Rollerball (1975)

It's, like, the craziest version of Roller Derby ever. And corporations use it to keep the masses placated. Directed by Norman Jewison.

In the future, the world is run by large corporations, no longer by governments. As part of their effort to keep the populations distracted, they have created the sport of Rollerball, which is a more dangerous version of roller derby. However, James Caan's character has become extremely popular in the sport, and so the bosses that control things try to remove him. At first they offer to placate him with retirement, but when he refuses to leave (he still likes playing), they begin to change the rules of the game, hoping he'll either die or decide to quit.

It's a somewhat jumbled film. It never really figures out what kind of film it wants to be. There are some interesting ideas present, but they never really jell. The stunt work is pretty good, but the story itself is not compelling and the film is too long (asked what the film was about, Caan said, "it's about 90 minutes" which is inaccurate - it's really 2 hours).