Zardoz coming from Twilight Time (Tentative February 2015) (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

Quick thoughts after watching it for the first time ever:


I liked it! I need to see it again to really appreciate the full thing, but I enjoyed the ride. That said, I can see why this wouldn't be recommended as a blind buy for most people, and I can totally see how it could be easily mocked. I don't even know how to describe exactly what I saw… The Wizard Of Oz meets Planet Of The Apes meets the second half of The Time Machine meets Spock's Brain?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I'm not sure if you meant your first TT with clear case, but Fright Night Anniv also had a clear case. Apparently all this months releases are reported to be in the new type case. Not sure if it's temporary or for the forseeable future. There was so many complaints about changing from the original case to a couple months when they switched to the eco type case that they switched to an Olive type case, so maybe this will be the newest new style

Yes, the first one I have purchased that came in a clear case. I did not purchase the second Twilight Time release of Fright Night, have the first one, so this was a new development to me.

 

[davidmatychuk]

In my opinion, "Zardoz" is a richly fascinating example of unreconstructed speculative fiction with a deep sense of social satire, and as such bears little resemblance to today's simplistic high-concept predigested comic-book fantasy films. A movie in which, before the opening credits, the audience gets called out as God's foray into show business! I don't believe Disney would ever approve. Crazy, visionary "Zardoz" has stood up to multiple viewings for me for forty years. It is sui generis, and a science fiction classic, and it is a wonderful movie to have on Blu-Ray.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Quick thoughts after watching it for the first time ever:


I liked it! I need to see it again to really appreciate the full thing, but I enjoyed the ride. That said, I can see why this wouldn't be recommended as a blind buy for most people, and I can totally see how it could be easily mocked. I don't even know how to describe exactly what I saw… The Wizard Of Oz meets Planet Of The Apes meets the second half of The Time Machine meets Spock's Brain?

It is a film that is so packed with ideas and stunning images that it rewards multiple viewings. I think each time you watch it you will be struck by something else. To me it seems it is the initial viewing that throws people and likely causes some to reject the film. Zardoz is so flagrantly unique that I think it leaves many people adrift with nothing to anchor them in the strange universe it presents. In order to really appreciate the film you have to give in to the ideas it tosses around more than just being wowed by visual effects. It is a philosophical trip not the sort of sci-fi action adventure or horror blend that would later dominate the genre and focus on laser guns, robots, alien creatures, and space ship effects.


I think it is also a tremendous achievement the makers of the film created such a memorable world on a very limited budget and demonstrates how wildly creative John Boorman could be. I would never expect the film to be everybody's cup of tea but I do think if you accept that science fiction is as much about exploring ideas and possibilities as anything else you will find yourself returning to this one over and over again...and maybe wishing for more films that were as thoughtful in this genre.

 

[ChromeJob]

As I've said-- another thread, another forum, perhaps -- those years were either a drought or a feast for interesting, mind-warping sci-fi. The last half hour or so of 2001: a space odyssey opened the gate for a legit film to have very puzzling ideas or concepts. Britain particularly, IIRC, was a source of interesting productions. So many quirky and experimental films. Clockwork Orange ... A Boy And His Dog ... Fantastic Planet ... Dark Star ... Last Days of Man On Earth,... Death Race 2000 ... Phase IV ... Demon Seed (a low point in some views) ... Silent Running.... Not sure if younger audiences really appreciate what a WMD Star Wars was ... not only changed the financial movie landscape for sci-fi, but was a gravitational vortex that drew so many to make films like Krull and Star Crash.

When Zardoz was made, it was acceptable, even marketable, to make something like Rocky Horror Picture Show, Phantom of the Paradise, etc.

I read a review way back when, Boorman had finally made his dream picture Excalibur, someone mentioned that his fascination with the Arthurian legends seeped into Zardoz. Have fun following those threads.

As a footnote, it's a testament to how determined Connery was to put Bond behind him. He turned down millions on the table to come back in Live and Let Die to take a piffling trifle of a salary to do Zardoz. Well, he did get to cavort with some lovely leading ladies. Couldn't have been all fun and games shooting in Britain in next to nothing on.

(Tom Mankiewicz has a funny anecdote about begging Connery to do LALD. Connery is recalled telling him, "I only want two things. My own bank, and my own golf course. I've got one, and I'm close to getting the other." LOL I might have to watch that documentary again to confirm....)

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

Man, I myself can't get over how beautiful Charlotte Rampling is. I could look at her all day.

