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What's Rollerball Actually About?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ต.ค. 2020
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@Ramming Speed They're far leftists, that song is like an anti-fa battle cry. He has a line ''shooting fa5cits''
It's a cross between roller derby, football, baseball, hockey, and even nascar as far as the pit stop aspects and an ancient aztec sport much like basketball, except much more violent and sometimes death was involved for the loser. So in that sense you can draw the sacrificial comparison of corporations and Aztec sacrifices to please the gods/elite.
I like that movie and I like your analysis. However there is one thing I disagree on. Jonathan had no choice. He had no option of throwing the ball in Bartholomew's (oligarch's) face because there was a plastic wall between them, and for safety reasons it's reasonable to assume that the ball even thrown at the high speed would not penetrate through that wall.
It's the wall that separates the spectators from the playing field. It's also reasonable to assume that the part of the wall in front of the oligarch is particularly reinforced.
The reason they can't just kill or force Jonathan is probably because it would upset the public, why take that risk when they can take other options
The reason they can't just kill or force Jonathan is probably because it would upset the public, why take that risk when they can take other options. I think because of it's absurdness people tend to take it as a corny movie but I really think that's a misunderstanding. It's meant to be absurd and yeah like u said almost a meta joke or tragedy/comedy. Plus as someone who grew up playing american football for 8 years of my life before breaking an arm and my fingers, stopping me from playing music at 17, this movie and experience resonated more with me. And I felt the adrenaline of being on the field in front of a crowd
The fact you prioritized the 'chute' before YT makes me kinda like this vid even more. I mean - not only do you have a (very) good head on your shoulders, but even the heart is in the right place.
Here's to hoping your day feels like it's worth everything and more.
Thanks mate
@Geoff Wode Bitchute needs to sort out its comment feature. It does not allow discussion at this point.
Mr Olonzo bitchute has had its donation funding broken its main platform for payments. PayPal has banned Bitchute. Seems they don’t want free speech in Silicon Valley 🤔
@@mark-yj5sg It's based in the UK, it's not like it has much of it in the first place.
@Mr Olonzo There's other alternatives gathering steam like Rumble and Odysee. Bitchute has the right mindset but the dev skills there are pitiful.
This is excellent, Morgoth, much appreciated. Your final analysis reminds me of what I said about Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes. He was celebrated by seemingly everyone for his ‘biting critique’ of the awards platform, he ‘called them out’ for their behaviors and apparently exposed their evil ways. However, what he actually done was what he was hired for; to draw attention to the Golden Globes, to sell the awards, which is what he done. Standing up there, on stage, going out live, he had the opportunity of doing something actually damaging, to plant the silver ball into the corporations head, so to speak. Alas he did not, he just played the game while everyone continued cheering.
Good analysis there
Thanks Dangerfield, and yes that's an interesting take, there's more to be said on this.
As I said on BC, he understood where his power lies to create maximum leverage. If he'd killed the bloke his influence would've been negligible.
Like the Che shirts; Yes, capitalism capitalizes on the image, but the image, and possibly the message, lives on.
Now marry a Black girl Mr Bowie
Dangerfield - agree about Gervais. Something about that man.
interesting that comfort makes us lazy, We need to experience real hardship for the masses to want change!
Maybe now with people losing their jobs and migration into the country- the indigenous trying to get jobs and a stranger (who are here 5 minutes) applying for the exact same position! Maybe then people will realise how unfair this system is to the native people of Europe!
@Jan Shankenstein I don't know. A lot of people don't really get what is happening, yet. People aren't responsible for their personal survival yet. Men don't have to be capable of physically defending their family, yet. We don't have to produce our own food yet. All this is coming for us in the coming years, that is if they don't just kill us all swiftly.
Tony Blairs Labour did exactly that. Make the masses comfortable and lazy.
@Jan Shankenstein Sadly I think that is probably correct. I fear that the response will just be more drug taking and drunkenness . On a more sour note I tend to think that the sort of nationalism which pins its hopes on the idea that somehow other people will wake up and effect the change we desire are in the end pushing away responsibility from themselves.
