When I first saw this as a high school student I enjoyed it very much, but I never thought the premise could come close to becoming true. Recently I saw it again when a friend rented it from Netflix. It struck me that the idea of powerful corporations controlling the world seems a lot more closer to reality nowadays, I am sad to say. This film was quite prescient.
shareEzra in the film, the bosses said, " We created a paradise. we control the food, water, housing.....all we ask in return is that no one question our decisions" and these days, thats true, corporations have silenced all opposition. They created legalized ways of subverting the constitution. meanwhile, whores are paraded in front of us in the form of britney spears, paris hilton, londsey lohan, and mind altering drugs are legal, jsut go to psychiatrist and tell them you are depressed or questioning everything and they will give you the latest in happy pills.
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I was with you up until right up until the stuff about whores. I guess that's where your mind altering drugs wore off.
shareSpot on. And getting more so by the day.
shareI agree, the mollification of the masses is used no matter who is in charge, distract the people so they don't question or even notice what is going on....the corporation angle is key to the allegory as today we have a right to "occupy" or protest whatever we want, corporations don't have to give that right...in a way they are less shackled to the laws of open fairness than the government is really.
Despite the 70's chic to date it this film is more frightening today than it was then.
[insert very clever movie quote here]
Corporations alone aren't the problem, it's when they merge with the government that it's a problem, and Big Government existed before Big Business. One begat the other, and has all but merged with it. Socialism is pretty much the same in the end whatever guise it comes in, corporo-fascism is simply one of its incarnations. Once we allow agents who are supposed to work for us to become Masters who are allowed to use offensive Force against us - to dictate allocations of resources and to control our behavior - the end result is the same.
Some people are afraid of the unknown. I don't know why, and it scares me.
Corporations alone aren't the problem, it's when they merge with the government that it's a problem, and Big Government existed before Big Business. One begat the other, and has all but merged with it. Socialism is pretty much the same in the end whatever guise it comes in, corporo-fascism is simply one of its incarnations. Once we allow agents who are supposed to work for us to become Masters who are allowed to use offensive Force against us - to dictate allocations of resources and to control our behavior - the end result is the same.But most governments are bankrupt, and depend on big global corporate interests to FUND their campaigns and their programs. The so-called "government leaders" aren't leaders at all -- they're puppets of the big global corporate interests. Countries are disappearing in favor of "unions". Give it a few years...there'll no longer be a United States or Canada or Mexico -- just a North American Union.
Big business is the corrupting influence on government. Ever heard of lobbyists?
shareBut who funds big business?
The people. Just as we need to vote responsibly for politicians, our money has to "vote" responsibly for business. But we trade that burden in favor of comfort, cheaper prices and convenience.
You want to take away corporate power over the government then take away their funding.
Speak louder, Mr. Hart! Fill the room with your intelligence!
Corporations did not merge with government but took over. Big business existed together with big government, and one did not begat the other. Corporate fascism is not the same as socialism, and state capitalism is closer to free market capitalism than otherwise.
Corporations and not governments control the world:
"Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world"
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed--the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html
Much of their wealth consists of money which has no value and is mostly of their creation. The largest component is over a quadrillion dollars in unregulated derivatives.
They don't work for us; we work for them. Governments work for them too in exchange for tax revenues and financial investment. In return, we buy goods and services that make us happy, and from that we think we are free.
Finally, if economic crises takes place (and caused by financial speculation on their part), they use mass media (which they control) to make us believe that "big government" or socialism is at fault.
Actually, the history of capitalism since about the 15th century would suggest that capital has actually subverted government more or less continuously. Prior to the rise of capital, most all wealth was controlled by the aristocracy in the feudal system. Merchants and handicraft guilds existed, but were small. It was the rise of the merchant class and the power of capital that ultimately undermined the feudal system.
The feudal system granted titles and nobility to the more successful elements of the merchant class, but this was a largely failed attempt to co-opt the merchant class into the feudal system and more likely the merchant class buying into the feudal system. Thanks to capital, the merchant class grew faster than the feudal system could to incorporate them and political power was devolved from kings to parliaments and by the 19th century the merchant class was largely dominant in politics.
I don't know how the people who were alive back in 1975 can say that corporations are any worse now.
Back in 1975 there were few limits on pollution by corporations. Now they're under much stricter control and the environment is a lot cleaner.
Back in 1975 there were very few limits on campaign contributions (the few laws that did exist were the result of Watergate which had just taken place). Today people complain that corporations still fund campaigns but they're under a lot tighter controls now than back then.
Back in 1975 a corporate executive could misstate how his corporation was doing, and suffer no consequences. Now he or she can go to jail, for that and many other kinds of executive malfeasance.
Back in 1975 product liability suits were relatively rare. Now there are armies of lawyers that make their living by suing corporations.
You can go back to the '30s, just before unionization, when corporations had total control of the workplace and could treat their workers almost any way they wanted.
You can go back to 1890, when the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed to stop the hugely anti-competitive monopolies of the day. Up until then, there were almost no limits on corporate ruthlessness.
Every generation thinks corporations are evil and in total control of their lives (read Upton Sinclair sometime). The truth is that corporations are still very powerful, but much less powerful than they were before. There is no reason to think that this general trend will not continue.
Point one is correct - EPA was created by the Nixon Adminstration, of all things...but the rest of your points are off. Limits on campaign contributions? Look up Citizens United. All bets are off now - we will have the best Government a corporation can buy.
Corporate malfeasance? Then why won't our Government protect whistleblowers? Why did people like Bernie Madoff and Kenneth Lay and Bernie Ebbers get away with their crimes for so long, thus destroying the lives of thousands?
I'd say corporations are more powerful now than they were in the 1970s. And then there are the "unregulated capitalism or nothing" propaganda meisters like Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News crew.
Rollerball was absolutely prophetic. First sports arenas were renamed after corporations. The "corporate anthems" can't be that far behind.
Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.
i don't know about the whole corporation rule being more likely, other people on here may have answered that well. in terms of the film, i think its decent for a 70's movie, although i hate the bit when they shoot all the trees on fire, it makes me sick, because they might have actually damaged them in real life for the making of the movie, its just wrong if that's the case because it isn't even a fundamental part of the movie that they needed, and they're giant trees, there's a whole bunch of them.
shareIn 1975 we never thought the fantasy of corporations controlling the world would come true, now we move forward to 2013 and the corporations are closing their fist around the middle class and poor, companies make billions of dollars and refuse to pay average Americans a living wage. If we don't stop them we will be hearing the corporate anthem before sporting events.
shareThe corporate naming rights gives me the creeps, always has. This film is prophetic.
shareNo, it's just as much fantasy now as it's nonsensical. If a "corporation" runs a city then it's a government and not a corporation. It's just word games.
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