I am a few days late to the party but, nonetheless, it would be remiss of me not to comment on the 50th anniversary of Norman Jewison’s 1975 dystopian science fiction classic, Rollerball. After all, I like this film so much, I wrote a monograph on it (but more on that later).
Good post and I love your monograph on ROLLERBALL. Makes me feel old to read about it. I first saw it when it was released back in 1975. I was 25 at the time.
Great piece - my dad took me to see Rollerball on release, sneaking me in a year too young for the AA certificate! Only gets better rewatching it! But no Death Race 2000 in your list!? 😉
Great discussion! Big fan of the murder game genre. Some of my faves include: The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Turkey Shoot (1982), The Running Man (1987), Hard Target (1993), and, of course, Battle Royale (2000).
I do not count films like The Most Dangerous Game and Turkey Shoot (both of which I love, btw) as murder game films. I consider them to be people hunting people films. There are heaps of these and while there is a bit of overlap with murder game films, they are quite different. In terms of my definition, to be a murder game film, whatever deadly game is involved has to be staged specifically for the purpose of being filmed and shown publicly, either to incite people's emotions or to keep them down, etc. In my view, this is an important distinction.
Good post and I love your monograph on ROLLERBALL. Makes me feel old to read about it. I first saw it when it was released back in 1975. I was 25 at the time.
Great piece - my dad took me to see Rollerball on release, sneaking me in a year too young for the AA certificate! Only gets better rewatching it! But no Death Race 2000 in your list!? 😉
I am pretty certain that I included Death Race in the monograph, but it is not one of my favourite Murder Game films.
Great discussion! Big fan of the murder game genre. Some of my faves include: The Most Dangerous Game (1932), Turkey Shoot (1982), The Running Man (1987), Hard Target (1993), and, of course, Battle Royale (2000).
Craig,
I do not count films like The Most Dangerous Game and Turkey Shoot (both of which I love, btw) as murder game films. I consider them to be people hunting people films. There are heaps of these and while there is a bit of overlap with murder game films, they are quite different. In terms of my definition, to be a murder game film, whatever deadly game is involved has to be staged specifically for the purpose of being filmed and shown publicly, either to incite people's emotions or to keep them down, etc. In my view, this is an important distinction.
Cheers,
Andrew
So glad The 10th Victim was the first one referenced.
Have you caught up on DEATH ROW GAMESHOW?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajLKE8BEoz0
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
No, but thanks for the heads up. Will check it out.