Movie of the Year: 1975 Bonus – Rollerball
Movie of the Year: 1975
Rollerball
The 1975 bonus episodes continue with Norman Jewison’s Rollerball, starring James Caan!
On an all-new bonus episode of the 1975 season, the Taste Buds turn their sights to that infamous look at the future of sports, Rollerball! In the not-so-distant future, sports will be played on 2×2 roller skates, they will be played internationally, and they will be played to the death! Rollerball, as silly as it may seem now, actually predicted a lot of what would happen with professional sports between ’75 and today, including the uptick in violence, and the corporations moving in and taking over. James Caan plays Jonathan E., the best rollerballer in the sport’s history. But his time has come, and the rich people that run the league want him out. They’ve already taken his wife…next, they’ll take his life! Will he step down, or will he kill Japanese people to get back at his owners?
Host Mike, along with Movie of the Year mainstays Greg and Ryan, along with The Unnatural 20’s Katelynn, try to look at this ’75 cult classic from a 2021 perspective. Does the predictive nature of the film help cover up some of its flaws? Will the pacing turn off these ’21 kids and their addled attention spans? And how does Norman Jewison, a director not known for sports movies, do with the Rollerball scenes. Tune in to this all-new episode to find out the answers to these questions, and so much more!
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