Zardoz

Rating:
Summary: Totally Useless - Waste of Money
Review: If I could give this embarrassing piece of garbage NEGATIVE stars, I would. I bought it because of Sean Connery, and because of the decent ratings. Are you people crazy? What a waste of money. I'm getting ready to sell it (I hope) on eBay. A stupidly useless film...

Rating:
Summary: One of my favourite films
Review: I love this film, as well as John Boorman's later work "Excalibur" - though they are two completely different films.

Zardoz features some post-hippy post-apocalyptic visions of the future. I love the themes in this - a select few harbouring all that's good in society; art, poetry, science, and yet they are monsters.

"He who fights a dragon long enough soon becomes one himself" - not the most typical Sean Connery line, but this is such a way-out film anyway.

But then again, my brother-in-law watched this & he couldn't help snigger at the whole thing.

Rating:
Summary: Ominous 'Zardoz' Mirrors Society
Review: Director John Boorman's 1973 sci-fi cult classic extrapolates upon continuing socio-political trends in our world, providing a deeply stirring vision of a future society gone wrong-- and the inevitable resolution of its discordance with the natural order. Bursting with mystical symbolism, it is definitely a film intended for an educated audience, the kind of brainy science fiction associated with a literary tradition, rather than with Hollywood-style fast-paced action-adventure.
Though the scenery, cinematography and costumes are visually striking, the presentation now seems a bit dated, as the film precedes the special-effects revolution sparked by Star Wars in 1977. By and large, however, the mild 'camp' factor does not unduly detract from the film's essential message and relevant commentary on our world. The somewhat complex plot does warrant more than one viewing to fully extract the dense layers of meaning.
'Zardoz' is philosophical and thought-provoking, and touches on central themes of life: the vast and cyclic nature of time; the inevitability of change; the interconnection of birth, youth, old age and death; the unification of pairs of opposites; and the coexistence of divergent world-views working out as the fundamental theme in all drama-- conflict and resolution.
Supported by a lesser-known but talented British/Irish cast, Sean Connery gives a fine performance as the hero, Zed, an outsider who infiltrates an impenatrable sanctuary of powerfully psychic, immortal 'custodians of the past for an uncertain future... the rich, the powerful, the clever,' who shelter themselves in comfort and complacency from the sufferings of the wretched masses in the dying outside world. Thematically the film is a 'man vs. the system' story, and Zed is the archetype of the vengeful destroyer-hero who brings harmony through conflict and upheaval.
Though not a benchmark of technical achievement (its clever camera effects had been seen elsewhere in cinema before), 'Zardoz' is a satisfying and thought-provoking story, well-suited for the moviegoer who enjoys an intellectually stimulating, philosophical workout, plus some beautiful scenery and perhaps the best cinematic use of Beethoven's 7th Symphony. A beautiful and moving film.

Rating:
Summary: Trippy
Review: Zardoz is an extremely heavy-handed social satire. Like most head movies of the early 1970s, it is worth watching, if for no other reason, than as a relic of a period of time when directors really started experimenting with the medium of film (with quite varied results), e.g. using psychedellic images, etc. And, like many such films, while it often comes off as pretentious, it is never actually boring.

The society in Zardoz is an analogy for our own and you get a general picture of its setup in the first 20 minutes (so I'm not giving away any surprises). Sean Connery is part of a gang which is provided with weapons by a flying figure-head (literally speaking). This gang's role is to go around killing people, raping and pillaging and, consequently, they help control the population and keep it weak. The rest of the population does things like grow food and give it as offerings to the flying head, partly because it offers some semblance of control over the brutal gangs it created (and maintains) in the first place.

Sean Connery decides to jump on board the flying head for a ride and learns that it is not a god, but a machine built by an elite race of immortals who have all their needs provided for (via the flying head) by the rest of society while they live in leisure. The immortals also have (exclusive) access to all recorded art and knowledge, but seem incapable of producing any themselves. In other words, there are clear analogies to inner-city gangs, police states, law and order government, capitalism, media control, and their interdependence. The rest of the film is then concerned with Connery's interaction with the immortals, learning their weaknesses, etc., and the immortals' reactions to Connery when they realize that he is mentally and physically superior to them when freed from their continued interference and control of the rest of society. Like I said, rather heavy- handed satire, but definitely not unrealistic. People from the inner-cities will recognize its accuracy the most.

There are many campy touches, however most (not all) I believe are intentional. And the film has Boorman's usual stunning cinematography. This film is a cult classic which is at least always interesting if not always good. And keep in mind that Boorman, that whiz (wink wink), is not being entirely serious.

