How the corporate-controlled ‘utopia’ of Rollerball isn’t as content as it first appears

My forthcoming book discusses the dominance of dystopian visions of the future, which is hardly surprising given the multiple, overlapping environmental, economic, and political crises we face. In the book, I use nine classic sci-fi movies to discuss various aspects of the coming dystopia. One of them is Rollerball (1975).

It’s 2018. In a business-run future, there is no war, poverty, or unrest on planet Earth – apart from the violence played out in the Rollerdome that is. All material needs are met, and we still get to let off steam by watching our favorite Rollerball team battle their opponents on our behalf in an exciting combination of (American) football, motocross, and gladiatorial combat. Compared to most of the futures discussed in the book, it doesn’t actually sound so bad.

As I discuss in the book, in both fact and fiction the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a rising tide of environmental consciousness, and indeed activism. As parts of this movement became more radical, especially in its criticisms of industrial capitalism, there had to be a serious fightback – and there was.

Corporations and their representative bodies organized to defend the ‘free enterprise system’ and funded new institutions such as think tanks to promote deregulation and other pro-corporate policies. Rollerball depicts the kind of corporate dominated society that would result – seemingly a utopia of limitless consumer choice, but actually a dark age of commodification, violence, and alienation.

In our world, the ‘new’ right’s well-funded campaign effectively pushed the mainstream environmental movement back into conservation efforts and narrow technical issues. As a result, a critical moment was lost – and perhaps our last real chance to change the future.

But for more on that, you’ll have to read the book.

Come With Me If You Want To Live: The Future as Foretold in Classic Sci-Fi Films, is out in November from Lexington Books. You can read more about it here.