@Marko Fahrenheit correct and whites are the minority!
@Marko Fahrenheit This may be true Marko, but it does not mean that all minorities succeed. Some are crushed out of existence.
Predictive programming is what Hollywood is all about. It's like these films are a magicians trick.
I've never seen rollerballl, but this review makes it a must see
Running man is similar
They have to show you beforehand for some sort of cosmic licence.
“The druids were tree worshippers, especially the oak. The holly was their most sacred symbol because it was sacred to mother Holle or Hel, the [Norse] goddess of the underworld…
Hel
Hel by Johannes Gehrts (1889)
…thus we have Holle, or Holly-wood (Hel-wood, the “place of magic”) and home of the Illuminati’s mass propaganda and conditioning machine in California. The holly wood was a favourite source of magic wands.” -Children of the Matrix by David Icke
Watch THX 1138 too.
@@newadam573 I've heard Alan Moore argue that "the Great Art", ie magic is actually Great Art. Creating something from nothing, reaching out to contact and influence hearts and minds that go on to change the world.
I'll have to watch this, reminds me of The Running Man, in which they used technology to alter people's faces in footage, which is now possible....
Killian "Go to hell!"
Arnie "I don't do requests" 😄
Killian is lying to you
The worst thing is our circuses aren't even on the level of rollerball. Instead we get X-factor and candycrush...
Whenever I see someone playing ‘candy crush’ type games I want to scream “read a book you idiot”
We have UFC
LOL...very eloquently put, Sir!
@@TwistyThreeFifty not as fun as seeing guys ram into each other with motorbikes and smack each other with spiked gloves
@@johndoe-eh3tv look up Russian team fighting, still not as good but we’re gonna get back to the point where we have truly great entertainment
Morgoth hitting another home run. Greetings from America.
It's Morgoth so it must be good.
Science fiction writers are either visionaries or insiders; either way some of them depict our future world, take notes.
Huxley knew , no doubt
Maybe... Or just able to extrapolate
@Helmholtz it's definitely going to be more of a Brave New World-order than a 1984 dystopia
@@moisturisedgnome1181 Agree. I think there might be elements of both (particularly Orwell's idea of psychological pressure being applied to Man in order to befuddle and bemuse, and history being rewritten in order to suit the Present), but Huxley's idea of "killing" us via comfort and apathy is what we're seeing with the modern obsession with technological trinkets.
@@raminybhatti5740 yeah the consequences of state control are the loss of freedoms, rights and morals. And of course the self separated societies who don't live by the rules, or who want to remain traditional are portrayed as being savages, akin to the morloks or the proles. Basically if you don't want to be a part of this new world, you need to get out of the city now, go somewhere remote and be self sufficient.
Love the cultural analysis, Morgoth.
The end of "Rollerball" underlines the fact that, in modern societies, individualism can only be permitted and expressed within a consumerist framework, where people literally form their identity by buying into it. The obvious culmination of this is geek culture, where everything has been created by huge corporations in order to make members of that sub-culture feel "quirky" and somehow "unique".
West World was another one. The Android knight who screams - Varlet!!! 😂
I don't think I've ever watched Rollerball. I'll definitely check it out after this.
So it's like if in the film "They Live" the main character would have just got shot and died before he could have destroyed the main source of their transmission. I think many on the left like to mix up corporatism with free market capitalism, and therefor use that to justify more Socialism/Marxism/Communism. Its like a false dichotomy because I see Corporatism as very similar to Communism as it leads to monopolies albeit duopolies, but neither is a natural organic thing so a false choice. Small family run business I think represent freedom for the people and a true free market as it's not top down authoritarian control.
Where does all the money that our governments print go? Right to the monopoly mens bank accounts. Yeah no real difference from commies and cooperatists.
Or perhaps better yet, put the choice to join the insiders with the cunstruction foreman at the end instead of destroying the relay. An so have him choose to be a part of thr system or strengthening it by his form of rebellion, ending the underground network by taking overt action.
