will be seized, information will be manipulated, changed, "lost" or expunged and all our attentions will turn even more than now to the bright shiny things that mindless entertainment and consumerism will offer in place of critical thinking.

I'd like to see what other members have to say about this. Is this scenario accurate/ Have I overstated things?

I remember seeing this years ago. I see how it ties into the NWO. Other movies that go along with this theme are The Running Man and Death Race 2000. Both feature a society run by corporations. In the first, convicts are subjected to a brutal game show in which they must survive to be free. In the second, there is a race in which drivers gain points by running over pedestrians and offing each other.

reply to post by Skid Mark


I tend to group these movies together as well. And don't forget Logan's Run. Similar, yet different. All dystopian. I haven't seen the remake of Rollerball, but I assume it's more of a pure action film than social commentary. I assume they omitted the "corporate wars" theme. Am I correct?

edit: Let me rephrase that. A "dystopian utopia", as it were. A running theme in these films.

Sounds about right.

Corporate crooks and their greed ruins everything for everyone.

And Republicans want to get them their TAX CUTS before even thinking about anything else going on in the country.

SHEESH, what the heck is going on in this country??

I was thinking about this movie a month ago and how it ties into what the world is becoming now, good post!

Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
reply to post by Skid Mark

 

I tend to group these movies together as well. And don't forget Logan's Run. Similar, yet different. All dystopian. I haven't seen the remake of Rollerball, but I assume it's more of a pure action film than social commentary. I assume they omitted the "corporate wars" theme. Am I correct?

edit: Let me rephrase that. A "dystopian utopia", as it were. A running theme in these films.

edit on 11/30/2010 by this_is_who_we_are because: rephrase

Yes...do not even consider watching the remake. In many cases, a movie is remade in order to obscure the original's meaning. This is a classic example of it. The director of the remake should be sent to the dock at Nuremberg.

Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
reply to post by Skid Mark

 

I tend to group these movies together as well. And don't forget Logan's Run. Similar, yet different. All dystopian. I haven't seen the remake of Rollerball, but I assume it's more of a pure action film than social commentary. I assume they omitted the "corporate wars" theme. Am I correct?

edit: Let me rephrase that. A "dystopian utopia", as it were. A running theme in these films.

edit on 11/30/2010 by this_is_who_we_are because: rephrase

I've never seen Logan's Run. What is it about?

Other movies that come to mind are 1984, Soylent Green, and Fahrenheit 451. If you've never seen any of these, you may want to.

Originally posted by Skid Mark
Other movies that come to mind are 1984, Soylent Green, and Fahrenheit 451. If you've never seen any of these, you may want to.

I've seen these. As a matter of fact, I invoked both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 in another thread I recently created.

"Fundamentally Transforming the United States of America"
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Funny how in Fahrenheit 451 the mindless populace is addicted to wall sized televisions (which were science fiction at the time), and how it was virtually unlawful, or at least extremely odd for a person to take a walk down a public street without being stopped and questioned as to why they were out taking a walk, when they should have been doing the "normal" thing i.e. staying at home to be programmed by their tv programming.

Originally posted by starless and bible black

Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
reply to post by Skid Mark

 

I tend to group these movies together as well. And don't forget Logan's Run. Similar, yet different. All dystopian. I haven't seen the remake of Rollerball, but I assume it's more of a pure action film than social commentary. I assume they omitted the "corporate wars" theme. Am I correct?

edit: Let me rephrase that. A "dystopian utopia", as it were. A running theme in these films.

edit on 11/30/2010 by this_is_who_we_are because: rephrase

Yes...do not even consider watching the remake. In many cases, a movie is remade in order to obscure the original's meaning. This is a classic example of it. The director of the remake should be sent to the dock at Nuremberg.

When I first heard of a remake of Rollerball coming out I immediately thought the same thing. "Remade to obscure the originals meaning".

I think there's also a Logan's Run remake in production. I wonder how that will stray...

This recent development must fit in here somehow. Someone want to enlighten me?

Fed made $9 trillion in emergency overnight loans
www.abovetopsecret.com...
by tothetenthpower
started on 12/1/2010 @ 05:14 PM

I think I can imagine why this movies are this near to the truth. People at this time (Let's say 1978) even in Germany somekind of advertised the Idea of a tied up world where anything is controlled.
There was once a German Chief Doctor, telling his students about what things they should expect to see in the future. Before this he told them not to make any recordings of this. However, one of the students did. Somewhat about 5 years ago there was a website that provided nothing else than this memo...

The homepage apperenty doesn't exist anymore (without any reason...). But I heard the tapes and it was quite shocking as it was pretty accurate. I also should mention that the Chief Doctor also told things that may happen in the future from now on. That a chip will be implied into the people's skin for example to find and control them via a satalite system. Let's see if this will happen with some kind of evolved RFID chip...