Rating:
Summary: Cult Classic
Review: Let's get it straight: this is a weird move. It's five stars, but not Silence of the Lambs five stars, or Alien five stars, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail five stars. This movie is like the love child of A Clockwork Orange and Planet of the Apes -- a strange, mutant movie with a compelling vision, a surprisingly good storyline, and unstintingly odd imagery. A distopia unlike any other captured on film is brought to a graceful yet lurching fulfillment in a film that is one part masterpiece, and two parts acid trip. Although it will always exist outside the horizon of mainstream taste, the movie is nevertheless cohesive and, in its way, brilliant, capturing your imagination even as you try to sort out what, exactly, is going on. There is an answer. And that answer is Zardoz.

Rating:
Summary: epipheny
Review: When I was in college, we would watch Zardoz during beer-n-flicks. At the time, it was a cool movie with some naked chicks which we could watch while getting drunk. Then I saw it later in life....

Zardoz was playing at a midnight show and we were the only two people in the theater. Sober this time, I actually watched and understood the film. It deals with life, the futility of immortality, man's creation of his own gods, how all things contain the seed of their own destruction, the inevitability of nature and evolution, how things could become their opposites... I was in awe!

As we walked out, my thoughts were exploding with meaning. I had had an epipheny! I turned to my girlfriend who said: "that was sure a stupid flick". I new I had to find a new girlfriend.

This is my favorite movie of all time! I was disappointed with the VHS version as some of the most meaningful scenes (what "Zardoz" means, the ending) require wide screen to make sense. After all, who cares what "ardo" means? Get the DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Cult Classic Sci-Fi --not to be missed
Review: John Boorman's Zardoz was not a box-office success by any means. And it is surprising how many people who love sci-fi haven't ever heard of this film. Well, if you love off-center science fiction, and you love Sean Connery (who doesn't?) then you may well want to add this to your classics-of-sci-fi library.

Connery plays Zed, a sort of enforcer whose mandate is to eliminate Brutals, the usual bestial survivors of a post-apocalyptic society. Yes, this theme is well-trodden ground, (Mad Max,Planet of the Apes, and ten other films I can think of offhand.) At least Zed (Connery) is clad in a thrillingly brief red loin cloth while he discharges his duties. This should perk up any women watching the film.

A large stone head, Zardoz the god, flies about, making sure that Zed and his like are doing diligence, thumping those Brutals. But Zed isn't just a muscle-bound pretty face, he's intelligent and curious. He climbs into the stone head while it makes a pit stop and Zed is carried into a surprising new world, the world of the Eternals. Typically, eternal life ends up robbing those who enjoy it of the zest and tang of a nasty, brutal and short life. Zed sets about to put this problem to rights.

The film was made with a wonderfully low budget, on the order of a million bucks, so the scenery is quite creative; mostly weather balloons and tie-dyed parachutes. You don't notice this the first time you watch the film, because the cast, including the evilly beautiful Charlotte Rampling are captivating.

If you like weird sci-fi and don't need state-of-the-art special effects or a plot that has deeper meaning, you will thoroughly enjoy Zardoz. It's a classic, so get out the popcorn and try something a little different.

Rating:
Summary: Dated, plodding, but occasionally interesting
Review: I remembered seeing this in its theatrical release, and it carried a positive recollection that led me to buy the DVD. Now I can't imagine what I was thinking. Perhaps it was a good film for the era, and we should leave it at that.

The story treads the well-worn path of The Forbin Project and numerous Twilight Zone episodes: can we establish a mechanically enforced Utopia that we'd really want to be stuck in forever? As usual, the answer comes back "No."

This film adds immortality to the mix, so that the boredom isn't passed between generations, instead it's piled upon the same group of humans, called the "Immortals," century after century.

One thing that was very successful about the film was the sensuality Boorman managed to convey through the cinematograpy. Moments of nudity were tastefully done, and actually reinforce the asexual overtones of Immortal society. You really got the impression that these people had lived together for so long doing the same old things that NOTHING, not even sex, seemed worth the bother. And there were the legions of "apathetics" who hardly bothered to move or feed their bodies any more.

As usual, women in a perfect society all look like supermodels from that film's era (the 70s). Another interesting twist: punishment for transgressions consisted of aging the perpetrator. There was a group of elderly people (shunned of course), but most in the movie looked more or less like 20somethings.

A lot of things devolved predictably from this mix: Connery, the "barbarian" outsider, is tasked with saving the soul, if not the body, of Immortal society by making them mortal again and mixing them with the rest of the world. Once this was set up, the only reason I kept watching was because I wanted to see how they worked it out, assuming that would tell me why I thought I liked the movie. This was a trial at times, since Boorman set the pace a touch too slow in places, perhaps to underscore the Immortals' boredom by giving a bit to the audience.

