first major Hollywood production to give screen credit to its stunt performers. The film was shot in 35mm with a 1.85 aspect ratio but was released in some theaters in 70mm with a 2:1 aspect ratio. The game of Rollerball was so realistic that the cast, extras, and stunt personnel played it between takes on the set. At the time of the film's release, Howard Cosell interviewed Norman Jewison and James Caan on ABC's Wide World of Sports, showing clips from the film and with the two of them explaining the rules of the game. Audiences who saw the film so loved the action of the game that Jewison was contacted multiple times by promoters, requesting that the "rights to the game" be sold so that real Rollerball leagues might be formed. Jewison was outraged, as the entire point of the movie was to show the "sickness and insanity of contact sports and their allure." English pro wrestler Mark Rocco was a stuntman for the film. He used the "Rollerball" name as his nickname. Music Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor is performed on organ by Simon Preston during the opening title sequence and again at the final scene, bookending the film. Adagio in G minor by Albinoni/Giazotto, and the Largo movement from Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 are also used to establish tone, mood, and atmosphere for certain scenes in the film. The classical music was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by André Previn, who also wrote the "Executive Party" music for the film and the corporate anthems performed before certain matches. Reception Box office The film earned $6.2 million in theatrical rentals at the North American box office. Critical response Vincent Canby of The New York Times was unimpressed: All science-fiction can be roughly divided into two types of nightmares. In the first the world has gone through a nuclear holocaust and civilization has reverted to a neo-stone Age. In the second, of which "Rollerball" is an elaborate and very silly example, all of mankind's problems have been solved but at the terrible price of individual freedom. ... The only way science-fiction of this sort makes sense is as a comment on the society for which it's intended, and the only way "Rollerball" would have made sense in a satire of our national preoccupation with televised professional sports, particularly weekend football. Yet "Rollerball" isn't a satire.