Zardoz
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| Zardoz | |
|---|---|
 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 minutes |
| 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. 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.
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. The film was shot by cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth. Boorman's studio, 20th Century Fox, considered the film he presented to them to be an uncommercial mess and forced the addition of a misleading prologue and trailers that were at odds with the film.[citation needed]
An attempt to market the film to the post-2001: A Space Odyssey audience was unsuccessful, although the film was re-released on DVD with a commentary track by John Boorman.
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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). They possess psychic powers, and make Zed a prisoner of the community of decadent effetes in order to study him. Zed is put to work as a physical laborer under the direction of subversive troublemaker called Friend (John Alderton).
Over time Zed learns the nature of the Vortex. The Eternals are overseen and protected from death by an AI called the Tabernacle. 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. As they never die and the passage of time is largely meaningless as a result, violating the complex set of social rules, and thereby going "Renegade", results in artificial aging. An Eternal thus aged will remain as the feeble elderly for the rest of time. More recently some have fallen into catatonia through an odd mental illness, forming a new social strata the Eternals call the "Apathetics".
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Zed is not quite the "brutal" the Eternals believe him to be. He very quickly divines the nature of the Vortex and its problems, and starts to play an increasingly proactive role among the Eternals. The backstory develops to reveal that Zed was aware of the true nature of Zardoz, having been led to an old book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz; the origin of the name Zardoz (Wizard of Oz). After revealing that Frayn had led him to the book and taught him to read, the story is completed; Zed is the ultimate creation of Frayn's long-running experiment in creative eugenics, using the Executer class to control the Brutals with the aim of breeding a superman to save humanity from its dead-end status quo. He had led Zed to understand the nature of Zardoz, hoping he would use it to infiltrate the Vortex.
The Eternals discover the deceit and "age" Friend, while attempting to control Zed. But Zed is actually superior in intelligence to the eternals, and is eventually able to withstand their psychic powers. He destroys the Tabernacle, after which the Vortex is invaded by other Executers who bring death to the majority of Eternals, typically with their blessing, given the novelty of the events. 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.
[edit] Film notes
The film arguably explores the Marxist criticism of the divide between the "haves" and the "have-nots", enforced by a quotation from Marx during the movie. However this is further developed into a commentary not so much on wealth as the suggested polarities of knowledge and emotion. Had the movie followed the plot outline above it may have been effective in exploring these issues, but it seems Boorman himself was not entirely clear what message he was trying to illustrate, and the film has been widely panned as meaningless.
In the DVD commentary Boorman repeatedly complains about the low budget of the film. Nevertheless he attempted to fill it with a sort of concept art. The Exterminators hunt down the Brutals while wearing large red paper mache facemasks, loincloths and matching bandoliers. The Brutals are instead dressed almost universally in sport coats and jeans, except for young women, who are dressed in "caveman" garb. If this were not enough, in one scene Zed escapes from the Eternals by dressing in a wedding gown. The head of Zardoz, arguably the most important set in terms of plot development, is clearly made of painted paper mache. Most of the sets in the Vortex are equally low quality, variously consisting of large inflated plastic sheets, "olde English" villages, or pastel decorated sets – the Tabernacle is simply a room filled with mirrors.
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".
Much of the movie is filled with long "artistic" scenes that don't appear to have anything to do with the plotline, while others are filled with long technobabble dialogues that only sometimes further the story. Part art film, part science fiction, the result is a rambling storyline that is difficult to follow.
Interestingly, while the film's visual style has gone very badly out of date, the film's "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; anti-aging technology, cloning, even the Internet and its inherent privacy issues are referenced in the film.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
[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 "Dreams" 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.
- The webcomic Questionable Content referred to Zardoz multiple times in comic number 830].
- Saul was dressed as Zed in an episode of Saul of the Mole Men, "Fun King Johnny", when he was on trial by combat.
[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! [Zardoz proceeds to vomit a torrent of rifles and ammunition for his followers to use.]
[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, and pics.
- 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.