 

[ROclockCK]

As I've said-- another thread, another forum, perhaps -- those years were either a drought or a feast for interesting, mind-warping sci-fi. The last half hour or so of 2001: a space odyssey opened the gate for a legit film to have very puzzling ideas or concepts. Britain particularly, IIRC, was a source of interesting productions. So many quirky and experimental films. Clockwork Orange ... A Boy And His Dog ... Fantastic Planet ... Dark Star ... Last Days of Man On Earth,... Death Race 2000 ... Phase IV ... Demon Seed (a low point in some views) ... Silent Running.... Not sure if younger audiences really appreciate what a WMD Star Wars was ... not only changed the financial movie landscape for sci-fi, but was a gravitational vortex that drew so many to make films like Krull and Star Crash.

Ahhh yes, 'The Kubrick Effect'.


Coincidentally, I just finished watching a movie I hadn't seen since theatrical release: Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. After that 45 year passage, what struck me was how much this picture truly was 'of its time', and clearly influenced by 2001. Apart from the Andersons' signature emphasis on elaborately engineered FX miniatures (they're still a bloody marvel), gobs of this film's running time was given over to wordless, abstract, trippy audio/visual montages, or routine spacecraft housekeeping, which simply wouldn't have made it past the first draft prior to 2001. I mean, one of the hallmarks of the British film style was lock-tight scripting to permit efficient production on a beggar's budget, plus ideally a 90 minute or less running time to fit neatly on a double-bill. This British science fiction picture felt very different...more loosey-goosey...certainly not as sharp, lean, and to the point as classics such as The Day the Earth Caught Fire, X: The Unknown, or Quatermass. With all the fat cut out, I doubt Journey to the Far Side of the Sun would have clocked in at barely the length of a 4th season Twilight Zone episode.


In a similar way, Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange seemed to suddenly make violent, social dystopias worth a fly in the market, especially if they could be produced frugally by those trusted mother country craftsmen, and peppered with 'du jour' nudity. In retrospect, I think Star Wars was a success, at least in part, because it was such an unapologetic throwback and spectacular repudiation of this early 70s run of dark, twisted future tense screen fiction. Ironically, the legacy of Star Wars and its ilk, although much more commercially successful, was less interesting aesthetically. So in 2015 it shouldn't be any surprise that the easy to digest space opera style is making a comeback of sorts, yet it's even more reassuring that something as creatively bold and lovably daft as Zardoz hasn't been forgotten either.


Of course, there's room for both types of science fiction movies. But by the spring of '77 it sure looked like adult, artsy Zardoz-style films were rapidly becoming extinct.

When Zardoz was made, it was acceptable, even marketable, to make something like Rocky Horror Picture Show, Phantom of the Paradise, etc.

I read a review way back when, Boorman had finally made his dream picture Excalibur, someone mentioned that his fascination with the Arthurian legends seeped into Zardoz. Have fun following those threads.

1974 was certainly a bumper crop year for bold, culty fiction at Fox. At the time, I recall wondering, "Who at the studio is greenlighting this crazy stuff? As a film fan, I was delighted, but the serial release of such outré horror and science fiction films must have made for some pretty *interesting* production/marketing meetings. Would have loved to be a mouse in the corner of those sessions.


With Boorman coming off his hit Deliverance, you could make a pretty convincing case that only at this stage in his career, only during this specific post-2001/Clockwork Orange window, and only at this particular studio, could something as proudly bizarre as Zardoz actually get made with A-list talent and receive a wide release. In retrospect, its existence at all is truly remarkable. As then. As now.

As a footnote, it's a testament to how determined Connery was to put Bond behind him. He turned down millions on the table to come back in Live and Let Die to take a piffling trifle of a salary to do Zardoz. Well, he did get to cavort with some lovely leading ladies. Couldn't have been all fun and games shooting in Britain in next to nothing on.

(Tom Mankiewicz has a funny anecdote about begging Connery to do LALD. Connery is recalled telling him, "I only want two things. My own bank, and my own golf course. I've got one, and I'm close to getting the other." LOL I might have to watch that documentary again to confirm....)

During his immediate post-Bond period, Sean Connery was in full-flight career re-invention mode. Many other talents before and since who came off an iconic film or TV series have made those same kinds of choices* to distance themselves from the source of their stardom and rejig their frozen-in-time image...not only to convince the industry but also audiences that they could actually act in a range of roles. Just consider that Connery's previous starring role, and a very good one, was in Sidney Lumet's low budget The Offence, and the same year he made Zardoz his other major film was Murder on the Orient Express...in a cameo ensemble supporting role.


Quite a shift from Connery's status as worldwide boxoffice champ throughout the 60s! But what kind of talent would we know him as today had he not made that seemingly head-scratching leap into flaming red diaper-land**?


* On the TV front during the early/mid 70s, Leonard Nimoy was making similrar kinds of eclectic, left-of field choices post-Star Trek.


