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Summary: Just like a car wreck, ya gotta stop and watch...
Review: This is one of the most amazingly terrible films of all time, rivaling even PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE, and I love every godawful, putrid, sorry second of it! They don't make'em like this any more. Go figure.How in the world did Sean Connery wind up in this one? After making YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE he must have been desperate or really, really bored. Gotta love those Dominatrix hip-boots he wears throughout the movie. Hee hee hee... So let's see: A giant floating stone head that proclaims "The penis is evil -- It shoots seeds!" Sean Connery in a red diaper and thigh-boots. A bunch of hippie couch-potato "Apathetics." Some guy with a Magic Marker mustache and goatee named Arthur who thinks he'd the Wizard of Oz (get it...wiZARD of OZ?). A "vortex" full of immortal people who wish they were dead. Has this film got everything or what? See this movie. You'll thank me later. : ) Hail ZARDOZ! And remember: "The gun is good! The penis is evil!"
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Summary: Zardoz is here now
Review: Saw this film many times when it first came out and I kept thinking of it while recently doing research on the implications of genetic engineering. After viewing it again - is it any wonder - we are living the story of Zardoz now! John Boorman tells a tale perfect for our times, except for one thing - in 1974 no one imagined the level of greed that would over-take this world as it has now. Now, the people inside the Vortex would be offering their IPOs for patented life forms to each other. Something I have always sensed and enjoyed in this film is that Boorman made it for himself. He told his truth. He knew his viewers would be the Apathetics, Renegades, Brutals, Zardoz worshippers and pseudo-intellectuals and he didn't flinch. For that reason, my respect for Boorman and Sean Connery increased knowing they had made this film. If someone is looking for special effects or a brainless ride at the movies I wouldn't recommend this one. Zardoz reveals more with each viewing and requires a certain amount of alertness - not the usual fare. Their failed world was man-made - and so is ours.
Rating: 
Summary: Take That, Maynard G. Krebs!
Review: Zardoz was made in 1974, and it shows its age. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Boorman's dystopian society is meant to represent the world as it would have become if the Flower Children of the 1960's had gotten everything they wanted. The Eternals, who are perpetually young and beautiful, have walled themselves off from the problems of the world. They are all equal, free from unwanted labour, and fear (and wear) virtually nothing. The elderly are criminals because criminals are aged by their society. (Except for the few who were unlucky enough to already have been old when the society was created.) We are eventually shown, not too subtly, that such a society is doomed to failure, supposedly because of the inevitable boredom it produces. In 1974 this message may have seemed fresh after a decade of Peace and Love; today it seems somewhat less important. This does not detract from the beauty of the film, which has aged almost as well as the Eternals it depicts. The cast is remarkably good; they deliver the script with more earnestness and sincerity than it deserves. Sure, there are occasional lapses into tediously hallucinogenic sequences, which might have been less annoying in the "heady" atmosphere of its day (although I rather doubt this). And the "surprise" buried the film's title is revealed to us by the filmic equivalent of a repeated and thorough bludgeoning with a large blunt instrument. (Speaking of Sean Connery, this might be his only film in which he wears a wedding dress -- which may or may not make you want to see it!) But on balance, the film's merits outweigh its shortcomings. It's not deep, but the surface is lovely.
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Summary: This movie helped a college student discover Beethoven...
Review: As an impressionable college student, the idea that immortality could be undesireable was a big one to wrap my mind around. Add to that the moving score, Beethoven's 7th Symphony, and you have a movie that will always be a classic...at least in my mind! Parts of it seems a bit silly, but who's to say which of our ideas will turn out to be so.
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Summary: "Zardoz" is honest with you!
Review: A great many audiences are quick to judge a film based solely on its special effects. Zardoz hasn't many to offer. A great many audiences like to say they want a story told to them over the course of the film. Zardoz has a story, it's just not tailored to the audience as well as most popular science-fiction. A great many audiences will say that the performances of actors is paramount to how much they enjoy a film. Zardoz relishes in a distant sort of melodrama where educated minds of the future speak slowly and intensely (IE not naturalistically). A great many audiences do not care for this film. It could be argued that such audiences are simply not prepared to accept the Zardoz experience, but those who are will be presently rewarded. Sean Connery is cast in the role he's always been perfect for: sex beast. He is introduced to a culture that has rejected the brutality of physical contact in favor of developing their minds. And so his challange, at least on one level, is presented. If that's not enough to spark interest in the film, perhaps the fact that he eventually grows into his role as Liberator will. It is a Luke Skywalker sort of journey, only Luke doesn't wear a shirt and wears tiny underwear. And he speaks in a Scottish accent. And his path isn't as neatly trimmed. He is surrounded by director John Boorman's strange world where a utopian society have grown to hate their own immortality. He is surrounded by strange technologies that are usually a projection effect. And, most importantly to Mr. Connery, he is surrounded by scantly clad women who aren't afraid to flaunt their arrogant belief that they are superior to him. And wouldn't Sean like a challange? People will know if they'll like the film as of the first five minutes. So unconcentional and unlike anything else in popular cinema is the opening, that the Independence Day crowd and the Fellini crowd will be drawing lines in the sand. Listen to the words coming from the mouth of that disembodied head, if the combonation of that visual and the words "is god in show business too?" is not setting you up for what's in store, nothing can. Boorman tries his best to prepare you... for some audiences, the preperation is more than adequate. But for most audiences, the words "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." is all the excitement they need... and about as far as they're willing to explore.
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Summary: I would like to bring up an issue no one else mentions...
Review: The reason this film works so well with those who admire it are (1) the sets and (2) John Alderton's impeccible (startlingly so!) role as Friend. Although his performance should have gotten at least Best Supporing Actor nomination, he ironically never again worked in film beyond this. Friend was the midway interrpreter of the confusing goings on and the anchor on which the film focused its attention. Note his incredible range during his "origin of the Vortex" scene set in the dancehall. "...and see what his grateful people did to him!" ranks as the most skillfully expressed line of the entire film. Mr. A's talent combined with the strangely appropriate part rustic commune/part alien world look of the Vortex kept the viewer entrenched.
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Summary: A movie that should be required in all Sociology classes
Review: A classic story that topples all others in the post appocolyptic genre
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Summary: IF YOU LOVE SCI-FI...Youll LOOOVEE ZARDOZ!
Review: The beautiful Geoffrey Unsworth (2001, Superman) cinematography is only part of it! The story is great and Connery is great too. Imagine Monty Python meets 2001 in the same film! Youll never forget this movie or the great Beethoven score. BUY IT!
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Summary: Zardoz is one of the best SF movies I've seen
Review: If you want to see a thought provoking, eerie, beautiful SF movie, see Zardoz. It has it all--symbolism, mystery, lovely scenery..... and any movie that features Sean Connery is his prime running around in red underwear is ok in my book!
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Summary: A Truly Strange Vision
Review: Loved by some, hated by others, ultimately you may find it hard to fathom on a single viewing. If you can watch it while "properly stimulated" you may enjoy it more. Boorman's work is certainly great evidence for his talent - this one may make you wonder. But ultimately it is a compelling and original vision of the future, and a fascinating twist on the desire for immortality. The dialogue really stretches your patience at times, but after all it is SF. The revelation about the title is wonderful. A great companion piece to Logan's Run.
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