Violence Analysis of Rollerball

Violence Analysis of Rollerball

1.

In the film Rollerball, the ideas of violence will be related to Coakley’s views and theories. Historically violence was an accepted idea and large part of sport. From the blood-sports of ancient Greece to the cock and dog fighting in Folk games, these sports were built around brutal violence and lack of rules until the modernization of sports where violence decreased dramatically and organized rules took over the game. In Rollerball both historical violence as well modern can be evaluated Rollerball although a futuristic sport and society, was based on a combination of rules and some violence.

In the start of the movie there is obvious violence with bodies flying around and medics carrying off the injured, but this was a controlled violence as Coakley describes it as brutal body contact or borderline violence (Coakley 2001). On several occasions the main character Johnathen made references of this control by saying “don’t fight when you’re supposed to be somewhere else” and even teaching other teammates how to take out a biker in a clean way, comparable to a clean take out in baseball. As the movie progressed I believe this is where the futuristic sport turned into a blood-sport of ancient times. With rule changes or even lack of rules the officials made in the Rollerball playoffs, this mimicked the lack of rules and emphasis of violence in the historical blood-sports (Coakley 2001). These were the characteristics of historical violence described by Coakley: increased violence, bloodshed, lack of rules, and lack of self-control.

Defined as verbal or physical actions grounded in an intent to dominate, control, or do harm to another person, aggression will now be discussed (Coakley 2001). I felt the entire game of Rollerball was played in an aggressive manor. At no time did I witness finesse in the sport, only hitting and taking out players. There were also several verbal references such as: “drive their jaw into their head”, “hit the little fellas”, “bash in their faces”, and “feelin’ mean”, to name a few. Furthermore, there were aggressive acts outside of the game. For example, Johnathen choking Dapheny and even Johanthen and Swoop wrestling for fun.

Rollerball also demonstrated deviant behavior as defined by Coakley, specifically deviant overconformity. In the Rollerball semi-finals and finals I felt this was the best example of Coakley’s deviant overconformity. In these two games many players were killed playing Rollerball.