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By JAY COCKS

ROLLERBALL

Directed by NORMAN JEWISON

Screenplay by WILLIAM HARRISON

James Caan, on roller skates, is trying to save the world. This needs a bit of explaining, which is only the beginning of the trouble with Rollerball. Caan, looking unconvinced and uncomfortable, plays Jonathan E., the world's foremost player of rollerball.

A game of intricate barbarity, rollerball requires a certain dexterity and a pronounced taste for slaughter. Jonathan, followed and protected by the rest of his team from Houston, skates about a large indoor track, holding a stainless-steel ball. The object is to penetrate the opposition's line of defense and deposit the ball in a magnetic goal.

A rather loose amalgam of roller derby, hockey and gang warfare, the game exists largely for the violence it generates. Motorcyclists--who are part of the team--run interference and frequently run over members of the other side. Players wear spiked leather gloves that are used to beat the opposition into submission. The casualty rate is appalling. The crowd loves it.

This form of refurbished gladiatorial combat takes place in a favorite terrain of social moralists, "the near future." Rollerball, we come shortly to understand, is a substitute for war, which has been erased from the list of the world's ills. Although problems like famine and overpopulation have been licked too, the world is a pretty chilly place. It is governed by such conglomerates as Energy (located in Houston), Housing and Luxury. Sex is a sorry, mechanical business. The women of the future look like frostbitten fashion models. This may be because they are androids, vessels of mechanical pleasure. If the women are jokes, the men all look either like jocks or mush-faced stereotypes of menacingly avuncular corporate execs.

Spiritual Uplift. The movie, which is inveterately confusing, has to do with Jonathan E. bucking the corporate biggies and refusing to retire on command. Director Norman Jewison (Jesus Christ Superstar) and Screenwriter William Harrison champion nonconformity and the glories of individuality against a faceless state as zealously as if they had just discovered these notions writ large on a fiery tablet. Only those for whom these ideas are also a revelation will appreciate the cautions that are strewn throughout the film like pennants waving in the cheap seats.

When Jonathan E. goes out to play his last game, we know he is doing battle for all of us. The biggies have waived the usual rules: no time limit, no penalties, no substitutions. As Jonathan skates his way toward the goal, the weight of all humankind presses heavily on his ball bearings, and it seems he will give in. Jewison has no patience with despair, however, and the movie concludes with a strong dose of spiritual uplift. Jonathan defies the corpo ration and shakes society to its roots. Maybe this means they'll have to bring back war and famine.

Jay Cocks

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