Zardoz

Year:  1974
Director:  John Boorman
Screenplay:  John Boorman
Starring:  Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, John Alderton
Running Time:  106 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction

In the year 2293, a post apocalyptic world is divided into two areas divided by an impenetrable force-field:  The "Zone" is inhabited by powerful but bored immortals known as "Eternals" and the "Outlands" are inhabited by the mortal "Brutals" who are controlled by the savage "Exterminators" who worship a giant floating stone head called Zardoz which distributes guns and rules, and which is the only thing that can pass through the force-field.  One Exterminator, Zed (Connery), hitches a ride on the head and enters the Zone, where he introduces the Immortals to such old favourites as emotions, sex and death.

This film is pretentious, extremely self indulgent, deeply weird, and often very silly.  It's also stylish, ambitious and has moments of real brilliance.  It takes hoary old ideas but treats them in a very imaginative way.  It has the image of Sean Connery clad in what looks like a bright red nappy, with a  long ponytail and huge handlebar mustache, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  The Eternals are kind of a hippy commune, given to psychic communication through the medium of interpretive dance.  There is a lot of real imagination on display though and you have to admire John Boorman's nerve in bringing it to the screen, he wrote, produced and directed the film, and it certainly looks like a personal vision.  For better or worse, I think he did have a more or less free hand with this, and I have to wonder what it was like on set.  The actors do what they can with the material.  The thing with Zardoz is that it's a film that is at once great and absolutely dreadful.  It constantly oscillates between two extremes.  There are times when it feels like a parody, but it also takes itself very seriously.  Often it's very dull, but also full of scenes and images so eccentric and bizarre they almost make your eyes pop.  To put it mildly, it is a film that will divide audiences.  It's become a big cult movie, and I can definitely see why.  I cannot imagine that a film like this would be made today, because I cannot imagine that any studio would give  a filmmaker carte blanche to make something as frankly weird as this.  It's not as dreadful as you may have heard, but neither is it particularly good, however for all it's ridiculousness, pretentiousness and inconsistency, I like it for it's quirks, strangeness and imagination.

             A visit from Zardoz