Kansas City Bomber

Just so you know what this movie is about: The sport of roller derby, in which two teams skate against one another for points around an oval track originated in the 1930s and continues today. Of special note is the Women's Flat Track Derby Association, WFTDA.In this movie, Raquel Welch portrays the star skater in a 1972 variation of the sport, Roller Games, which was skated on a smaller banked track to compress the size of the event and the action. Much like professional wrestling, the games feature exaggerated and stylized violence with verbal and physical confrontations and the actual outcome, winner and loser, was frequently preordained so as to create champions and challengers and stars and underdogs.They really do clobber and trip one another, but it's carefully faked and the skaters are padded to prevent serious real injury.Making a movie of this must have been fun, as real Roller Games skaters were employed and the whole thing was staged and shot in actual venues.What sells it is Raquel Welch as K.C. Carr, a statuesque and incredibly beautiful athlete who is groomed and featured as the star attraction. This works perfectly, and it is impossible to imagine any other actress of the day who could have done this as well.The kicker is, the movie is a gentle story about a sweet girl who is a single mom trying to make a go of it in a crazy setting. You can't help pull for her as she navigates the ridiculous craziness of fake combative roller skating and her own life as a single mom in a plain setting.The movie itself is just plain fun and well done, with superb performances by Kevin McCarthy as the team owner and Helena Kallianiotes and Norman Alden as teammates. Nine year old Jodie Foster appears as K.C.'s daughter.After being transparently exploited for nothing beyond her physical beauty, Raquel noted that this was the first of her movies which she really liked and thought was good work.The DVD and audio track are perfect. Get this movie.

Excellent character study of a marginalized single mother trying to survive in the cut-throat world of roller derby. Raquel gives a heart-breaking performance, navigating through her unsensitive mother, double-crossing boss, and teammates, who are used and discarded at will. Jeanne Cooper, who had all the talent, beauty an charisma to become a major star, but was never given the right role to do so. The film captures the sadness, struggle, and failures of working-class people, trying desperately to survive.

can fit into a Roller Derby outfit so nicely!

Raquel Welch always had to play dumb even though she was quite intelligent. This film rolls along in the spirit of other 70's films that looked at sub cultures. Mother, Jugs and Speed for example, or the crown jewel of this particular genre, Slap Shot. Since this type of film will never be made again, enjoy it for what it is.

Like this movie and I'm a big Requel Welch fan I purchased this movie to add to my DVD home movie collection.

This is a good but definitely dated movie. If you are old enough to remember and maybe have watched Roller Derby, or the fighting, gloves off, but perhaps scripted Roller Games, then this is a movie that captures the authenticity of the era; even though little seemed truly authentic about the actual real life Roller Games themselves, but they were entertaining; and this movie captures that spirit. And the movie stars Raquel Welch, at perhaps the height of her career, in one of her best known roles. Overall a fun and nostalgic movie to watch, and to own and keep in the video library, for the occasional re-watch, or to play in the background at parties or small gatherings of friends who are appreciative of this classic era

ENJOYED THIS NOSTALGIC GEM 100 !

This movie hit the theaters on August 2 1972 starring the gorgeous Raquel Welch as KC Carr, Kevin McCarthy as Burt Henry and Helena Kallianiotes as Jackie Burdette. KC Carr plays roller derby and she skates for the Kansas City Bombers. However, KC starts have problems with one of the other skaters. So the owner of the Bombers promotes a five lap match between the two stars with the loser leaving Kansas City forgive. Meanwhile the team announces that KC Carr was traded to the Portland Loggers. However, the Renegades claim her first so now she has to skate for the Renegades until her contract problems are straighten out. After a few games with the Renegades Burt Henry, the owner of the Loggers gets KC Contract problems fix so now she's skating for the loggers. However, there's one skater on the team that's not happy with the trade and that's Jackie Burdette the teams captain. After KC settles down with the team things start to happen and skaters start being traded and KC and the owner start seeing each other on the side. As KC stock continues to rise, KC Children start to resent her making things difficult for KC to continue skating. Now some personal thoughts on this picture itself. Over all I thought the movie could've had a better story line. The acting in the movie wasn't bad either. However, if you're a Raquel Welch fan then you'll like this movie. She was excellent in this picture as she is in all of her movies. It's to bad that she had to bruise her body like that. I sure would've like to been the trainer to her keep that body in the shape that it was in. Even though the movie lacks interest at times, I'm going to give this picture 7 weasel stars. Without Raquel being the leading actress in this picture, this movie would have been awful.

This is a kind of early version of Whip It - set in the world of Roller Derbies - both female and male this time - and has some extremely well-staged contests throughout the film. Raquel Welch as the popular 'star' (although naturally a stunt-double used in some of the more intense scenes of this contact sport) gives a believable portrayal and although some of the film concentrates on her personal life, it doesn't get bogged down with it - there are a lot of the contests with both heroes and anti-heroes throughout to keep the level of enjoyment at a high. If you have enjoyed Whip It, this is a very good, more 'adult' orientated early version of Roller Derbying! Word to the wise: this is posted as Reg 1 - this disc plays on UK players no problem. (I have been led to believe that all Warner Bros Archive Collection films are thus i.e. Reg 0. There is nowhere on either the box or disc that says it is Reg 1. Hope this helps!?)

part of the Warner Archives collection which though Region 1 release plays in Region 2 . A no frills release I.e.minimum extras(which is why it loses a point for me)but low cost.I bought this with "All the Marbles" a similar tale of life on the road for female sport stars,in that case wrestling.K.C.B.of course stars Raquel Welch in an unglamourous leading role with an obvious stunt double doing the fighting on skates(perhaps not as funny as the one in the bull ring in "Fathom").This is a good print of an interesting film.By no means a classic but not a turkey either.

well...its rachel aint it? loved this since 72 when i watched roller game on tv in sydney. wonderful stuff

Ce film est à regarder comme un documentaire sur les américains et leurs excès ridicules comme le "wrestling" ou même le football. Des pseudos sports avec une violence parfois réelle parfois simulée, des joueurs arnachés avec des uniformes souvent grotesques et aussi, le plus consternant, un public déchaîné complètement accroc à ces spectacles, sans oublier dans les vestiaires, les promoteurs magouilleurs qui brassent les milliers de dollars sans prendre aucun coup. Rien que pour cela, ce film est très intéressant car tous les côtés malfaisants sont parfaitement mis en lumière. Au-delà de cela, c'est un bon film avec un bon scénario et des actrices et acteurs qui mettent tout leur talent au service de personnages attachants. La somptueuse Raquel Welch domine le casting en livrant une performance physique impressionnante qui méritait d'être primée, mais même les seconds rôles sont aussi bien dessinés. Pour la petite histoire, on retrouve brièvement Jodie Foster qui joue la fille de Raquel alors qu'elle n'était qu'une fillette encore débutante. En conclusion, un film qui mérite d'être découvert par tous ceux qui ne l'ont pas encore vu.

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