Zardoz
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| Zardoz | |
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 original film poster |
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| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Produced by | John Boorman |
| Written by | John Boorman |
| Starring | Sean Connery Charlotte Rampling Sara Kestelman |
| Music by | David Munrow |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Unsworth |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation |
| Release date(s) | February 1974 U.S. release |
| Running time | 105 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
Zardoz is a 1974 science fiction film directed by John Boorman and starring Sean Connery in one of his first post-James Bond roles. Filmed on a small budget of US$1 million, Zardoz's mixture of cerebral, philosophical sci-fi was in complete contrast to Boorman's previous film, the brutal thriller Deliverance.
It is considered a cult film, with its mix of mythology, a bizarre, sprawling plot filled with twists and incongruities, and wide-ranging satirical and allegorical stabs. Although many consider its 1970s aesthetic to have dated badly, the film is nonetheless visually impressive, filmed in a perpetually soft focus haze by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth. Boorman's studio, 20th Century Fox, was dismayed at the uncommercial mess he presented to them and forced the addition of a misleading prologue and trailers that were at odds with the film. An attempt to market the film to the post-2001: A Space Odyssey audience was unsuccessful, although the film retains enough of a cult following to have justified a release on DVD with a commentary track by John Boorman.
In 2004 the magazine Total Film described Connery's costume (consisting of a ponytail wig, leather knee boots, and a loincloth which bears a strong resemblance to a giant orange nappy or diaper) as the number 1 "dumbest decision in movie history".
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[edit] Plot
In a future post-apocalypse Earth (2293), the human population is divided into the immortal "Eternals" and mortal "Brutals". The Brutals live in a dark-ages wasteland. The Eternals, who live apart in various "Vortices" (singular "Vortex"), hidden bastions of civilization, lead a luxurious but aimless existence. The contrast between the two groups is stark. In general, calamity after calamity has reduced life on much of the Earth to dire subsistence levels. The distant Eternals are unknown to most people. The only contact between the groups is through a religious warrior class called the "Exterminators", who kill and terrorize other Brutals at the orders of a huge flying stone head called Zardoz. The stone head supplies them with weapons and ideology in exchange for the food they collect. Zed (Connery), an Exterminator, hides aboard Zardoz during one trip, "killing" its Eternal operator-creator, Arthur Frayn (Niall Buggy).
Arriving in the Vortex as a stowaway, Zed meets two Eternals — Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) and May (Sara Kestelman) — and is made prisoner by the community of decadent effetes. Zed quickly learns the nature of the Vortex through his overseer, a subversive troublemaker called Friend (John Alderton). The Eternals are overseen and protected from death by an AI called the Tabernacle (a large crystal mass in appearance) and have problems themselves. Through their vastly extended lifespan the Eternals have grown bored, corrupt, and impotent. They spend days stewarding the vast knowledge of humanity while doing little themselves besides participating in bizarre rituals and mass meditations navel gazing; sometimes falling into catatonia through an odd mental illness (becoming a social strata the Eternals call the "Apathetics") or being deliberately aged into senility for violating a complex set of social rules. It is revealed early on that the Immortals never age nor completely die, but rather upon "death" (by killing) are reborn as fetuses in a giant incubating tub, cursed to forever re-live their existence over and over again. Thus, the punishment for any infraction of Eternal law is not imprisonment, but aritificial aging. An Eternal thus aged will remain as the feeble elderly for the rest of time.
The Eternal society itself is seen as an inefficient clone of the Roman Senate, wherein every decision (no matter how miniscule) is voted on and discussed ad nauseum. The Eternals themselves do little but research and catalog man's past, but do nothing with the knowledge they obtain. Instead they use whatever they have to justify their subhuman treatment of the Brutals, or to justify their isolated existence from the rest of the world.
Zed has previously uncovered the lie of Zardoz, the artificial god, having been led to an old book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — the origin of the name Zardoz (Wizard of Oz). It is then revealed that Zed was created by Arthur Frayn as a subversive experiment to alter humanity's dead end evolution. Zed, being superior in intelligence to the eternals, has deliberately infiltrated the Vortex to destroy it and restore death to the bored Eternals. Zed dissolves the Tabernacle and destroys it, after which the Brutals bring death to the majority of Eternals. A few Eternals escape to make a new life outside the Vortex among the Brutals, carrying the knowledge of civilization. The allegorical ending shows Zed and Consuella producing a child, growing old and dying naturally, whilst the sound of the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony swells in the soundtrack.
Interestingly, while the film's visual style has gone very badly out of date, the film's very Big Ideas have become much more relevant. Most of the Zardoz cult following defend it by pointing out the prescience of the film's basis. The Marxist criticism of the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots" (enforced by a quotation from Marx during the movie), anti-aging technology, cloning, even the Internet and its inherent privacy issues are referenced in the film. Zardoz, for its many flaws, is viewed by some as an impressive work combining science fiction with esoteric philosophy, New Age occultism, social commentary, and mythology. Its thematic perspective is analogous to the novel The Eternal Life by Jack Vance and the movie Logan's Run.
[edit] Cultural references
- The DC Comics character Vartox is a near-carbon copy of Zed. He has an exact replica of Zed's clothing, brown hair, and receding hairline. The character's name is even close to sounding like the "Vortex" of the film.
- The video game Time Bandit, which has several science fiction references, mentions the "spirits of Zardoz".
- The video for "All Your Dreams Are Over Now" by the rock band TV On The Radio features a huge stone head like the one in "Zardoz" that disintegrates at the video's end.
[edit] Quotes
Zardoz: The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth... and kill!
Friend: I won't go! I won't go to the second level with you!
Friend: We've all been used.
Arthur Frayn: And reused.
Friend: And abused.
Arthur Frayn: And amused!
Friend: We want to die. What's the trick?
Renegade: Death! (sees Zed) Death...
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Zardoz at the Internet Movie Database
- Zardoz: Out of Vortex Yahoo group featuring a database, a timeline, special files, infos, pics and much more
- Zardoz review, screencaps, soundclips, and a short video clip
- Zardoz: Boorman’s metaphysical western; review by Stephanie Goldberg
- Zardoz A recap by Albert Walker
- Zardoz - The Game A recent retro-spirited freeware PC arcade game loosely based on the film.
