can someone explain zardoz to me? (1 Viewer)

[Joseph Young]

All your enthusiasm is making me want to revisit this title. I saw Zardoz on VHS eight months ago, and I can remember my friends and I standing around afterwards, our imaginations definitely stoked by some of the more bizzare aspects of the movie.
To be honest I also haven't laughed that hard in... a really long time.
The concept of the future presented by Zardoz is interesting. The ideas did not strike me as worthy of ridicule, or invalid in any way. It was the execution of those ideas, the direction, and the performances that struck me as bizzare and a little uneven, vague, and disorienting.
Now I am the last person to advocate a 'conventional sensibility' (what a stale notion) when approaching film. Interesting that the qualities of Zardoz that made me laugh and scratch my head are the same qualities that prevent me from ever outright condemning the film.
Cool thread, guys.
Cheers,
Joseph

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Joseph, do yourself a favor and try to watch it again, but this time on the widescreen DVD. You may still find things to laugh at - I certainly do, they seem intentional - but at least you'll see ALL of it. The pan-and-scan of Zardoz is terrible.

 

[Brad_W]

Reading this makes me want to see the movie. What is so special about it? I've never heard of it. Now my curiosity is piqued.

 

[Jack Briggs]

Yes, as Peter says, by all means revisit this film in its 2.35:1 aspect ratio--Mr. Boorman carefully composed Zardoz in widescreen. Check out the scene where May first comes upon Zed inside the Vortex, by the lake; when she is interrogating him ("so you think you're dead?"), Zed is off to extreme frame left, while May is in the foreground in extreme frame right. Beautiful shot.

Like 2001: A Space Odyssey--and all true SF, written or dramatized--Zardoz is a film about ideas. It is marvelously textured and heavily layered. As is said (too often in regard to too many things), "it works on many levels."

I'd easily put Zardoz in the top five SF films of all time.

Again, as Peter suggests, there is much (dark) humor in Zardoz. It's, as Arthur Frayne says in the opening monologue, "rich in irony." Speaking of which...

"Did you go?"

"Mmm, yes. Another dead end."

 

[Jack Briggs]

Also, I am beginning to think that this thread's originator--Anthony--is really Jeff Ulmer in electronic costume. That it, "Jeff"? Trying to keep the Zardoz flag flying?

"So we meet again!"

 

[Anthony_D]

sorry for taking so long to get back to you guys. I can only check the htf on sundays. Long story.

anyways...I just don't get this film. What exactly was Sean Connerys character? what were teh killers that he was a part of? why was suddenly the one to revolt? what was the flying head? who were the upper class citizens of the movie?

i'm not saying it was a bad movie...i just didn't understand it

thanks for taking the time to reply

 

[Jack Briggs]

* Sean Connery was Zed, "chosen" by Zardoz to be an Exterminator.

* The Exterminators were used to keep the "Brutals" in check--i.e., to kill them. Later, Zardoz reneged on his mission for the Exterminators, and used them to "take prisoners" and to become farmers.

* Zed was not "suddenly" the one to revolt. He and his fellow mutants among the Exterminators had planned to penetrate Vortex 4 long before, after they were instructed to stop killing Brutals.

* The stone head is Arthur Frayne's way of striking fear into the hearts of the masses; the head is Zardoz to Exterminators and the Brutals.

* The residents of the Vortexes are the Eternals, highly evolved intellectuals with extraordinary mental powers and eternal life. They are overseen by The Tabernacle, the crystal computer.