Also, there were a couple of those "special effects sequences" of the sort that Hitchcock did in Vertigo and Kubrick overdid in 2001. Boorman, like Kubrick, ran the sequences far longer than necessary.

I like thought provoking films, but there were too many red herrings in Zardoz, things that made no sense. Why was sameness prized and age a stigma, especially after the centuries had rendered physical appearances uninteresting?

In any case, the red herrings can give you an entertaining time -- after all, why else would a 3 star movie be worth all these words?

Rating:
Summary: Another era, if you can imagine one other than your own
Review: "... why so much pre-Star Wars 70's science fiction is not worth watching ..." one apparently underage reviewer observes. Except for Blade Runner and A.I., nearly all Star Wars-and-after science fiction films are simply TV Westerns with spaceships: predictable puerile overloud explosion-filled melodramas about good guys killing bad guys and getting the girl (at their worst, cool dudes killing ... slimeballs and [getting] the hot babe), with adolescent dialogue of snappy put-downs and comebacks, i.e., Nothing New But the FX. If you find THIS satisfying, I leave you to it. If you think life is about more than boy-kills-enemy-gets-girl, if you don't need to love the characters in a film or wish to become them, if you can imagine people having other values than you (and other fashions/cliche's/prejudices/needs), if you can see the world and the way many people live as absurd, if you can imagine looking back on anything that is or ever was important to you and seeing it differently (you will when you get old), if you suspect that serious ideas can be approached through absurdity and bravura irony, if you watched A Clockwork Orange for any reason other than vicarious pleasure in the raping and violence ... try this daring movie. The attacks on it are off-base and beside the point. Obvious statements? It may be "obvious" that a natural cycle of life is better than sterile immortality, but when Boorman takes this idea to its logical extreme, you'll see beautiful care-free immortals begging Zed to shoot them, running into his bullets, falling bloody and blissfully dead in their lovely gardens, and you'll wonder if you really believe it. Most other films, SF included, are about flattering our beliefs and preserving our illusions, not pushing them to their limits and showing us what they really imply. As Boorman explicitly reminds us, by our personal and shared myths we practice our own form of Show Business. But what if our show never ended? ("We've been to the stars ... another dead end ..." says one character, bored.) US pop culture of the 1990s responded to prolonged prosperity, and it wasn't pretty, nor very different from Boorman's Vortex: sharpened competitiveness, social conformity and all-consuming gossip and nastiness that poisoned amity, politics, and sexual relationships, all from boredom; we treated the people and places around us like insufficiently stimulating entertainment. This film is about one showman (the first character we see) who sneers at this charade of "progress" and rings down the curtain. As drama, it's like Beckett on acid Kool-Aid being reconciled to the natural cycle. Boorman satisfies our short attention span in the final montage, giving us Connery and Rampling in their cave, delivering a baby, who matures before our eyes and leaves them behind (Rampling reaches out, vainly, to keep him from going ...), and the parents age, wither, die, decay, and crumble, still holding hands. The puns, visual and verbal; the showbiz references; the refusal to be solemn or earnest or adolescent in the face of Death or Sex; the Apathetics, bored to catatonia by everlasting life and incapable of feeling physical attack; the conquest of Hell, which is now an endless, boring cocktail party for creaking ancients; the re-scoring of Beethoven's Seventh for organ and two male altos; there's plenty to freshen your viewpoint on old things you haven't thought through in a while. Not for those who "just want to be entertained", or who think that pop conventions of today will look like the Last Word on style and attitude in thirty years.

Rating:
Summary: very esoteric and brillianlty speculative meditation
Review: If you like standard sci-fi movies, you're going to hate this. If you are an avid sci-fi READER, this is one of the cinema's holy grails. Boorman retells the story of the serpent giving man god's knowledge and destroying eden: this time god is a community of eternally young intellectuals who took their advanced technology and withdrew from a crumbling future world, the serpent is one of the immortals determined to redeem the barbaric survivors of the human race and jump-start poegress and evolution, and Adam is Sean Connery in a shocking red diaper costume. What may have seemed dated a few years ago is now hip and fresh again, giving this film added punch. Technologies for slowing and stopping aging are falling into place while we in the industrialized world are are widening the chasm between the haves and the have-nots. The era of self-absorbed immortals living concealed, protective lives away from the savage outside seems more immediate now than when the film was made. As for the flick itself; great music, weird/elliptical dialogue, mind-bending set design, naked hippies on horseback, a giant stone head that flies, and truly LSD inspired visual effects round out a wild and wonderful work.