That is not what corporatism means. Corporatism is basically syndicalism, people of a common profession coming together to form a guild of sorts to work towards better wages and working conditions and for their common good. You are thinking of corporatocracy. Corporatism is essentially the economic aspect of Italian Fascism. It has nothing to do at all with corporations. Unfortunate name maybe but the difference is enormous.
Studio 54. The mass media enemy in that movie. In the opening scenes there is a graffiti wall mural where children are running away from a giant syringe...
Yes! Been bingeing oId vids waiting for a new one and this popped up!
Haha I'm glad I have that type of channel, cheers
As 15 year olds on a school trip to London in 1975, we were given a lot of free time to do or go, anywhere we liked. However, we were not allowed to go and see Rollerball. I haven't seen it yet.
Watched this at the flicks as a youth, wicked good. Was wondering when the national league would commence. Chuffed that you brought up the missing 13th century library courtesy of digitization, Gooolagio stylee. The books are being burned and/or beyond our reach now for research. Particularly during this plandemic lockdown, admin at colleges and/or uni's are not allowing access to much of it's material, unless you have some form of permit. They first came for the librarians and I said nothing, then they came for the ... and I said nuffink
Algorithm comment. I don't need to watch before knowing I'll agree.
Dissident NPCs of the world unite!
I actually think the ending for _The Running Man_ is actually kind of similar to this too. At the end after Killian is killed and the so-called revolution has overthrown the network, we see all the crowd celebrating via television and its uninterrupted broadcast, with the real controllers and its system still seemingly intact. It's like the show must go on but like everything else it's all one trick and nothing has actually changed.
Brilliant and a pleasure to listen to.
In spite of my rage I am still just a rat in a cage. Halloween indeed.
I don't think humanity needs blood Lust, more that humans need something to struggle against and a responsibility.
To struggle against something is to learn, it's to exercise your brain, this is why just repeating knowledge you already know is boring, it's why the new and novel is enjoyable but often comes with risk and fear.
People who have nothing productive to do will often create something to do they is less than productive.
To have a meaningful life you need to have a responsibility for something or someone.
People do enjoy a bit of vicarious bloodshed, though. Whether it's the millennial getting their fix through violent fictional scenarios, or the boomer imperialist who loves a bit of war in the Middle East, or the blue check marks egging on the BLM riots. The masses today aren't so different from the Romans with their sick games or the Victorians enjoying dog fights and public hangings. It's a depressing part of the human condition and one that we'd all rather not admit to, but people do enjoy violence, especially when they're only spectators and can be part of the excitement without taking risks or taking on the actual moral responsibility for it.
.
Life, existence is an aberration/mistake.....
The universe is cold inanimate indifferent....
Life is as meaningless, as it is temporary.....
We are programmed bits of auto-reproductive ,biomatter...
.enjoy the utter inconsequentiality and our worthlessness...
Rollerball is about the power of friendship and how it can transcend even the worlds most ruthless grandpa.
In the autumn mood for some tasty dystopian storytelling, I see. Gotta say, it is a perfect part of the year for that, for sure. But I think i'm going to read a good one like that in a paper book form ;) Nothing better than that in the end.
Have you ever heard of a computer game called Metal Gear 2, made in the early 90s? It's about a rogue military leader trying to start wars for the sake of creating psychological stimulation in an era of peace. The peace though is just artificially created through a globalised government, controlled by a cold, soulless AI. The protagonist kills the leader and becomes a recognised hero, but in doing so just contributes to the system of increased government control and tyranny and inadvertently damns the world to an AI oligarchy.
@Fallout: Europe Gaming culture is pretty degenerate anyway. Its all just a Rollerball-tier distraction to keep us docile.
Liked before the video started
70s slowly coming back I see.. This is both exciting and unnerving. Well anyways, thanks for another great one Morgoth. Cheers and God Bless!
John. E and his companions chose to partake in a killing game. They are portrayed too kindly. Of course he spared the patron.
I'd love to hear your take on The Running Man.
Agreed, that would be would be a good one to to get Morgoth's take on.
Super video. Bread and circus. The time when Tommy Robinson was jailed, as an example, maybe?
