Zardoz

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Richard P Zardoz is an odd – but striking – film. It has flaws, not least a wooden performance from Sean Connery (as Zed), but it has stayed with me over the past fifty years. And as countries have become increasingly obsessed with building walls to keep unwanted people out, the scenes of the “Brutals” locked out of “the Vortex”, while being terrorised and killed by the “Exterminators”, many of the film’s images and ideas have come back to haunt me. In fact, if perhaps only accidentally, Boorman anticipated many of the ills of the world we now inhabit – a world in which an excessively wealthy and privileged technocratic and political class talk and plan together in gated communities (the Vortex), or at privileged events like the Davos Summit, while the rest of us labour to feed and increase the wealth of these “Eternals”, or slide into becoming “Apathetics”. The Eternals manage to achieve one of the dreams of today’s Silicon Valley technocracy (eternal life) only to realise that it is not a blissful condition but a new burden, a reality that Swift’s struldbruggs were confronted with in Gulliver’s Travels. Also noteworthy is that in Zardoz the Eternals are protected by another dream of today’s techno-authoritarians – artificial intelligence (in the form of the Tabernacle, which gives them eternal life but fails them when Zed destroys it). And like the Eternals, today’s technocrats dream of conquering distant stars. The Eternals discovered that this was “just another dead end”. So too, perhaps, will the technocrats. To borrow a phrase from Henry James, Zardoz’s greatest weakness is that it is something of a “large, loose, baggy monster” that tends to tell rather than show (dramatize). But perhaps there is a place for such films. My takeaway: power groups, elites, empires and civilisations come and go, but they don’t last, usually because they harbour the seeds of their own destruction. At which point all that is left to say is, “How the mighty have fallen”. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/09/25 Full Review Lars M This film has more magic in it's little finger than the whole Harry-Potter-Series together. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/03/25 Full Review Mark W I first saw this movie when it came out in 1974. I was 26 years old at the time. I was dazzled. The movie was science fantasy, not science fiction, and as I looked over the reviews by such critics as Pauline Kael, Judith Krist, and other luminaries of their ilk, it was apparent to me that they didn't understand the move. The movie wrestles with the twin themes of mortality vs. immortality; and power through control vs. power through surrender. It forces an examination of value systems that morph into forms different from the intent behind their original formation. There are no problems greater than these in our human world. So the movie is indeed ambitious, but it succeeds in its ambition through imagination and artistry, potently framed by its use of the haunting second movement, the Allegretto, from Beethoven's 7th symphony. In my opinion this movie is a masterpiece. I saw it a second time when it cycled through the University of Texas campus while I was in graduate school in the late 70s. It was still great. I didn't see it again until the 1990s, after the invention of VHS videos and VCR players. It wasn't in Blockbuster's catalogue, but they ordered a copy they were willing to sell me. I happily forked over the requested $80. And I started watching it, a lot. Eventually it came out on DVD and I bought that also, and continued watching it. Now you can stream it. I've probably seen it more than 40 times. I get a re-charge of my personal batteries when I watch it. I'm so glad it was made. Thank you Mr. Boorman, wherever you are. (We know its not the Vortex.) Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/24/24 Full Review Kris C. J Strangely, this is one of those movies that (good or bad), once you give yourself over to it, you can't get out of your mind. You'll be doing, "Your ass is MINE, Trebek" Connery impersonations for days . . . ! Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 08/01/24 Full Review Rami A I found this to be quite.... bizarre. On one hand, the performances are good, and on the other hand, the story and execution was.... strange. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/06/24 Full Review Ajangviks J Very interesting movie, not boring for a single minute. Great world building and crazy story! Some questionable acting at times, especially from background characters Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/29/24 Full Review Read all reviews

Zardoz

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