When William Harrison made the short story that influenced the making of this film he had to have read Plato's "Criton", since this movie is the exact contradiction of that masterpiece. In "Criton", Socrates is unjustly in jail, where he awaits the death penalty, when Criton comes to tell him that he should escape, Socrates tells him that he can't do that because then everything he preached all his life, to obey laws, would mean nothing, hence the estate of Athens would fall to the ground, and it would make it okay for other citizens to break laws. And Athens gave everything to Socrates, hence Socrates owes everything to Athens. Now how Jonathan E. contradicts Socrates: In Rollerball there is a fascist state where every social accomplishment is a result of collectivity (team-play) not individualism. The game has been designed to make these collectivity values real and apparent. Jonathan E. is refuting the purpose of the game, which is a political purpose. The game has a political aspect in its structure, and the paradox is that in order to keep the game, they prefer to take away all the rules to show that there is no individual success in rollerball, only collective success. In Rollerball, there is the conflict between the citizen and the state. The state maintains the subordination of the individual when it destroys all history and information. Also, the state denies all decision making. The equilibrated ideology of Bartholomew is that all dreams and aspirations are capable inside the system, hence he talks to the team in the beginning saying that the players want to be executives, and the executive players, which is possible for everyone. In Ella and Jonathan E.'s conversation, she tells him that all former history was to find a comfortable style of living, which is something people have now, where all vital things and necessities are covered, so Jonathan E. asks himself what is he giving up in exchange for commodities, where liberties are taken away. You see, Socrates would have just been thankful to the state for everything that they have provided for him, and even if it was unjust he would have retired when asked for, yet Jonathan E., isn't only not thankful, but also challenges the state by not retiring and ::::::::SPOILER::::::::: making the final goal in the final game, where even without rules nor TEAMMATES, his individualism destroys the state's point of collectiveness and corporate society....
Review of Rollerball