Spartacus
I think the end suggests he realises his degree of his impotence and the futility of sacrificing himself by killing the oligarch. He has dedicated his life to reaching the pinnacle of the sport. Strained every sinew and beaten everyone and everything thrown at him in the arena, this is as much as he can ever achieve. Kill the oligarch and another will replace him. The oligarch has sat there in that vulnerable position for that purpose to let him know that he has been played by the system. He has been successfully provoked into taking part in and surviving the most brutal game ever, offered the opportunity to back away and he has helped make the sport more popular than ever but great as he is he has no hope of ever making the slightest dent in the system. Carry on and accept the comfort.
I looked at it from the opposite perspective: By enduring and even winning, Jonathan E reasserted the value of the individual over the collective (Pretty sure Houseman even explained that aspect of the game at one point).
I don't think killing Houseman's oligarch was ever in the cards because he was behind a plexiglas barrier. Enduring the game was the only victory available to him.
I saw that movie when I was a kid. My dad's girlfriend had the soundtrack, and whenever he took me there (how very 1970s) I asked to hear Bach's tocatta and fugue in d minor, which I'd never heard before seeing Rollerball.
Have you ever heard of the "mouse Utopia" experiments carried out in the 1960's ?
That'd be a good one for you to get your teeth into on the subject of "comfort makes you lazy"
@Goomba Oomba No they were placed in what was thought to be ideal living conditions.
So there was no scarcity of resources.
Excellent suggestion for analysis from a right perspective
Of all the dystopias presented in film, Rollerball's has the most plausible premise.
Has anyone else seen "Blood of Juggers"? (Slightly different title in the USA) Rutger Hauer... similar in theme to Rollerball, but set in the wasteland. A very good film. Wish I still had it
When I was a kid I thought all Sci-Fi was like this, I still get flashbacks from Silent Running.
Love 1970s dystopian films. There’s so many to choose from. The spinball wars in the British comic Action or Battle Action covers similar ground crossed with mad max. I think Jewsion also did the original The Thomas Crowne Affair. A very late 60s style.
Same - one of my favourites is No Blade of Grass from 1970. Great little dystopian film set in Britain as a viral outbreak has devastated grass, rice, wheat etc with famine and chaos engulfing the nation. Nigel Davenport is tremendous in the lead role. Directed by Cornell Wilde as well - he starred in The Naked Prey - what a hell of good movie that is.
I never thought Jonathan E contemplated killing Bartholemew, safe behind a protective screen. He does kill a player right in front of him, perhaps as a kind of "this what you wanted when you changed the rules?" fuck you statement. He makes the choice between killing the last motorbike player and scoring the point. Between their rules and his. When the crowd starts chanting his name, then Bartholemew looks really worried. Rollerball as a game can't function as before and now Jonathan E has more power and insight than before.
Excellent analysis. I have a few quibbles, but agree wholeheartedly with the emasculation portion of your essay. And what you describe actually had been playing out for real since the end of WWII in Japan. The transformation of that society was stunningly complete from warrior nation to a nation obsessed with anime school girls. You gotta hand it to MacArthur and his minions.
great review of a great fillum. similar themes were played out in paul newmans slap shot.
It’s about how a perfect utopia is destroyed and violence and war and destruction return.
A lot of people saying that these movies were "predictive programming". Well yeah that could be true but I think if you look at the 1970's in the USA.
The USA was in a bit of a rut after the Vietnam war and a lot of Americans did not feel good about their nation or the future for the first time since the country was founded.
So I don't think it's that surprising that a lot of movies made in the 70's looked on the future as being bleak.
If you contrast that to films made in the 80's (when America had regained its brash self confidence) then it makes more sense.
How did a movie like 'Back to the Future' for example, view the year 2015 & beyond? Flying cars, hover boards etc... In that movie the year 2015 looked better than the year 1985.
Driving through the town I grew up in recently I was reminded of the Biff Tannen timeline which led to degeneracy
Your review was beautiful. The joke is on us. Without God, without living for something more than just ourselves, this is how the movie will always end.
Your videos never fail to impress. You talk about things that I always felt, but never had the words for. I really need to watch this film. Thank you for this.
