70s Paranoid Sci-Fi

High-end 70s Sci-Fi fun in the paranoid future mould that seemed to thrive in the post-hippy era. This would make a good triple bill with Logan's Run and Soylent Green, all three sharing that combination of dark conspiracy theory and an air of 70s camp.

In this head-spinning future sport classic James Caan plays a champion Rollerballer. Rollerball is a high-speed combination of rollerskating, American Football, motorbike racing and pummelling your opponent into a bloody pulp. James' character is at the top of his sport and his bosses, who use the game as a tool of control over the masses, want to retire him but he's still got game and starts to rebel against his masters. this is when he finds out just what a small cog he is in the machine.

This film maintains a relevancy in this dark times of increasing state intrusion, with the celebrity sportsmen and roman circus style entertainments acting as a narcotic to keep the population compliantly serving a distant elite. Think about that next time you call the voting hotline for "Britain's Got Talent".

Is Susan Boyle the next Jonathan E?

Superb Action and sci-fi thrills.





More fun 70s sci-fi paranoia in which Charlton Heston (Who made a slew of great sci-fi movies throughout the late 60s and early 70s) discovers that a new miracle food stuff "Soylent Green", a product designed to solve the worlds hunger problems at a stroke, has a nasty dark side.
Any more detail would spoil the awesome twist at the end but suffice to say, it's a shocking conclusion.

As with Rollerball, this film still has echos that apply to our contemporary world. We live in a time where large corporations control what we consume and stories abound of the kind of culinary crimes these companies participate in in order to keep their profits high and their shareholders happy.

Soylent Green is a superior thriller with fantastic performances by the cast, especially from the stoic and square jawed Heston, who always excels in these sort of movies (See his stellar turns in Planet of the Apes And The Omega Man).