Zardoz (1974)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Zardoz (1974) – J. Boorman

Some might complain that Zardoz is half-baked but I declare that it is well and truly fully-baked.  A true WTF flick before WTF was a glimmer on a larrikin’s keyboard.  John Boorman takes (ex-Bond) Sean Connery and deposits him in the future (2293 to be exact) where he is an uneducated ape-man, trained to maraud, rape, and kill in service of the god Zardoz who takes the form of a giant flying stone head.  Yes, really.  For reasons not initially explained (and by methods also withheld until later), Connery manages to get inside the head, kill the man he finds there, and enter the Vortex zone where a different class of humans lives.  These half-dressed humans are young intellectuals who live forever – yes, they have found a way to eliminate death.  But they are totally bored with everything and their society is fraying at the seams, with a few subgroups (apathetics and renegades) causing problems.  Connery plays dumb, but he’s not and he holds the answer to that future society’s problems and indeed to our race’s evolutionary future in the 24^th century.  The film looks pretty great and, although possibly pretentious (OK, definitely pretentious – and perhaps not entirely coherent), I found that its totally bonkers over-the-top images and theorizing were to my liking.  Uh, but it might not be for all tastes!