This film rejoices in the power of the individual over uniformity. In the film - all the proletariat have is the game. The corporations 'rigged the rules' to show that no one is above the game and no single individual can survive within it. You cannot resist the strict order of the corporations. Jonathan E. defies those corporations and shows the masses... that the individual is more powerful than any kind of corporate conformity. The point isn't that Jonathan E. can start a revolution himself... he's just a 'ballplayer' But it 'sows the seed of doubt' in the corporations hegemony to the masses. The power of a single individual to instigate change. It's a deeply American form of idealism. Like 'Mr.Smith Goes to Washington' ('39). It's an American liberal fairy tale about the overcoming, or at least... holding back the excesses of capitalism. Leaving a little room for the little people. But that's also why there's no actual revolution in the film... Americans don't want real change, just a little bit more of the wealth that surrounds them.
The people made Rollerball their own. The elites tried to change it, but they could not break the spirit of the people.
Interesting take as usual (love your videos btw). I have to say, I'm not entirely convinced but do think it's a very interesting interpretation. My main problem is that Klaus Schwab whats-his-name is safely ensconced behind a sturdy screen which would have made it difficult for Jonathan to get to him. That said, i guess, there could have been ways around that, had the writers wanted, so your main point is still realistic. Anyway, keep up the good work sir :-)
I could listen to you say "Super computer" all day Morgoth.
Thanks for these interesting commentaries Morgoth.
Always original and fun to watch.
Excellent analysis. very insightful. well done.
This is exactly the version that jibes best, I think. Well done!!
Great work as usual
This is one of my top 5 favorite movies. Saw it as a kid in the 70's at the drive through triple feature with Planet Of The Apes and Logans Run ( A life changing event! ). I have studied it and thought about it my whole life. You just added a layer I never even considered. Brilliant analysis thank you so much for helping me understand and love this amazing movie even more! The meta perspective is simply incredible filmmaking!
A superb analysis of this amazing film, one of my personal favourites. The original music by Andre Previn is also fantastic. As each year passes, we get closer to this dystopian reality.
It was supposed to be set in 2018
20:37 Che Guevara becomes an image on a t-shirt to purchase = black lives matter t-shirt becomes an image on a t-shirt to purchase … it is the joke of an idea … like rap … the joke is on anyone who listens to it.
1:26 "Sixty-nine, dude!" (Air guitar)
Maybe the circular arena and the final scene represent the greatest weight. It all goes on and on regardless.
Or not.
Thank you, sir for this absolutely fascinating review on a movie that I've loved since I saw it as a kid. You've given me a new perspective on how to view it as well as much food for thought. As soon as I am able, I will buy you that pint!
Its just mind boggling that our media has conditioned us to the point we quietly allow those who hijack an oil tanker and hold hostage the crew..... and just let em in.
its really is beautifully articulated content, in a way that only the north east accent can deliver
Rollerball is also another MSM predictive programming production.
Perhaps Jonathan E ascended to be an oligarch too, by complying to the system.
I saw that in the cinema in 1975. It's still a really good film.
running man
More importantly, what is Battle Star Galactica about? Surely it's about the you know whose? I've googled this so many times and even asked on Twitter. But I can't be the only one to have noticed this. The Cylons are the invisible enemy looking to take control from within.
Is football not an outlet for tribalism?
Bread and Circuses
Not indeed. White folks cheering and celebrating the exploits of niggas. Not tribalism in my book, at least not the tribalism of supporting our own folk.....
@@javiergilvidal1558 You're right, but I mean it in the way of supporting ones country.
Western culture and history has been distilled into a color and a flag. Meaning, everybody can be Western and you support your country by wearing it's national colors during a game. The brainwashed masses are worshiping non-western foreigners wearing their country's colors.
By the way, how is the situation in Spain, regarding immigration?
It's funny though how the same moribund values that have gripped wider society are now precipitating a collapse in sports. Elites are being hoisted by their own petard.
Excellent analysis. They don’t know how to deal with this kind of meta critique yet. Keep it coming.