Forget the movies....
In Rome the collosium was built to entertain the masses so as to calm the mob and distract them from the politics and final destruction of their culture. We all know how that worked out. Sports, soap operas, reality tv and sit coms all serve the same purpose.
Here in America land of the free (lol)
"They treat us like a crop of mushrooms. The keep us in the dark and feed us crap"

Originally posted by Skid Mark

Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
reply to post by Skid Mark

 

I tend to group these movies together as well. And don't forget Logan's Run. Similar, yet different. All dystopian. I haven't seen the remake of Rollerball, but I assume it's more of a pure action film than social commentary. I assume they omitted the "corporate wars" theme. Am I correct?

edit: Let me rephrase that. A "dystopian utopia", as it were. A running theme in these films.

edit on 11/30/2010 by this_is_who_we_are because: rephrase

I've never seen Logan's Run. What is it about?

Logan's run is a film version of the book "Logan's Run" which is first in a series of three "Logan" novels by William F. Nolan.

The film version is slightly different than the novels. The film is set in the distant future. There exists one domed city. Within this dome, everything is run by a central computer system. There is an age limit of 30 years. Once you reach 30 years of age you are required to participate in a ritual collective ceremony called "Carousel" which, unbeknown to the participant, is actually a means of population control. Each citizen has embedded in the palm of their hand a "life clock" crystal which turns red and blinks when their time has come to participate in Carousel.

Some citizens are not willing to submit to this system and become "runners" seeking a rumored place called 'Sanctuary".

Runners are tracked and terminated by "Sandmen", the city's version of police officers.

Logan is a Sandman, and when his life clock implant signals his time is up, he decides to "run". Adventures ensue as he and a female companion attempt to flee the city for Sanctuary. Eventually they make their way to a place thought of as only a myth: OUTSIDE. Outside the city. You'll have to watch the film for the rest as I don't want to spoil it too much. A remake is supposedly in production.

reply to post by this_is_who_we_are


That sounds interesting. I'm going to check it out. Thanks.

reply to post by this_is_who_we_are


I read "Logan's Run" after seeing the movie, same with "I am Legend" after seeing "Omega Man". Both were different than the movies that came after, Logan and Legend more-so, Omega less so. It should be noted that the movies water down the politics of the books, so remakes are third generation interpretations subject to great deviation from the original themes. Thanks for the thoughts gang.

Originally posted by MichiganSwampBuck
reply to post by this_is_who_we_are

 

I read "Logan's Run" after seeing the movie, same with "I am Legend" after seeing "Omega Man". Both were different than the movies that came after, Logan and Legend more-so, Omega less so. It should be noted that the movies water down the politics of the books, so remakes are third generation interpretations subject to great deviation from the original themes. Thanks for the thoughts gang.

Of the three film versions of I Am Legend - "The Last Man On Earth" starring Vincent Price, "The Omega Man" starring Charlton Heston and "I Am Legend" starring Will Smith the one that most closely follows the book is "The Last Man On Earth" starring Vincent Price. It is flawed in that it is quite low budget. My favorite is "The Omega Man". The Will Smith version of I Am Legend is more of a remake of "The Omega Man" than a straight take on the book, but very well made with the exception of the CGI vampires. In the end, as with many films based on books, the book wins hands down. A classic of vampire literature.

The only problem I see here is that our current corporate monopolies do not seem intent on providing any luxuries or abundance. In fact it seems they are tryimg to make us all poor and hungry, or to make us all sick so that we are bound to the corporation through our need for healthcare for ourselves and our children. Healthy poor are dangerous. The sick poor are not as long as they can stand in line to gratefull receive their handouts from their masters..

Originally posted by Kraneloran
I think I can imagine why this movies are this near to the truth. People at this time (Let's say 1978) even in Germany somekind of advertised the Idea of a tied up world where anything is controlled.
There was once a German Chief Doctor, telling his students about what things they should expect to see in the future. Before this he told them not to make any recordings of this. However, one of the students did. Somewhat about 5 years ago there was a website that provided nothing else than this memo...

The homepage apperenty doesn't exist anymore (without any reason...). But I heard the tapes and it was quite shocking as it was pretty accurate. I also should mention that the Chief Doctor also told things that may happen in the future from now on. That a chip will be implied into the people's skin for example to find and control them via a satalite system. Let's see if this will happen with some kind of evolved RFID chip...

This sounds very interesting - do you have any more information on this? Maybe the old link?

Namaste,

Deckard666

reply to post by Kraneloran



What the last poster said. Any further info. That sounds intriguing.