Derby (1970) User Reviews

Nostalgia City, for me at least

[Boyo-2 · 7/10 · 16 July 2004]

As a kid I was obsessed with the roller derby. I went to games at Madison Square Garden and watched it every Sunday morning on WOR/Channel 9 in NY. I even remember a triple header at Shea Stadium. For awhile, it was a big deal and I got very caught up in it.

I made my wicked, drunken step-father take me to the movie, cause it was him that got me hooked in the first place. I remember it was on a double bill with "Straw Dogs."

The movie actually took place before I was a fan but I know all the skaters, they had just moved around a lot by the time I was into it. I believe the league just re-did everything, created new teams, etc.

The actual roller derby footage is pretty good, not great. The lighting is horrible, everything looks like its lit by a votive candle. But at times it seems as though the camera is actually on the track, following the skaters.

Mike Snell, his life, his wife, his whoring, didn't interest me that much. I was just waiting for another Margie Laszlo/Lydia Clay fight, or to see what color Anne Calvello dyed her hair. You do get some insight from some players, namely Charlie O'Connell, Eddie Krebs, Lydia and Janet Earp. The biggest female star, Joan Weston, is only mentioned in passing.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The movie ends just as Snell is going to Alameda (or was it Anaheim) to the training school to begin what he hopes is a career as a skater. So in some ways, the movie ends just as it begins. 7/10.

American dreams and deceptions

[Woodyanders · 9/10 · 25 April 2017]

Brash and impetuous factory worker (and shameless womanizing heel) Mike Snell quits his job so he can pursue his single-minded goal of becoming a major roller derby star. Moreover, roller derby champion Charlie O'Connell talks about his rise to fame and the hardships of being away from his wife while out on the road for several grueling months.

Director/cinematographer Robert Kaylor not only astutely nails the basic human need to rise above one's meager station and make something out of one's life by following one's dreams, but also presents a fascinating exploration of the bleak hand-to-mouth existence of the low middle-class in the early 1970's and how the violent nature of the roller derby sport blatantly panders to the public's base interest in brutal spectacle. The way Kaylor shows the radical contrast between the likable and down-to-earth O'Connell who lives in a fancy home complete with big kidney-shaped pool in California and the smarmy and deceitful Snell's far less glamorous plight residing in a shabby trailer with his long-suffering wife Christina, two kids, and fat'n'lazy deadbeat brother Butch speaks volumes about the fiercely delineated distinction between the haves and the have nots in American society.

Better still, Kaylor provides a wealth of striking and startling moments: O'Connell returning to the park in New York City that he used to skate at as a kid, Snell trying to convince a bank employee to loan him three hundred bucks so he can purchase a motorcycle, Christina confronting one of her unfaithful husband's mistresses and taking the woman to task for waking up her kids by honking her car horn while driving past the Snell home late at night, and one of Snell's friends talking about his experiences fighting overseas in Vietnam. Naturally, there's a good deal of rough'n'tumble roller derby footage, but it's the sly and sneaky manner in which this documentary reveals the sordidly compelling underbelly of everyday blue collar American life and the ruthless extremes some people are willing to resort to in order to make their particular American Dream come true that makes this film such a great gritty little gem.

A great documentary about american culture

[outlawvern · 22 July 2002]

This picture is not so much about roller derby as it is about one particular dude who wants to quit his job at the factory to do roller derby. You don't really get an idea whether he really has potential to make it or whether he is completely deluded. He is an interesting dude especially when you find out about halfway through that he cheats on his wife with as many people as possible. This is a very funny and sad documentary. It is not as polished as say a Maysles brothers picture, but it is definitely worth seeking out, unless you hate good movies, in which case rent the remake of rollerball instead, chump.

Painfully dull with fleeting moments of interest

[jellopuke · 4/10 · 22 November 2020]

The parts of this movie that actually show the roller derby in the late 60's was quite interesting, but all the stuff showing the white trash people's lives and the guy who wants to join was awful and boring as heck. For a dude that never took off his shades, the main character was super uncool.

Sad sack documentary

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 10 May 2018]

DERBY is something of a sad-sack documentary randomly given a new HD release by Code Red. The protagonist is a random factory-working guy who wants to make it big in the roller derby. Too much time is spent on long, rambling interview footage with him, interspersed with clips of people at the derby itself. I have no interest in this subject matter so I found this rather hard to swallow. The main guy is unlikeable and too much padding consists of characters merely sitting around and boozing. An ugly thread of misogyny runs throughout the picture, making it hard to stomach at times.