I honestly think it’s partially meta showing the opiate of the masses in media and sport, but also the importance of individualism, as Jonathan NOT killing the last guy but emasculating him as he is “one of the herd” and then still scoring to an aghast crowd and Mr. Bartholomew
This movie is much smarter than it had any business being
A meditation on how to quell the Viking spirit of the European.
Faustian spirit*
Doesn't football today do a similar job as a proxy to an identity? The sport itself is fun and good, but there are people who identify with teams made up of a mix of rich athletes. And you don't even have to be from where the team is based off of, you just have to follow their games. Your "enemies" are other teams and their fanbase. This is all a distraction, like you said.
Bread and circuses ...nothing to see here folks...!
Sounds like The Hunger Games, but not gay.
It's unfortunately pretty gay. Oooh a woman... no lets roll around with a black guy and cut to a sweaty guys back exercising. Literally stopped watching because it was so gay
Normally i don't really like movie dissection videos. But this one really cut to the heart of the matter. Great job.
The movie shows what has already been going on since long ago and of course still is.
1) Jonathan E was Aware of the possibility of Corporate assassination attempts.
2) He Survived the most brutal game with no rules whatsoever.
3) Jonathan E continues to Learn and will no doubt pass on his knowledge.
4) There's no point in killing Barthlomew as Jonathan E probably after his moment of pondering realized he was just another easily replaceable executive, (especially after the embarrassment of his retirement special plan fuck up) so in effect there's no point in killing this toothless, blustery, old executive.
I think that Jonathan E in whatever guise will become a source of inspiration, in what form he will become an inspiration it's left quite open at the end. Maybe he's assassinated afterwards and becomes memory holed but even if that's the case, he's already made an impact and the corporations know it.
The entire situation is a disaster of the corporations own doing, there were many ways in which they could've gone about the situation with Jonathan E but they're so restricted in their corporate way of thinking that no executives actually wanted to speak up on how to deal with the situation, it was easier (and more comfortable) to vote for the proposed idea.
17:25 all you need to know about how this plays out
The firing of Tucker Carlson reminds me of the reason the powers that be tried to eliminate Jonathan E (James Caan) from the game of RollerBall
I'd really like to hear a discussion between yourself and The Reset Sniper.
Rollerball is about a roller skater with only one testicle.
The film does explain why the corporations want Jonathan out of the sport, not just the one Jonathan works for, but all of them. The thing about that is that you have to read between the lines. Housman explains it by prefacing it with, "Rollerball is not a game in which a man is supposed to grow strong." The corporate purpose of Rollerball is, as you say, to provide an outlet for the violent tendencies of the masses, but its main purpose is to reinforce a collectivist ideology and to minimize the role of individual accomplishment in human progress. Jonathan presents a problem for the corporations precisely because he has become a symbol of individualism. In short, he is a hero in a society that discourages individual heroism. Jonathan's apparent inability to appreciate this fact about himself is part of what makes him a classical tragic hero. In many important ways he is clueless, and he resists retirement simply because Rollerball constitutes the entirety of his identity. Back in 1975 I took a date to this movie and she commented that she thought that the message was, "once a jock, always a jock." She had a good point. Where the film fails is in not exploring the relationship between Jonathan and his ex-wife. She was a better product of her society than Jonathan, and was more thoroughly captured by corporate ideology. It isn't as if she was kidnapped by her executive husband. The reason that the viewer has that impression is that the story is told from Jonathan's perspective. The objective truth is that she left Jonathan willingly and resented being used as a pawn and being forced to return to him. This was the reality that Jonathan finally had to face and the reason that he erased the tapes. He still loved her enough to let her go. The film also fails in not exploring the nature of the society in which Rollerball exists. All we are given is that it is a heavily controlled society, presumably dominated by a collectivist ideology, and in which information is tightly controlled. The end is not triumphant, but really extremely sad. In opposing the corporations, Jonathan lost the fantasy associated with his ex-wife, all his team mates were dead or too injured to continue in the sport, and he had expended every shred of good will he had built up with Houseman and the corporation. He had nothing left except Rollerball, and he would lose that inevitably as well. In the end, all Jonathan has and all he will ever have is that final victory lap.
