Monday Movie [Parte 4]

Derby (1971) / dir. Robert Kaylor

A cinema verité journey inside the once-professional, now-underground pseudo-sport that refuse to die: roller derby. The filmmakers follow young factory worker Mike Snell who dreams of making it big on the circuit. We get a few extra-long shots of his predictably dull home life (in Dayton, Ohio, natch) that, when juxtaposed with the derby, make its violent spectacle just about the most exciting thing ever. Boredom at home culminates in carousing and womanizing, forcing his wife into a catty exchange with some neighborhood mistresses. Taking a small break from Snell's tedium, Kaylor intercuts to aging warhorse Charlie O' Connell, captain of the San Francisco Bay City Bombers.

While Derby never stops to explain to intricacies of the game, we are instead offered a barrage of up close & grainy on-the-track action footage which more than compensates. The simple pleasures of watching grown men in tights & leather calf-highs flailing all over the circle track, the notorious double take-downs (which is the roller derby equivalent of a home run & a touchdown making sweet love), and a few dropkicks to the head will suffice. When brawls ensue small children and grandmas in knitted sweaters applaud and women with beehives hug their husbands in admiration. The America on display here is mundane and brutal in equal measures. The film ends in uncertainty, with Snell hopping on his motorcycle, bound for Oakland and the training he hopes will propel him to the Bay City Bombers someday. Well worth tracking this down on VHS.