Zardoz (1974)

great in theater

well if you get a chance to see a orig. print do it.
i saw a 35mm print at a film festival in korea and it was great.
this film is very good check it out! June 26, 2008

Really Out There: The Best & Campiest Anti-Utopian Film of All Time

The premise behind this film is brilliant. It cleverly weds two disparate and apparently unrelated segments of 1960's-70's culture in an endlessly fascinating and endlessly provocative way: the hippie/new age counterculture & the world of new technologies. In the cultural moment when this film was made, these two segments of society were at odds. Most countercultural movements were anti-technology and prescribed a return to nature while the new technologies presented the possibility of an escape from nature into a wholly man-made, genetically engineered, and virtually governed, reality. In our own postmodern moment, this battle between nature and tecnology seems to have been won by technology, but the resurgent green movement gives this film renewed relevance.

Granted, this film has some serious problems. In some ways the film appears to be a kind of reactionary backlash against the women's movement. It doesn't take a mastermind to see that John Boorman, the films writer & director, is arguing against what he perceives to be the feminizing trends in western civilization. And that the problem with the "utopia" presented in the film is that it is run by women and feminized men. Wow!!! Talk about a hairy-knuckled script, but thats why this ride is so bloody fun. However problematic politically, this resurgent primitivism is one of this films lasting appeals.

Boorman's cure for this ailing utopia's ills: The woman-hitting Sean Connery, of course. Once he comes to town (vortex) to knock some sense into all of these feminine & feminized utopian subjects all will be returned to bloody, very bloody, male-dominated normalcy.

Did Norman Mailer write this script?

The political wrong-headedness is just one of this films many allures.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The story:

Sometime in the past (judging from the outfits, probably sometime in 1969) some "great" (or "mad") scientists set out to create the perfect society. Lucky for the scientists, the world was falling apart just as they finished their ambitious biosphere and so humanity, or at least a select portion of it, was easily seduced into climbing aboard. The older scientists promise the youth culture eternal youth (and what could be more perfect than that for a narcissistic blonde neo-crypto fascist collective?). Once they enter the biosphere called the vortex, however, there are rules, serious new age rules, and so the vortex is really not so much a utopia after all, but a freaking cult! And members have to abide by the cult's strict no individual consciousness rule or they are penalized with aging ( any assertion of individual thought or feeling is seen as an act of rebellion against the new order and the penalty is, well, getting older ). The youth cult's titular leader is an impish Magritte-loving magician named, appropriately, after a children's fantasy book. But the real leader is the super-computer Tabernacle that preserves the past, but only as dead knowledge with no relevance for the new order of new beings, and whose real function is to regulate the new age present. Oh yes, and Tabernacle, somehow, communicates telepathically with cult members via crystals (evey cult member wears a crystal ring). Another bit of genius!!

The leader Zardoz really has no powers per se, like most cult leaders he simply knows how to manipulate minds. He is basically the Dale Carnegie or Jim Jones or David Karesh of this utopia.

But, as always, there is trouble in paradise. Both from rebellious elements within and without this new age compound.

For in the outlands surrounding the hermetically sealed vortex, barbarian tribes, leftovers from the old world, still roam in masculine splendor, raping and pillaging all the peace-loving mortals. And all is sanctioned by Zardoz (to the barabrians Zardoz is a big stone godhead that hovers over them--but, of course, Zardoz is really just a fancy rock ship piloted by the impish magician), who the barabarians in their masculine egotism perceive as a God that loves them and cares for their souls. What they failt to see is that all that Zardoz really wants is an all-out genocide. Zardoz wants all trace of the barabrians to be erased, only then will Zardoz's takeover of reality be complete.

The surprise: Sean Connery as Zed is not only a masculine thunderbolt with a gun, he's a reader. And once he figures out that Zardoz is just a trickster like David Blaine or Criss Angel or political figure of your choice and not a real god, he's determined to penetrate the secret lair of the faux god and unmask the hoax once and for all. Ok, he wants that and he wants to invade the oppressive exploitative vortex and kill everyone inside (all except, of course, the beautiful Charlotte Rampling with whom he wants to start a new race of his own --a righteous race of good old barbaric beings that will turn humanity back to its old recognizably natural, mortal self and horizons once again). And he succeeds brilliantly!

As awesome as that plot is, the plot is not really the thing; its the ride that counts, and as cinematic amusement park rides go, this one is full of new age hilarity and more camp than you can shake a crystal at.

Connery looking like someone's scary new age dad, or a Burning Man refugee, is unbeatable!

But, honestly, the film keeps you thinking the whole time, and the visuals, riotous & campy as they are, are strangely stimulating & irresistable.

No other utopian/dystopian film is this much fun. June 14, 2008

Giant Stone Head? Or Giant STONER Head?

Boorman and Connery together in the 70's is guaranteed to make you sit up and take notice. Connery spends a big chunk of the movie in diapers.When Boorman wrote it he must have siphoned off some of William S. Burroughs brain fluids, dried it, cut it with LSD, , blended it with tequila and embalming fluid and scarfed it down as a breakfast drink before his morning writing session. I've only seen it all the way thru once, but I'm told that if you watch it often enuff patterns do emerge and eventually the movie makes sense. Of course at that point you have gained knowledge Man Was Not Meant to Know and will go insane as surely as if you'd gazed on the full raw visage of Chuthulu Itself. Have something like "Josey and the Pussycats" on hand in case you need to come down. In other words, I think you'll like it. At the very least it's an interesting attempt at originality.
May 22, 2008

A waste of 007s talent!

Sean Connery was the reason I bought the CD and he is wasted in a rather slow and unimpressive movie. I had never heard of the movie before and now I can understand why. If you want to see Connery in a much better Sci-Fi effort buy Outland. May 17, 2008

Classic Film

I discovered this movie around 10 years ago. It captured my interest because
the storyline was great (very imaginative). As soon as I saw it I wanted to own it but the movie wasn't available on DVD. A couple of weeks ago I made a search and lo and behold there it was (ON DVD); I would like to see it restored and in bluray, but DVD definition will do just fine. Buy it, it is
an interesting movie with interesting plot and ending. Kudos to Connery! March 1, 2008

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