It's not giving the game away, it's revelation of method. They justify all they do because they tell us what they're doing to us, and we accept it.
Accept they tell us what they're doing or planning to do in a very duplicitous way because they still don't have the balls to reveal their intent out-and-out. Something supernatural for this penchant brand of evil.
I wonder how Demolition Man would fit in here? That's an interesting movie too. As is They Live.
So in the end its like the saying in casinos... The house always wins
The point of the movie is to show that corporations fear the individual because we are not disposed to follow corporations but we are disposed to follow srong individuals. Jonathen was a threat to the corp's and in the end he won.....Jonathen.....Jonathen.....Jonathen.
Insightful. Even as the Marxists in academia appear to have taken over, left wing authoritarianism has actually lost to right wing authoritarianism, aka corporatism or fascism.
This analysis also applies to reality tv entertainment that appears so different from violent sports. But these people/characters are held up to be criticized and laughed at while the viewers are also conditioned to want their luxurious life and are learning what they should be buying. A win for the corporations.
Why, this is revolutionary.
You had me at 'the corporations have taken over...'
Actually, you had me months ago...
So basically, we have no other option, but to keep 'Living the lie'..
Thats what they want you to think. Ideas are the most powerful weapons. Unite and overcome.
No. We throw the ball into the Oligarch's face.
@@Stormvermin-bx1lh you squabble over interpretations ,of a north african god....
How similar it is to Network. The system does exactly the same with Howard Beale. All the genuineness is sucked out of him when he is turned into just one more consumer product, the "Mad Prophet of the Airwaves". All those who were inspired by him at the start become just one more sector of the market. It and Rollerball are both very sad films.
Probably the most thought-provoking critique of this movie I've yet heard -- I can now rewatch this movie going into it with a bit of a modified perspective regarding its interpretation. Thanks.
Fascinating review! Rollerball's depiction of sport as a means of pacification as well as the mutability of digitized information remain as hard-hitting as ever.
In other ways, though, the movie isn't quite as accurate as one might expect. It may be a stretch, but not much of one, to describe Rollerball as a utopia, but many dystopias are not far from utopia (their reaching out to just what's just beyond their grasp makes their fall much more poignant). There are no wars, no shortages, and best of all, no democracy. The masculine ideal is preserved as is the warrior ideal, in some form, in the bloodsport. It's a far more attractive society than ours, as in our world masculinity is derided to the extent that sports themselves are made softer. Celebrities exist but they are even more corrupt and immoral than the oligarchs they work for. Corporations are powerful, sure, but they are only one part of the "new chain of being" and not even at the top; international bodies, sophist professors, and demagogues are far more threatening as they ride anti-capitalist sentiment rather than withstand it. There is no golden age of comfort but a steadily declining society is driving the population to revolution, not against their enslavement but in support of it. It's funny how the dystopias of 50 years ago look so much better than what we have now.
Also it's worth pointing out that the Frankfurt School was always criticizing the "old Marxists." The argument you made about capitalism "absorbing" communist sentiment was to advocate the corruption of capitalism from within, and it has been wildly successful. No longer do corporations seek power as a natural urge, but they do so to further the cause of "social progress," even if it hurts them. Ironically, just as the original interpretation of the final scene was of the individual freely choosing to commit to a meaningless game rather than rebel against the corporation, today the individual becomes the corporation and the corporation is the "Cathedral"!
Logan's run was another one
What if they don't want a revolution and do not consider themselves slaves to a system? Even nationalism is a "system," there's no reason we have to oppose "the system".
Thanks for making the film even more depressing 😂
Some great points in this video. Looking at the film at just the surface-level is definitely missing the point. Then there's another layer beyond the societal commentary, and yes I believe it was intended as you said it was.
Spot on. The big message of the story is that nothing actually changed in the final analysis. In terms of altering the system itself, E. changed nowt whatsoever.
Great review man, love the music. Sad times we find ourselves in...
You do realize the oligarch was sitting behind a transparent barrier, probably bulletproof. There is no way the player can throw the ball fast enough to get through the barrier, much less reach the oligarch. The players attempt would be a wasted effort and result in his own death.
Comment to support channel only.