** Really that much different than Charlton Heston in the original Planet of the Apes?

 

[ROclockCK]

Man, I myself can't get over how beautiful Charlotte Rampling is. I could look at her all day.

It's her extraordinary 'windows on the world'...still mesmerizing.

 

[ChromeJob]

Connery ... also THE WIND AND THE LION, THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING.

Gotta hand it to the ex-rugby player ... I think he slimmed down from DAF to appear in that loincloth, and from that pic, he was in great shape. I'm sure his lady costars were perfectly happy to be on set with him every day.

(Cindy Morgan has a funny comment in the TRON 20th anniversary extras, about how they were all in dance leotards, and going to work every morning with Bruce and Jeff, handsome men, in tights was the easiest gig she's done.)

Yes, thanks for clarifying that thought, Star Wars was such a WMD showing a "lived in" sci-fi world that WASN'T a big bummer, and had hope and heroism and chivalry "yee-hoo, let's blow this thing and go home, kid" wonder.

 

[bgart13]

So there are people receiving their copies? I've wondered if there's a delay, since mine hasn't shown any movement (on the SAE site). Curious.

 

[RichMurphy]

So there are people receiving their copies? I've wondered if there's a delay, since mine hasn't shown any movement (on the SAE site). Curious.

My order is still "pending" as well, even though I pre-ordered it during the first hour of availability.


Then again, my "Journey to the Center of the Earth 4K" arrived earlier than expected, so I am not going to panic yet.

 

[JohnMor]

I always pre-order the minute they go live, and I always get my shipping notices about a week to a week and a half after street date. And that's without the increased traffic from their recent sale. I've learned to expect getting my discs about two to three weeks after street date as a rule.

 

[RJ992]

My order is still "pending" as well, even though I pre-ordered it during the first hour of availability.

I wouldn't worry. I ordered a title during their sale on 4/3. Two weeks later, it was still pending. When I inquired, I was told that the delay was due to both orders for the title and the many orders that came from the sale, And this past Thursday, I received notice that my item was shipped. Not a big problem for me.

 

[Charles Smith]

I always pre-order the minute they go live, and I always get my shipping notices about a week to a week and a half after street date. And that's without the increased traffic from their recent sale. I've learned to expect getting my discs about two to three weeks after street date as a rule.

I do, too, and....... same here, all the way.

 

[bgart13]

I'm not worried, not one bit. This is the longest it's taken for something to ship from them for me, besides last year's sale.

 

[Mark_TS]

well, all will be happy to know that FOX Europe created a restored 4K remaster with DTS-just a few months later-why TT wasn't able to get ahold of this is a mystery; The film is probably not popular enough to pull a Journey to the Center scheme. All TT would tell me was that it WAS NOT using the DVD as a master-but no 2K or 4K advertising

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I would not be surprised if the source of the TT release was a new 4K remaster - TT is likely using the same master that Fox is using overseas.


I thought the video and audio quality on the TT release was fantastic; I'm satisfied with it.

 

[Twilight Time]

well, all will be happy to know that FOX Europe created a restored 4K remaster with DTS-just a few months later-why TT wasn't able to get ahold of this is a mystery; The film is probably not popular enough to pull a Journey to the Center scheme. All TT would tell me was that it WAS NOT using the DVD as a master-but no 2K or 4K advertising

The new 4K master was generated early this year for our release - we were the first to utilize it and stated repeatedly at the time that it was a brand new 4k master!

 

[ROclockCK]

well, all will be happy to know that FOX Europe created a restored 4K remaster with DTS-just a few months later-why TT wasn't able to get ahold of this is a mystery; The film is probably not popular enough to pull a Journey to the Center scheme. All TT would tell me was that it WAS NOT using the DVD as a master-but no 2K or 4K advertising

Twilgiht Time rarely trumpets their 4k sourced transfers, even though almost all of their Sony catalogue, and most of their recent Fox titles have benefitted from UHD workflow. Folks still ask if the reissues of Mysterious Island, The Big Heat, or Fright Night will be remastered in 4k, when these titles were 4k from the get-go.


Beats me why TT doesn't at least add "Remastered from 4k Scan" to the spec slugs on their back covers, because in the year 2015, with legacy HD-esque transfers still finding their way to Blu-ray, the 4k spec has become a salient 'future-proofing' feature for home video. Whatever the reason, any mention of 4k tends to just leak out casually in fora like this or during the course of their Facebook chats.


In the case of Zardoz though, TT specifically did promote its 4k source on multiple fronts, including their FB page, because the extra work by Fox to fine-tune the trademark 'Unsworth look' delayed this release by a month.

 

[ROclockCK]

Well now, there you go...right from the source.